I spend an uneventful evening in Nakhon Ratchasima, which is (to be honest) not a particularly interesting place in Thailand. The country’s third largest city, there’s nothing special to see per se but ibecause there’s so few foreigners, it certainly makes you feel like you’re having a genuine Thai experience.
I wander the streets, pick up dinner from a local vendor, grab a coconut shake and have a fine night’s sleep in my hotel bed. But there’s nothing to keep me here - I’m heading back to Bangkok, since not only am I a city girl at heart but this South East Asian capital is one I find quite intriguing.
So all aboard for the Bangkok Express.
The ticket’s five times more expensive than the previous leg (coming in at a crazy $10) but that’s because it’s a faster train. However, I can’t get a seat in air-con so, once more it seems, I’m condemned to creaky fans. Only today feels a lot hotter…and as soon as I embark I see it’s a llot more crowded. This is going to be fun.
Five hours to Bangkok on this ‘express’ - good job I’m a world traveller who can cope with a bit of humidity and less than comfy seating! It’s easily 35 degrees and the humidity is pretty brutal…but, hey, there are all kinds of hawkers jumping on and off and, before long, I’m able to buy an iced coffee…
Children are running up and down the carriages, the fans are creaking, it’s really quite uncomfortably hot by now but - still - it’s not the worst journey I’ve ever undertaken in Asia (think livestock being dumped in my lap in Malaysia, or the kid that threw up on my backpack, long ago in Java). Nevertheless, the idea of air con is distinctly appealing and I’m already dreaming of arriving at my fancy pad in Sathorm (I’m going to be looking after someone’s cat for a week, and they have a very nice apartment - complete with swimming pool - in a bourgeois part of Bangkok where lots of diplomats live).
I spend hours staring at my fellow passengers, who are eating lunch, snoozing, entertaining their children and chatting animatedly.
Sadly, most of them don’t speak English, so I can’t join in the conversation, but at one point a young woman gets on and plonks herself next to me - to my delight, she’s from Vietnam and is studying business in the capital so she can communicate with me.
I tell her that - with luck - my next destination will be her country. I’m planning a month following the Reunification Trail, fro Saigon to Hanoi, with a few detours in-between and she’s fascinated by the journey I’ve already been on in the last seven weeks.
Between snacks and more iced coffee and staring out of the window, at tiny villages, with locals cycling along the paths, and fields of bananas, durians and mangosteens flashing by, the minutes turn into hours. The last 45 minutes are somewhat more torturous, since everyone’s hot, tired and bad-tempered. But this train is on time and I sit in my sweaty clothes, letting the creaky fan blow air on me every 20 seconds, and waiting patiently for our arrival.
And before I know it, I’m back in the capital. Mission accomplished.