Binbambap, typical Korean dish for breakfast with ground meat mushrooms,greens, into which one adds rice, chile sauce and sesame oil. Served with seaweed soup. Yummy. Pineapple to aid digestion and green tea to drink. I am for sure in Asia!!!
-On the road with Kathryn
Sunday, Jan 6 2013
On the slow express to Ubon. My Dad used to say "When yo've time to spare, go by air"
45 years ago, train was the only way to go to Bkk from Ubon and vise versa. There is a road and air available now, but for nostalgia I chose the train. As recently as three years ago, it ran on time. Still the same funky but comfy sleepers on the Northeast stepchild of the railway system, while Chiang Mai and the South get the luxury liners from Japan. But what I find hard to fathom is the delay. We stopped in the middle of the night 2:30-4:30AM? The conductor needed a nap? What is that about? Jamlong says its often unreliable - he tried to warn me.It was due in at7:30AM. Jamlong called the station and they didn't know when. I asked the coffee boy and he used the phrase I use to describe how long ago I lived here "naan"...a really long time. After 11:00 is the current estimate. So I'm gong to have some breakfast on the train, we won't starve and the train can't get lost as there is only one track.
The waiter loaded up with platters of omelets over rice headed for the 14 cars of still sleepy travelers . Each platter carefully saran wrapped and stacked.
Sisaket: Still Sunday, hours later, having improved my aim with the hand held hose in the squat toilet - I no longer soak my skirt while cleaning my butt -and feeling strong in the quads, ( all those squats in SilverSneakers have paid off), the train is only an hour from my destination. ...maybe. I figured out I will have spent as many hours on the train to Ubon as I spent in the air from San Jose to Bkk!
But this has been more scenic. Water buffalo still graze in harvested paddy (though many Thai farmers now have tractors), egrets perched on their backs. Fushia water lilies bloom in the trackside ponds, new electrical power lines loop off into the distance, corn is knee high in patches here and there, burned and burning fields dot the landscape. Its cold season in Issan.
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