Sorry for the break folks, I was busy napping and writing unsuccessful internship applications for months. And if you believe that, have I got a bridge to sell you. Anyways, I think tonight I'll write about our trip to the south. Let me start with the mode of transit: ignoring the rotdang that took us to the station our first leg of the trip was sleeper train. I think perhaps it is in part the Agatha Christie fan in me that say so (murder on the orient express shout out!) but there is something irresistibly exciting and enjoyable about traveling long distance by train. The train that we, the students of ISDSI found ourselves on, was headed for Bangkok. There we would visit chatujak market, the largest outdoor market in Southeast Asia (china of course does everything bigger) before catching a second train even further south to our eventual destination, Trang province. The first train ride was the most fun in my opinion, as all thirty or so of us were in a single car, doing things we found fun and making friends with anyone who would talk to us. I remember, I had found a passable bottle of wine in Chiang Mai, with which I managed to lure my train neighbor, a Frenchman, into conversation. The camaraderie of a trainload of college students is downright nauseating: John had brought his guitar and Hannah her banjolele (ukelele/banjo, much better than you might imagine) and there was much rejoicing. We'd brought snacks for the train but they also served meals directly to your train seat and had a timeless dining car that might have been made in the sixties from the look of it. I mention it because in the second night of train travel a number of us ended up there ordering chang (a Thai beer) and fraternizing with Thai people in our slurred, pidgin form of their language. For all the speed that planes boast, there is an incomparable comfort in having train porters come and set up your bed for the evening. If you snagged the bottom bunk than you woke to the sight of thai countryside rushing past, occasionally mundane but regularly beautiful, so eye catching that I simply stared out and watched whatever drifted passed: farmland, towns, roads, and and the myriad of other interactions between a developing country and the land it gradually devours. Seeing firsthand the widespread effects of the systems of development I learned about in class did bring it into greater relief. I find that a little funny because when our instructors told us to do so I thought they were pompously justifying a cheaper form of travel but when it was happening I found it truly instructive. One other thing of note: the bathrooms. You didn't want to use them unless you really needed to. First of all, there was the smell. To get to the root of the issue, the plumbing consisted of a hole leading directly to the train tracks, which you could see passing rapidly underneath. It probably would be a poor idea to go when the train had stopped. Secondly, and more amusingly, there were western and thai toilets available next to each other, on the opposite sides of the train. Unfortunately there was a general lack of signage, so most of us went the length of the trip aware of one of these options, and while I did not experience it myself maintaining the squat position over a thai toilet on a bumpy train is a challenge truly deserving of the title experiential education. As most successful trips do, ours ended and we found ourselves in Bangkok.
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