Overnight Train to Ubon Ratchathani

I recently had a Chinese fortune cookie say, “You are going in the right direction.” I put it in my bag to save for a day I needed to know for sure. It fell out of my bag the day Katie and I were heading for Ubon Ratchathani on the overnight train. It was good to have any reassurance.

The train was scheduled to leave at 8:30 pm and arrive at 7:30 am. It didn’t leave on time or arrive on time, of course. We were in the 2nd class sleeper car with 32 people. We had 2 top berths across from each other. 2 men were below us. We heard them most of the night snoring. We had a ladder to climb down and the toilet was at the opposite end of the car. I drank as little as possible.

We got off to a rough start but as the night wore on, things settled down and we did quite well. A summary of the rough stuff: I lost the tickets (I must be used to etickets), fortunately Jim found them as we were in the van leaving for the station; instead of the soporific “clickety clack” that you think of as train sounds, this one made loud clunks and pops and jerks that sounded like the side was falling off, then it would go silent and you thought it had stopped for good (neither the noise nor the jerks were conducive to sleep); we were next to the door where people boarded so they were going in and out all the time usually leaving the door open letting in heat, noises and exhaust fumes; finally the door broke and just stayed open. We tugged on it for awhile then gave up and climbed into the berth and pulled the curtains, resigning ourselves to “the experience.”

By morning, the door had been fixed, the air was cool, the train was moving smoothly and we were only about two hours late. Katie and I both had a good night’s sleep, only a little worse for the wear, climbed down the ladders and stood in the corridor between the cars (our berth had no windows) and watched the early morning sun rise over the rice fields of northern Thailand. A beautiful and welcome sight.

Here are some suggestions for things to take with you in case you are ever riding on an overnight train in Thailand—eye mask (save it from the airlines—the lights stayed on all night), night light with battery in case you want to read; hand sanitizer or wipes for face and hands, bottled water, shoes that slip on and off easily. Katie used an MP3 player. She had music and a book loaded that both cut out the noise and lulled her to sleep. I took melatonin--a whole handful.

We felt good, excited that we had made it, rested and hungry. The Lonely Planet guide book said Ubon R. had some coffee and pastry shops left over from the French Indochina days with Western and Asian breakfasts. I was really looking forward to those pastries shops on our arrival.