This is my entry for #wednesdaywalk hosted by @tattoodjay. The lockdown of Thailand meant that all trains were not in service for three months. Some trains have been allowed to operate among major destinations: but cross border trains are still not in operation. This must have cost a big loss of revenue for the Royal Train Authority. But economic impact has never been reported in mass media.
(Specifically friendly receptionist at the station to make sure everyone wears a mask, though he forgot his at home!)
I was so glad to be able to travel up to Nongkhai once again. The train journey was very relaxing which helped in switching my brain into a slower mode. The pressure of living in the city has been turned off when the train began to travel through the forest and mountainous areas outside Bangkok. The sleepers trains are very clean, fast and safe for long distance journey to the border towns. Nongkhai sits on the Khong River bordering between Thailand and Laos. This town is where backpackers would go through the immigration and visa office at the bridge before crossing over to Laos.
These days the railway station seems very quiet and lonely as there are no Thai or international tourists on their way to the border. My train arrived early in the morning with some locals who had just returned from their visits to relatives in Bangkok or to hospitals for special treatments. In the past, I used to meet high level civil servants from Laos traveling to and from Bangkok to see specialists at very expensive hospitals. Some people just did not like traveling by airplanes, including me. In fact, train journey is the best way to meet strange and extraordinary people; I had met a famous Thai medium, a secret service contractor assigned to other country for logistics planning, some Chinese human traffickers, some Eastern European mafia with his body guards, a very remarkable (retired high ranking) Thai air-force officer who could read accurate body languages and some ghosts on the trains. At times I felt my safety was on the line as these people also thought I was some plain cloth officer. It’s just my luck to encounter stranger people sometimes; being somewhat psychic didn’t always help, as I tended to ask the right questions.
I would ask my tuk-tuk driver to meet me half an hour late as I liked to sit quietly at the station for a while. So, I would have some time to enjoy the quiet atmosphere and observe my surroundings. Because of the fear of pandemic, people have to go through the front entrance where tables were set up with QR code and thermometers for screening people. But these procedures have become a joke as most people have stopped scanning the code and they just walked past the temperature screening. Also, several people forgot to put on their masks. I gathered that most people knew that the risk of catching the coronavirus has become very low after half a year of lockdown. People know that risk of infection comes from people who have been living abroad. So, they are very wary of foreigners and returning Thais.
เราดีใจมากที่รถไฟเดินปกติหลังจากหยุดไปหลายเดือน ตั้งแต่หลังปิดประเทศนั้น สถานีรถไฟหนองคายเวียบเหงามาก เพราะไม่มีทั้งนักท่องเที่ยวชาวไทยและต่างชาติเลย กิจกรรมด้านการท่องเที่ยวหายไปหมด เราคิดว่าการรถไฟเองคงขาดทุนยับเยิน ผลกระทบทางเศรษฐกิจมีมากมายแต่ไม่มีสื่อที่ไหนกล้ารายงานเรื่องนี้เลย โรงแรมหลายแห่งขาดทุนจนต้องปิดและประกาศขายกิจการ คนที่เดินทางก็มีแต่คนที่ต้องไปเยี่ยมลูกหลานในกรุงเทพ หรือไม่ก็คือคนที่ต้องไปหาแพทย์ที่โรงพยาบาล ถ้าไม่ใช่เทศกาลหยุดยาว รถไฟจะมีที่ว่างมากมาย เราคิดว่าเดินทางไกลโดยรถไฟนี่ สะดวกดีและปลอดภัย เพราะตอนนี้เขาใช้ตู้รถไฟใหม่ที่สะอาดและทันสมัย แต่ก็ถูกการลดสเป็กตามธรรมเนียมทำให้หลายอย่างน่าจะดีและมีคุณภาพดีกว่าที่เป็นอยู่ปัจจุบัน
เราชอบนั่งเงียบๆที่สถานีรถไฟสักครึ่งชั่วโมง เราคอยให้คนออกจากชานชะลาไปก่อน เพราะเราไม่ชอบเห็นคนส่งเสียงดังและเดินกันแบบไม่มีระเบียบเต็มพื้นที่แคบๆ เราก็บอกให้คนมารับเราสายสักครึ่งชั่วโมง เขาจะได้ไม่ต้องรีบออกจากบ้านด้วย เวลาเดินทางโดยรถไฟเราจะมีความรู้สึกว่าได้ออกไปเที่ยวพักผ่อน ทำให้ความรีบเร่งหายไปหมด เราเหมือนมีเวลาเพิ่มมากขึ้นด้วย สถานีรถไฟหนองคายก็สะอาดตา เราชอบนั่งเล่นเพื่อมองดูชีวิตช้าๆที่นั่น
My tuk-yuk was waiting for me in front of the railway station. Luckily it did not rain that morning, but it poured down at night.
