LONG distance train travel is something I have not experienced in the Philippines, even though we had one from Manila to Naga City, but has been cancelled for many years now. This is one of the reasons why I truly enjoy taking the train while abroad. When I travel during the day, I get to see the scenery and enjoy the views. At night, I am able to stretch my legs and sleep well. And there are different kinds and varied experiences as well.
Thailand
My first train travel was more than 12 hours long as we left Bangkok at 8:30 at night and arrived in Nong Khai at 9:00 in the morning. The train was narrower with seats facing each other on both sides of the train and a corridor right at the center. These seats, which could fit only one person, could be converted into two layers of bed. There were curtains to provide us with a bit of privacy. When we sleep, we either face the wall with the window or the curtain/corridor, where you can hear footsteps whenever there are people passing by.
Indonesia
When I was living in Indonesia, I had taken the train from Jakarta to Yogyakarta (pronounced as Jogjakarta), Jakarta to Bandung, and Yogyakarta to Soloonward to Surabaya. All these are only within the island of Java. The train looks like a plane and we only recline the seats to sleep. I haven’t tried the sleeper accommodation but I did enjoy the scenery, where I could see similarities with the Philippine landscape, while I appreciate the unique views it offered.
United States of America
I marveled at the beauty of the Californian countryside when I took a nine-hour road travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I traveled solo so I made friends with a lady who was probably in her 60’s. This train ride had three legs: first, we had to take the bus from the LA Union Station to Bakersfield; there, we boarded the Amtrak train to Emeryville; and the third was a bus ride to downtown San Francisco. Despite the changes in the mode of transport, it was a smooth travel where I got to immensely enjoy the landscape. The train I got in was like a dinner table and chair, which, I later found out, was the cart for the elderly but I was allowed because they thought I was the companion of the elderly woman whom I befriended.
China
I had taken the one-hour ride from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, and I had also experienced the overnight trains from Xi’an to Beijing and Beijing to Shanghai. The sleeper train had three levels of beds and I stayed at the topmost. The train from Xi’an had great accommodations, as our area had a door with a large mirror. But on the way to Shanghai, our partition didn’t have a door, although there was a wall at the edge of the bed and a curtain by the doorway to provide a bit of privacy from people walking along the corridor, which is found on one side of the train where chairs are also available.
India
Our accommodation aboard the Malabar Express from Kasaragod to Trivandrum, cities located in the state of Kerala, could be comparable to our train from Beijing to Shanghai with three levels of bed. The difference was that there were neither walls at the edge of the beds nor curtains to provide some privacy. In fact, it was bit of a fusion of that train and our sleeper train in Thailand as one side of the train has two-level bunk beds by the window.
All in all, long distance train travel is an adventure and I hope to experience this in our country.
All photos are by this author. Claire Marie Algarme blogs at http://firsttimetravels.com. Follow her as @firsttimetravel on Twitter and Instagram and like her Facebook page First-time Travels.