When i visit Thailand, i fly into Chiang Mai – a bustling olden city in the north area, rather than Bangkok which is just too much city for countryboy me. Then i head for the city of Phitsanulok, (Pits-NOH-loh) in central Thailand which is a workaday, very “normal” city for medical treatment (Phitsanulok life is detailed elsewhere in a similar fashion.
I travel by train – either a 1960s era Japanese model or a new Chinese-built machine with folding beds for the nighttime journey. Along the way, i write poetry and gaze out the window (poetry series Towns and Trains is – or might be – elsewhere in this archive).
What follows are snaps taken by a Lomo La Sardina (sardine can) camera loaded with expired film snapped from a moving train for no particular reason aside to see what happens and capture the washes of colour fleeting by as i roll, as well as a few folks i encountered along the way and a few places i slept or soaked.
Towns and Trains: house from train window
Towns and Trains: train on a sidingTowns and Trains: green fields from the trainTowns and Trains: waiting at a stationTowns and Trains: livery on the trainTowns and Trains: i village i don’t know the nameTowns and Trains: passing a city of sortsTowns and Trains: tankers rolling byTowns and Trains: snacks on the trainTowns and Trains: a lookout stationTowns and Trains: a station along the wayTowns and Trains: leaving same stationTowns and Trains: umbrellas in a fieldTowns and Trains: getting around Phitsanulok by cycle rickshawTowns and Trains: diligent driver getting me around PhitsanulokTowns and Trains: cycle rickshaw co-mingled with auto-traffic elegantlyTowns and Trains: tip your driver so he can stay hydrated (or spend on cock fights, its up to him)Towns and Trains: floating restaurants in (rather dangerous) disrepair in Phitsanulok / good place for letter writingTowns and Trains: gazing down the river from the site of night marketTowns and Trains: items, bundled on a trainTowns and Trains: market, currently empty of vendorsTowns and Trains: this Swiss fella was cycling from Iran to the Caucuses – he’d also visited Palau, we shared a table at a cheap hotelTowns and Trains: then the Swiss fella took a snap of me enjoying a beverageTowns and Trains: pay for the room, get a key and changeTowns and Trains: when i arrive in Chiang Mai, first take a hot bath in a rendered concrete tubTowns and Trains: after bath, get a massage (and a pedicure, not pictured)Towns and Trains: after bath and massage, sleep in a pleasant bedTowns and Trains: light filters in via coloured glass panesTowns and Trains: sleep safely with this sturdy latch keeping demons at bayTowns and Trains: the rugged hasp secures a mighty doorTowns and Trains: Sonny make suits, pyjamas and other clothes for me