This was how this station looked like in January before the lockdown in March. (ช่วงต้นปีก่อนล็อกดาวน์ สถานีรถไฟมีคนเดินทางมากพอสมควร)
Source
I tried to find some clips on this railway station in the old days but I could not find any. It’s a shame that our culture is based on oral tradition of recounting old stories so we don’t have good archive of old photos or videos. But I think you would enjoy seeing the main railway station in Bangkok in the old days.
Wishing you all a very nice and productive day!
Stay dry and warm!
Covid-19 is causing a lot of problem for the world. Take care and keep safe.
The focus should be on building the immune system to fight off the virus. Take lots of Vitamin C, D3 and zinc tablets everyday.
Thank you very much for your kind consideration.
Don't forget to wear a mask too, and to wash your hands and sanitize them. It all helps. 🙂
You are welcome.
Thank you very much for your kindness.
Cheers.
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Thank you very much for your kind support.
All the best with your project.
WHat a cool and informative post, strange to see train station so deserted, this Pandemic has hit so many businesses, lets hope we can get past it and back to normal before too long
Thanks for joining Wednesday Walk :)
Thank you so much for your kind support and attention. I do hope we will all have the resilience and foresight to go beyond the impact of this designed pandemic.
Have a nice days.
We have to hope and pray
And in Cyprus, the number of people infected with coronavirus again increased :-(((
We will not see my friend again for some time, because in one of the groups of the kindergarten where her youngest daughter goes, they found infected with the coronavirus ...
Oh! Non! People should build up their immune system so that they can fight off the virus in a few days!
in St. Petersburg, most people don't wear masks. But there are a lot of old photos of the city! There is a tradition to photograph the city in different centuries. This is St. Petersburg 100 years ago and now:
..
Wow! Very nice photos! You are so lucky to have such records of the past!
Yeah! Most scientists know that masks don’t prevent people from the coronavirus!!
In fact wearing masks all day is more dangerous and easier to catch the virus!!
so we live
Yep! Live each day the best we could!! Have to keep cheering oneself up!
What a difference in the before and after photos of the train station. I’m happy you enjoyed a relaxing train trip.
Thanks for sharing your travels.
Thank you so much for your attention and kind support. Train journeys in the old days were quite a test of patience and stamina! LoL
I think France came out of lockdown too quickly and went back to normal too quickly. Over the summer people became complacent and now the numbers of infections are really high again, and the hospitals are starting to fill up. There are new measures but there are holidays coming up and no restrictions on travel so I think the virus will spread further in France in the next month or so.
Thanks for sharing your pictures with us!
The virus has mutated into a very easily infectious coronavirus very much like flu epidemic. The good thing is that it is not as lethal as last year and most young healthy people would not even show any symptoms and can get rid of the virus more easily.
That’s why when more tests were widely conducted, more positive results case out. Those with previous health issues are more susceptible to having negative symptoms and need to be in hospital.
Take Vitamins C, D3 and zinc tablets everyday; the immune system will fight it off more easily.
Unfortunately, in France, the ICU's are filling up again and the death rate is going up fast too. It has spread from young people, who cope better with the illness than older people, to older people again. Also younger people seem to be having worrying leftover symptoms. I have a 50year old friend (fit and healthy before) who had a mild version of it but is now experiencing heart problems. This is quite a common story apparently
This sounds quite ominous. It seems in Europe you have a different strain of virus which came out of Italy. I remembered this Italian strain entered Bangkok last year by some returning Thai tourists. They caused a big lockdown of the boxing arena as two persons infected over fifty spectators in one afternoon.
This strain was quite fierce; some people remained in hospitals for a whole month! Other cases would be cured in less than seven days. We have less then ten casualties; those who died from COVID had previous health conditions. So, here we are not so afraid of this coronavirus as we have seen how fast Thai doctors cure these sick people.
I do hope people will take lots of those three Vitamins supplements seriously. There were several previous published papers on the efficacy of D3 and C plus zinc in preventing the virus from getting into the lungs. Most rich people and educated elites here all take this combo. Most drug stores here have to keep these in stock.
Take care.