Thais are very lucky in that they can celebrate (and enjoy) 3 New Year festivals - Western New Year, Chinese New Year (a lunar festival which usually takes place in February) and the Songkran Festival (Thai New Year) in April.

The Chinese New Year festival this year started on the 14th of February. Traditionally it continues until the 15th day of the new lunar month, but in Bangkok, the main festivities took place from the 14th to the 17th only.

In the days leading up to New Year's Day, homes were decorated, ducks slaughtered in their millions, and decorations in red and gold strung across the streets. The traditional new year greeting pictured right is Gong Xi Fa Cai, a wish for properity in the coming year.


The 13th, last day of the waning moon, is the day when all debts must be settled, houses swept clean, doors and windows hung with red and gold decorations, quarrels patched up, and children of the immediate family receive small red envelopes containing gifts of money. Fruit and flowers are placed at household shrines and Spirit Houses formerly plates of duck and pork were more popular but, more recently, non-animal food seems to be preferred.


On New Years Day itself, parents and other family are visited, younger relatives receive their red envelopes, employees receive their bonuses, prayers are offered at Chinese temples, Dragon Dancers and Lion Dancers scurry down the narrow streets of Bangkok's Chinatown, collecting money and gifts and presenting good luck in return.

Actually that was the old style - in recent years the dancers appear well before new year's day, ensuring that no-one misses out on the good luck or fails to reward the performers: one enterprising group of Lion Dancers makes regular appearances around Bangkok's Suhumvit area at ALL times of the year.


Chinatown Bangkok
Many Chinese businesses were closed from 14th to 17th of February, but as this year Chinese New Year coincided with Valentine's Day, many of Chinatown's gold shops were open for business as usual, or even extra business. On the streets were you might expect Lion Dancers, Dragon Dancers, the rattle of fire-crackers, Moon Cakes and other traditional Chinese foods, and, a favorite of mine, chestnuts roasted in coffee beans.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand promised cultural performances at Yaowarat Square, but for a few baht, you could dress up Chinese style and make your own show!


Making Merit
Many Thais consider Chinese New Year an auspicious day for making merit. Two ways of making merit are illustrated below: copious quantities of incense are burned at the Chinese temples; bird sellers roam the streets of Chinatown selling birds for release at 100 baht a cage. I am not sure what effect this has on the karma of the vendors, however.

One of my friends is of the opinion that the sparrows are trained to return to their captors as soon as they are released - homing sparrows, I suppose.



The lions were somewhat of the cuddly rather than fierce variety, this year, and I did not see any dragons; also tigers were there none, apart from the styrofoam creatures in Yaowarat square, assuming they were meant to be tigers. The only street musician I saw was the humble fiddler below, sitting among the vendors of bric-a-brac; and, come to think of it, I do not remember hearing any fire-crackers at all.



New Year's Day
Not my favorite visit to Chinatown, Bangkok. Lots of people of course - Yaowarat Road was suppposedly closed to traffic, but a couple of green buses got in via a side street. Large numbers of "official" traders lined the sides of the road, but lots more "unofficial" vendors set up in the middle of the road selling all sorts of things from pocket knives to dragons on a stick, causing a total traffic jam - until a squad of police moved them on. Chinatown became a Thai market for the day.

Highlight of the day for us was lunch at the Canton House Restaurant, next to the Chinatown Hotel - Dim Sum, Noodles and cold beer, all at normal prices, and definitely recommended. Overall the restaurant was far more Chinese than anything we saw outside.


Getting to Chinatown
The best way is probably by Subway or Train to Hua Lampong Railway Station. Leave the station by the main entrance to the south, cross the approach road, and then turn right onto Rama IV Road. Cross the Canal Bridge, and at the intersection ahead take the fourth exit (anti-clockwise), Thanon Mittaphap, which leads to the Chinatown Gate. Yaowarat Road leads North West from the gate.

The following piece by Andrew Hicks details a recent trip by train to Chiang Mai which made clear to him how crucial the rail system was in unifying Thailand as a young nation.

Prior to the railway era, a journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai by elephant and river boat, could take a month or more, and in the twentieth century, up to the Vietnam War, trains were practically the only way to visit the North, East and Southern parts of the country. The major roads North and North East date from the 1970's onwards, and the development of provincial highways, together with a lack of investment in rail infrastructure, have led to an inevitable decline in the railway system.

I note however recent interest in new railway development from the Thai Government, possibly with Chinese Investment. Ironically Chinese interest in rail links between Yunnan province and Thailand's sea ports is reminiscent of the British proposal (late 19th century) to link Yunnan with the Gulf of Martaban (Burma) - see the excellent "A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States" by Holt S. Hallett, first published in 1890.

Andrew Hicks is a retired British academic lawyer now living in Thailand. He has written a best-selling novel, "Thai Girl", a tropical Romeo and Juliet without the coffins. The story of his life in a small village in Surin can be found in his second book, "My Thai Girl and I".

More about the books can be found on www.thaigirl2004.com and he chronicles his life and observations about Thailand on www.thaigirl2004.blogspot.com where this article first appeared.

Nations are defined by wars and geography but it was its railways that finally integrated Thailand within its permanent borders.

Cat and I have just been on the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and the journey back by day has reminded me what an extraordinary feat it was to construct a railway across the plains, through almost impenetrable jungle and mountains and up to the ancient kingdom of Lanna.


We’ve also recently been through the humiliating and barbaric process of applying for visas for Cat, both to go to the UK and also to get a Schengen visa for Europe. There is a link there somewhere!

