The train journey has become my monthly routine and I have become used to sitting for long hours. I used to travel by night train so I could have the needed sleep and not having to waste my precious time. Nowadays I have become a daytime traveler and I could take naps during the long journey. The train journey has its own charms and odd attractions. My first impression was that train journey put me in touch with various realities in my own society.
All sorts of people from diverse background and professions, from very young to very old age seemed to be traveling on this train up to the north eastern part of Thailand. I have learned to observe these people quietly and wondered what their worlds of reality were like. This train was like a mixed salad of people from every parts of Thailand. I have met passengers from the south who had to travel to the northeastern provinces. Then there were Burmese family living in Chiangmai who had to go to Vientiane to get the re-entry visa to Thailand.
Most passengers were from the lower rungs of social structure in society; there’s only one compartment with air-conditioning. The other three compartments are open-air with fans. So, the tickets are very affordable for people with little income. Lots of foreign tourists would take this train to Ayutthaya, the old capital of Siam, for their sightseeing. Being a slow train, I had the opportunity to enjoy views of the countryside from my seat. But, I often stood by the door to take my photos as most glass windows were in need of proper maintenance. We would need a rain storm to clean up all the stained glass panels! On the contrary, the night train is more luxurious and well polished by cleaning contractors.
Sceneries start to change from concrete jungles with high rise buildings to lower buildings and houses once we left Ayutthaya station. The views become much softer with green fields and wild wooded areas. Many local railway stations should become museums as they remained unchanged for almost a hundred years. Fortunately, local railway staff seemed to take pride in their old statins and tried to improve them by adding flowering plants and decorative garden. Some big provinces like Khonkaen has newly built railway lines and station. I guess most populated provinces would see their railway stations being upgraded in anticipation of the ‘bullet trains’ which would be running all the way from China through Laos straight to Bangkok.
So, passengers could have breakfast in south of China, lunch in Laos and dinner in Bangkok in a few years’ time. But I dreaded what this rapid development and progress would impact local people who are mostly farmers and labourers with minimum school education. There’s definitely a big gap between the haves and haves-not. These people still could survive on very little income as they could forage for food in fields, woods, rivers and lakes. My gardener and local villagers still go fishing in the river almost daily.
Once all the farm lands were bought up by investors and developers, many people would become homeless forever. The prices of land would triple as more Chinese people started to migrate to Thailand. There was an estimated of almost one million Chinese people in Laos before the plandemics. All the fertile and rich in minerals lands would be snapped up fast. Looking at the beautiful scenery of the countryside made me very concerned about the future reality of these simple fellow passengers on the train. The majority of people are quite gullible, poorly educated and lack analytical thinking. The education system has been designed to make them passive and becoming like sheep.
I had read reports about areas with thick gold deposits, abundant precious stones and possible rare earth deposits. These simple land owners would be selling their land at great discount once the legislation has been enacted to allow non-Thai nationals to legally buy land in Thailand. Some people have started to make noises about this law. But the plot had been planned for so long and there would be a big fight on this issue in the near future.
Looking at fellow passengers from all walks of lives made me wondering about different conditions in our lives. How we all had to deal with sadness, disappointments, sickness and thx loss of loved ones. We shared the basic human emotions and facts of reality which made the sum of humanity in this ordinary train journey. Luckily, the land has been kind and nourishing to all which might be because there have always been spiritual people and monks who spent years in secluded areas for their contemplative practice.
Thai people believe to that whenever we lose an old and spiritual monk, we would lose some of our protective force in our land. Many stories had been recorded of how some holy monk could stop a raging fire and how some monk could save people’s lives from danger. There’s something about the good or holy vibes which could keep the other negative vibes at bay. But these special monks are fewer and they wound keep themselves far away from crowds. I just hope that there would be more dedicated monks or holy people still hiding away quietly practicing meditation and contemplation as it was said in the old book that a single enlightened person could impact all vibes in this world and universe.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
