Memories of the golden days of train travel beckon, reminiscing the relaxing pace and wonderful hospitality presented by the great train journeys of the modern era. The holiday begins the moment we step aboard. As the train gets underway, we soon realise that no hotel on earth can present with the kaleidoscope of colours and scenery which flash past our cabin window.
And we all think how romantic it all is but we wouldn't tell another living soul that we think so. There's a romance to the train journey that has never been fully captured by any other mode of transport. A train journey is usually defined by intrigue, chance, possibility, camaraderie, romance, and travelling rather than arriving.
Travelling by train is something which is worth its experience. That train ride from city to city through the mountains, the interiors of the forests, crossing the small water bodies inside the forests, and those occassional trenches between the hills etc.
An equal incentive was also to observe people of different parts of the country, and spend time by trying to work out mannerisms and habits that classified the diaspora into the places of their origin. Each family has train stories to narrate. Marriages get fixed, strangers become friends, or long-lost friends find each other by chance.
Travelling by rail is part of the adventure - it starts the very moment you step into the station. Watching who comes, who goes, what they carry, what they say, how they move. Conversations are in other languages. Delicious food and train journeys are also part of each other. Sometimes it seemed like a race between the food and the journey - which would finish first.
Each station the train passes through has its own food specialties as well. At every station, boys selling tea or coffee would pass by. Train journeys are a sort of milieu. When you spend two days with a group of people, one tends to exchange so much personal information that everyone is soon on friendly terms. Meals and snacks are liberally shared.
Train Journeys have always been a fascinating experience. There is definitely something soothing about the movement of a train and the noise of the wheels on the track. The swaying movement of the train was the soothing rocking of the cradle when we lay down to sleep.
And an intriguing obstacle course when we wanted to walk through the train. Going from one bogie to another through the coupling area was another adventure and thrill in itself - the swaying action always seemed to intensify there, and the noise level multiplied. We looked forward to each bridge the train passed over, counted each tunnel and hung out of the windows to see the whole length of the train whenever it went on a curving track.
Gradually running through the fields and the mountains starting on either side and as they came closer and entered the foothills the train slowed. Crossing the huge and fertile patchwork farmlands of the country side, sheep and cattle abound in the fields and as the autumn evening sun pours down on the landscape numerous streams and small rivers sparkle.
The train winds its way over massive lakes, through spectacular gorges and river valleys, before tracking across the mountain ranges. Following rivers and skirting lakes, it descends through lush rainforest and so many unknown towns.
A little drizzle here and a little sunshine there, Beauty and wind whizzes by giving rise to a wanton desire to take a dip in that lake or to play with the wind. A gorgeous pastoral beauty about it as the beautiful weather shows it off at its best. A few steely grey clouds creeping across the sky, hills and rivers clothed in the reds yellows and gold’s of the autumn. It’s spectacular to watch the huge expanse of nature taking myriad forms of beauty.
Splash of greenery everywhere, tall coconut trees, huge plantations, flocks of birds, meadows and shallow lagoons, huge lakes with lovely water plants, bustling little towns, kids playing by the train tracks, different variants of crops.
Travelling through the countryside, from farmers in fields with tiny, red-roofed huts to small, crowded looking towns where whole families precariously perched onto one small luna, forests - mysterious and uninhabited, streams rushing busily from one place to the other, small, simple little temples and mosques...You could see the terrain changing as you went from one province to another which all became our friends in the process of crossing them to reach our destination.
As we would wound our way up one side of a mountain and down the next we would suddenly find moving at a pace that was almost snail like. And this was when I realised that, yes; there is something romantic about train travel. Not in the traditional sense of two strangers meeting or anything like that but suddenly being transported to a time where people aren't dashing around trying to cram to much into a day that is already too full. It was absolute bliss until someone pointed out that it was a long way down and that the track appeared to be floating on thin air!
The romance of rail travel never fades. Waking aboard a sleeper and looking out at misty sidings in the depths of countryside, hugging knees with barely containable excitement of what more is to come. An early morning train rattling through the summer sun-kissed fields, a confused conversation with an unknown person, a late night dinner on a train and the promise of a romantic long weekend with my companion and a life-changing declaration of love in the door alley...
