Train tales – my first night train in Southeast Asia

Thailand – August 2022

Train travel has been my favourite mode of transportation for a long time. And Thailand took it to the next level. The first train, I want to take there, is the overnight sleeper from Bangkok to Surat Thani in the south of the country. I stay at a hostel in Chinatown which is conveniently located close to the main Bangkok Train Station. So I walk over there the evening before and choose between the various classes available. Upon recommendation of the ticket office lady, I take an upper bed in the second-class air-con sleeper train. The 13h journey sets my travel funds back $22 and I couldn‘t be happier. The friendly lady tells me to arrive at the platform 1h before departure, and so I return the next day at 5.30pm.

The train isn’t here yet, so I sit down on one of the benches on the platform. For a while, not much is happening. But then, at 6pm sharp, music that sounds like a national anthem blast from hidden speakers, and all the Thai people at the station stand up. For the duration of the song, no one speaks, and only when it‘s finished, do they resume whatever they were doing before. I am a little bewildered and glad when the train finally arrives. And then the hustle and bustle begin. Finding my seat is easy. I simply show my ticket to one of the conductors, who points me to the correct carriage. Once on the train, I follow the numbers down the aisle until I arrive at mine. The beds are not folded down yet, so I place my big backpack in the luggage holder at one end of the lower berth and with my small day pack sit down in the wide seat facing the station.

As the sun sets over Bangkok, we’re rolling out of Hua Lamphong, and I‘m munching on my first snacks when we stop in the capital’s second station: Bang Sue. Until now, I was the only person in my row. But now, 2 women and 1 man sit down. They exchange a few words and one of the women points to me and then to the upper bunk. They don‘t try to interact with me, and I don‘t either. The man finally sits down in the seat across from me, leans against the wall, closes his eyes, and dozes off. I am guessing he hoped to already have a bed made? But I‘ll never know. A few rows further, there are 2 cute old ladies with white hair sharing a seat. They chat with everyone. Even the western girl who‘s looking for power outlets and does not speak any Thai whatsoever.

I look out the window while I still can (there is none in the upper bed) and enjoy the diverse view. We’re riding through the suburbs now and there are street food stalls, and dogs running around pretty town houses. Far away, I see the illuminated roof of the Golden Mount and the famous Rama VIII bridge. At different stations, ladies selling snack board the train. And then, at 7.30pm sharp, the train staff begin to make the beds. Once all the upper berths are folded down and secured. The passengers hurry up the metal ladder, and the occupant of the lower bed climbs into their own bed. Everyone immediately closes the lime green curtain, and only occasionally do I hear a phone chime. I‘m still nowhere close to tired and after getting comfortable in my bed, switch on my laptop. It‘s an old one and the battery won‘t last long, but at least I get to watch a couple Netflix episodes I downloaded before.

At 11pm the PC battery dies and finally quite tired, I lay down and listen to the sound of the train racing along the coast of the Gulf of Thailand & the border to Myanmar. Occasionally, the noise of other vendors trying to sell their goods interrupts the monotonous sound of the train‘s wheels. It still takes a while for me to get to sleep due to the lights illuminating the carriage all night long. But at least it‘s not as cold and dirty as people told me it would be. I finally doze off and wake up when we‘re already deep in the south of Thailand. I was scared to oversleep my stop – but that wouldn‘t have been possible. At 6.15 am, I hear shouting from below.

Not quite sure what is happening, I check my offline map, which says that there are still 151 kilometers to go. Then there is no service and the GPS location cannot be found. I put my alarm on for 7.30 am and take a first look at the car. Some of the lime green curtains are open, and the passengers seem to have disembarked sometime during the night. For the next hour, I unsuccessfully try to sleep a little more. When my alarm rings, I pack my small bag, as we‘re due to arrive at 7.48am. Some other foreigners are walking around, and the conductor tells them it’s still 30 mins to Surat Thani. Of course, he knows where we‘re getting off. More vendors board the train and the Italians now sitting below me enjoying their morning coffee while the Thai ladies are snickering in the back.

Then the train staff is beginning to clear beds and change the lower ones back to regular seats. I climb down the ladder and sit down at the window with a completely different view passing by. The scenery reminds me of the Amazon, but with more infrastructure. There are villages with wooden stilt huts, rivers, palm and banana trees, schools, cows, horses & pigs on the train side. Then more and more concrete and brick houses appear, and I even spot some sports cars. This is the first indication for me that we‘re getting closer to our destination. And indeed, we soon arrive with only 30 mins delay. All the foreign passengers disembark from the train, while some Thai people stay on to continue their journey to Hat Yai. I walk down the platform, hoping to find the public bus to Khao Sok, while most of the other tourists head to the ferry taking them to one of the popular islands.

Stay tuned for more train adventures in this part of the world. Meanwhile, you can read about my most memorable European train journey here: In a train on a boat. Or join me on a race through Japan on a Shinkansen bullet train.