A divided train
Yesterday evening I left Bangkok with four friends to travel by train down the peninsula that hangs off the bottom of Thailand. We arrived at Surat Thani, a port city, this morning just after dawn, & got a boat from there to the island of Ko Phangan from where I write this entry.
Because we had booked the tickets rather late our seats/bunks on the train were not together, and so we decided after an hour or so to go & sit in the restaurant/bar/disco carriage. We had a few buckets (literally small buckets of the type a kid might make sandcastles with, filled with rum, coke, soda & ice with straws sticking out of it) and ordered a bit of food. This being a “disco” carriage, there was loud music blaring from a ghetto blaster on the bar, & from time to time we would stick one of our own CD’s on. As the evening wore on, a large group of western travellers joined us in the carriage, and before long the party was in full swing, with much joy, merriment & dancing in the aisles. At 11ish we all left the carriage went back to our respective bunks & tried to get some sleep.
What’s wrong with that story? Sounds like a pretty nice evening hey? Well. Firstly it’s all true. So there’s nothing wrong with it in that respect. But’s its not the whole story. While we were happily enjoying ourselves spending what may have seemed to us like relatively small amounts of cash and dancing about having our fun, in the next carriage along row after row of Thai people were watching us. They were sitting in 3rd class seats. 3rd class doesn’t have fans. The seats are smaller and less comfortable. As our party progressed the doors between the carriages were closed. Every so often one of the partygoers would leave the carriage & forget to close the door. A Thai from the 3rd class carriage would dutifully get up & close it for us.
I’m not sure why this whole thing got to me so much. I’ve been in the developing world before. I’ve seen some of the poverty that exists here. It’s not like I’ve never heard of the fact that trains are split into classes. It’s not even as if I haven’t been on these trains myself in the past. But the division on the train last night really did upset me. Every time that door was left open I felt guilty. And the paradox in that is that in an ideal world I’d want that door to be left open.
Last night I felt like I was a member of a species of people I’ve seen all over Thailand: The arrogant westerner. I felt like my money was buying me into some kind of exclusive club. I felt like an accident of birth had given me the opportunity to travel & see the world, while the furthest one poor Thai guy will get is to Surat Thani to work his ass off for peanuts.
I couldn’t sleep for several hours after I left the disco carriage. I needed to somehow address the negativity. In a way I needed to convince myself that I’m not some arrogant, rich western shmuck just out in Southeast Asia to have a good time. And then I began to think about why I am here. To travel, and meet new people & experience new places & cultures & all that, sure. But also to be a teacher. To someow try & make a small contrbution towards making the world less of a place that has a carriage full of westerners dancing, whilst people who would live for a week on what we carelessly spend on another bucket look on. To make it less of a place where the train authorities decide that one way to differentiate between 2nd & 3rd class is to give one lot soap by the sinks, and the others not. How much does a bit of soap cost for crying out loud???
I know that what I’ve just written probably looks naive, idealistic, foolish even. But I truly believe that education is the answer to many of the worlds problems. My fellow teaching trainees are now fully qualified TEFL teachers. (TEFL = Teaching English as as Foreign Language). They have already spead across Asia and the world. One in Laos, one in Taiwan, one in Indonesia, one in Thailand and so on. It is people like them who will unite the train. Or if that is too lofty an ambition, they will at least get the people in 3rd class some soap. It’s really not too much to ask.
Tags: Thailand, Thailand, Trains
The Dude
Unite the train!, lets give those paupers some soap, nothing flash mind, start them on lux and they can work their own way up to the heights of Dove.
Bucky,
Keep up your journal. It is highly amusing to me sat at home unemployed and pasty faced. Your presence will be sorely missed at Bestival.
It was also good to catch up with you at Notting Hill Carnival – a quality day.
B.T.W. has anyone read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – do you think it is good or merely 800 pages of dead tree?
Powelly
The bucktafarian. This is being a gringo on the road as you know but in the south of thailand what do expect. It is pretty much the world’s favourite tourist destination right know so it will take a lot of work to get equality for those who were not born into the cash money. I agree about the teaching and cant wait to join you in a couple of years…where ever you may be but ko pang yang is nearly a lost cause – last time there my bucket was spiked. Where there is money, there soon follows crime and exploitation.
Alex