The melody of the songs with the night surrounding brought us back to the time with the whisper of uniting souls, riding the wind with the rising dawn slowly revealing frost and snow capped mountains - and the promise of more snow…
When you travel by train, the journey itself is part of the pleasure.
. . .
And we all think how romantic it all is but we wouldn't tell another living soul that we think so. There's a romance to the train journey that has never been fully captured by any other mode of transport. A train journey is usually defined by intrigue, chance, possibility, camaraderie, romance, and travelling rather than arriving.
Travelling by train is something which is worth its experience. That train ride from city to city through the mountains, the interiors of the forests, crossing the small water bodies inside the forests, and those occassional trenches between the hills etc.
An equal incentive was also to observe people of different parts of the country, and spend time by trying to work out mannerisms and habits that classified the diaspora into the places of their origin. Each family has train stories to narrate. Marriages get fixed, strangers become friends, or long-lost friends find each other by chance.
Travelling by rail is part of the adventure - it starts the very moment you step into the station. Watching who comes, who goes, what they carry, what they say, how they move. Conversations are in other languages. Delicious food and train journeys are also part of each other. Sometimes it seemed like a race between the food and the journey - which would finish first.
Each station the train passes through has its own food specialties as well. At every station, boys selling tea or coffee would pass by. Train journeys are a sort of milieu. When you spend two days with a group of people, one tends to exchange so much personal information that everyone is soon on friendly terms. Meals and snacks are liberally shared.
Train Journeys have always been a fascinating experience. There is definitely something soothing about the movement of a train and the noise of the wheels on the track. The swaying movement of the train was the soothing rocking of the cradle when we lay down to sleep.
And an intriguing obstacle course when we wanted to walk through the train. Going from one bogie to another through the coupling area was another adventure and thrill in itself - the swaying action always seemed to intensify there, and the noise level multiplied. We looked forward to each bridge the train passed over, counted each tunnel and hung out of the windows to see the whole length of the train whenever it went on a curving track.
Gradually running through the fields and the mountains starting on either side and as they came closer and entered the foothills the train slowed. Crossing the huge and fertile patchwork farmlands of the country side, sheep and cattle abound in the fields and as the autumn evening sun pours down on the landscape numerous streams and small rivers sparkle.
The train winds its way over massive lakes, through spectacular gorges and river valleys, before tracking across the mountain ranges. Following rivers and skirting lakes, it descends through lush rainforest and so many unknown towns.
A little drizzle here and a little sunshine there, Beauty and wind whizzes by giving rise to a wanton desire to take a dip in that lake or to play with the wind. A gorgeous pastoral beauty about it as the beautiful weather shows it off at its best. A few steely grey clouds creeping across the sky, hills and rivers clothed in the reds yellows and gold’s of the autumn. It’s spectacular to watch the huge expanse of nature taking myriad forms of beauty.
Splash of greenery everywhere, tall coconut trees, huge plantations, flocks of birds, meadows and shallow lagoons, huge lakes with lovely water plants, bustling little towns, kids playing by the train tracks, different variants of crops.
Travelling through the countryside, from farmers in fields with tiny, red-roofed huts to small, crowded looking towns where whole families precariously perched onto one small luna, forests - mysterious and uninhabited, streams rushing busily from one place to the other, small, simple little temples and mosques...You could see the terrain changing as you went from one province to another which all became our friends in the process of crossing them to reach our destination.
As we would wound our way up one side of a mountain and down the next we would suddenly find moving at a pace that was almost snail like. And this was when I realised that, yes; there is something romantic about train travel. Not in the traditional sense of two strangers meeting or anything like that but suddenly being transported to a time where people aren't dashing around trying to cram to much into a day that is already too full. It was absolute bliss until someone pointed out that it was a long way down and that the track appeared to be floating on thin air!
The romance of rail travel never fades. Waking aboard a sleeper and looking out at misty sidings in the depths of countryside, hugging knees with barely containable excitement of what more is to come. An early morning train rattling through the summer sun-kissed fields, a confused conversation with an unknown person, a late night dinner on a train and the promise of a romantic long weekend with my companion and a life-changing declaration of love in the door alley...
The melody of the songs with the night surrounding brought us back to the time with the whisper of uniting souls, riding the wind with the rising dawn slowly revealing frost and snow capped mountains - and the promise of more snow…
When you travel by train, the journey itself is part of the pleasure.
. . .
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