We have just returned from almost 4 weeks in Germany. What a fantastic experience. Meeting new family and friends, seeing amazing sights, eating a lot of food and of course drinking plenty of beer.
Our adventure began with a breezy tuk-tuk ride to the train station in Tha Nalaeng, (just out of Vientiane). This was followed by our first of many train journeys. The trip from Tha Nalaeng, across the Mekong River to Nong Khai in Thailand is, by its very geographical nature, a short one. The train was an old one. It was relatively short, only a handful of carriages with plenty of natural air and light due to its lack of windows. Board the train and take a seat....there were plenty, this is not what you would call a busy line. Then the driver started the engine. The rhythmic chugging of a large diesel engine vibrating through the seat of one's pants can be either embarrassingly uncomfortable or titillatingly amusing, (I think it depends on one's age), but it was nothing compared to what was about to happen. For some reason the gentle chugging turned into an outrageous roar. Either the driver was the railway equivalent of a bogan rev-head trying to impress the railway slappers, (sleepers?), or he thought he were piloting an old DC-10 and we were about to fly across the river. Either way, the peaceful beginning to our journey was well and truly over and the ear-piercing scream of the engine continued on for what must have been 5 minutes but felt like a painful eternity before the driver was satisfied that either all the girls were impressed or he finally realised that we didn't actually have any wings. The important thing was that the torture was over and with our hands now available for something other than ear-blocking, we were on our way. The track itself runs directly through the middle of the Friendship Bridge which means that there is only room on the bridge for the train and not much else, therefore all other traffic must wait at either end until the train has passed. Uninterrupted views of the Mekong river to the East and the West and plenty of time to take them in on our slow, chugging caboose was a pleasant relief from the previous onslaught. By the time we had cleared immigration on the other side it was time to board our next train. Nong Khai to Bangkok sleeper, first class.
OK, it said first class on the ticket, and it was certainly a large step up from the second and cattle classes that I wandered through during the trip, but first class on the Orient Express it was not. It was private, it was reasonably comfortable and reasonably clean, the beds were spacious and it was air conditioned. Thats all we needed. There was also an hilarious Thai woman moving from cabin to cabin trying to sell meals and drinks from the restaurant car. It wasn't hard to decipher that she was working on commission with her constant compliments as to how young and good looking we were. But even with her constant and random exclamations of "Happy happy happy!", we respectfully declined her offer. We had heard it was cheaper to go and eat in the restaurant car in person. Upon walking through what seemed like an endless chain of crowded carriages to check out the aforementioned eating facility which turned out to be tiny, with no air conditioning, and full of people smoking we respectfully went searching for Miss Happy-Happy. A quick delivered meal and a couple of beers and it was time to bed down.
The regular clak-a-dak of wheels on track is known to be hypnotically relaxing and sleep-inducing. Apparently that doesn't work so well for us. The night that was supposed to fly by whilst we slept turned instead into one with no apparent end. The 12 hour sleepless journey to Bangkok then unfortunately turned into 15 hours due to an accident on the track somewhere ahead. The few spare hours we had counted on at the airport before our flight to Frankfurt quickly disappeared. A swift taxi ride from the train station to the airport was to be our saviour....until the entire freeway was diverted to side streets whilst rows and rows of police and fire vehicles filed on. The previous few hours of telling myself over and over "We will make it on time we will make it on time." we're getting harder and harder to believe. Thankfully, with a little bit of driving into the oncoming traffic, (sometimes ya just gotta love taxi drivers), we did make it on time and the wait at the airport was significantly shorter than originally anticipated. Luggage was loaded, boarding passes acquired, seatbelts fastened, tray-tables in the upright position and we were on our way.
The 10 hour flight with Thai Airlines was a pleasant one. What time wasn't indulged in the many movies one could choose from was spent trying to work out where we were. With mostly clear skies we saw mountains, towns, snow covered hills, jungles and deserts passing quietly beneath us. The only place we could pick with any real confidence was the Caspian sea, but then, on a journey that only passes one piece of water that was not too difficult. After some 36 hours with no sleep, 5 movies and a bit of window gazing later, the German landscape was beckoning. The fields of crops stretching to the distant horizon, the countless villages sometimes no more than one or two fields apart and the Auto-Bahn wending its way through it all. Frankfurt at last. We were met at the airport by our extended German family, within minutes the first beer was bought, and our German adventure had begun.
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