After millennia of tribal warfare, the Schengen agreement between twenty one European nations now allows visitors to obtain a single visa valid for all these countries. How civilized it is to freely cross borders and how very sad that the UK stood apart and did not sign up to this accord. If only we now had just one visa to apply for on going to Europe.

Ease of travel in a modern world means that strict national borders are needed to separate and divide people, but we’re now so used to this intrusion that it’s easy to forget that the nation state itself is a brand new concept. Likewise, passports are something of a new thing. Italy and Germany are new countries and the United States was quite recently defined by its civil war.

And Thailand as we now know it is new too.


Relating things to my own lifespan, a warring Europe was pacified, the invaders were turned back and an extraordinary reconciliation was begun only two years before my birth. And not long ago Africa was abruptly carved into more than thirty artificial nations by the European powers at the end of the nineteenth century, driven on by the insatiable demands of their missionaries and traders. This all happened a mere twenty years before my father’s birth.

Despite the artificiality of some of the borders thus created, even in Africa the nation state has been extraordinarily successful with remarkably few annexations or secessions. Just like Vietnam’s eviction of Pol Pot from Cambodia, nobody liked it when Tanzania kicked Idi Amin out of Uganda as borders are sacrosanct and must not be violated even for good reason.

Eritrea successfully broke away from Ethiopia and Morocco has been too acquisitive, but the fledgling ‘state’ of Biafra, the biggest ever secession failed and Nigeria, Africa’s giant, remained intact, as does almost all of the late nineteenth century political map of the continent.

Now taught an assertive brand of nationalism, modern Thais may look at a map of South East Asia and believe that theirs is an ancient Kingdom but, as defined by its present borders, like so many other nations, relatively speaking it’s brand spanking new.

So what’s the story and why is this so?

Throughout history, where land is divided by insurmountable mountains, rivers and seas, political entities must of necessity be small and this region was no different in that respect. The old civilization of the Chao Phaya basin, of Sukotai and Ayutaya which lie at the core of Thailand, was closed off by mountains to the west, north and east. Those to the North isolated it from the kingdom of Lanna/ Chiang Mai, while the mountains to the east ensured that the Korat plateau and Isaan looked eastwards and could not be fully integrated by ‘the Thais’ from the west.

Thus the loose ‘empires’ of Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, not yet nations with settled borders, were in perpetual conflict as they sought to control the small vassal states around them and to extend their spheres of influence.

The mountains were of course the defining factor. But if you move mountains, everything changes, and that’s exactly what the railways achieved. During the reign of King Chulalongkorn, truly the architect and father of Thailand, construction of the great railways to the south, to the north and east of Thailand was courageously begun.

I’ve previously written of how the feat of cutting a railway over the mountains to Ubon in the east enabled Isaan to be better absorbed into a unified nation… which ironically the current political tensions suggest has not yet been perfectly achieved. (See ‘Last Train From Sikoraphum’ posted on this blog on 14 November 2008)

So now I want to tell you of our long daytime journey back from Chiang Mai by train, a slow and spectacular ride down through the mountains that again reminded me that before 1921 when the railway was finished, Chiang Mai and the Lanna kingdom was another world, a veritable Shangri La, hidden from the Thailand of the southern plains.

In the last few decades air travel has given us seven league boots and made the world smaller but the railways had a far greater impact than that. As a major breakthough in transportation, they redefined much of the political world, allowing access to outlying areas that could now be integrated politically and commercially exploited.

Not least of all this is how it happened in Thailand. It was the railways that were the essential means to make the nation what it is now.


The financing and construction of the Thai railways was a modern marvel of political will, organization and engineering. Crossing the plains was easy but surveying a route through the mountains, building cuttings, embankments, bridges and tunnels, especially a long one through the Khun Tan mountain, must have seemed an impossible project. At last the dream was achieved and served its purpose, though now the line is desperately in need of modernisation and has been left to gently molder in the shadow of its past glory.

Thus as the Chiang Mai train slowly approaches a tiny station high in the northern mountains, the station master is in his old clothes, busy manicuring its immaculate garden. He snaps to attention and rushes off to buff up his boots and to put on his best uniform and peaked cap. Just in time he grabs his green and red flags and makes it onto the platform as the train rumbles in.

Yes, they still wave their flags and they ding a big, polished brass bell to send the trains on their way. It’s just wonderful and nothing, but nothing seems to have changed. Steam has been exchanged for diesel, but the Thai railways still offer a perfect time warp for any nostalgic lover of the world’s quaintest old railways.

Not only travelling hopefully to Chiang Mai is fun but arriving’s even better. As always I greatly enjoyed the city and although it’s changed and grown, the atmosphere is much the same inside the moat as it was when I first visited and stayed in the seventies. The rice fields and mountains are still there too and rural life goes on much as it always has done. And so also do the trains.

The railway is thus the perfect link to help you to slow down and to take you from the madness of Bangkok to that other more gentle world of Chiang Mai. Even Bangkok’s Hualampong Station where your journey begins has been nicely restored and it retains its fine architecture and a polite otherworldliness.


It is always vibrant with people and activity but for Bangkok it’s strangely calm and orderly. The central hall is packed with people, but they just sit on the floor with their luggage surrounding them and they serenely wait as if forever, something the Thais are always so good at doing.

Perhaps they’re pleasantly anticipating the slow ride out through the slums and the shanties built literally feet from the passing trains, out through the sprawling city and onto the endless rice plains. After the long run across the plains, when Chang Mai is not so far away in distance but still a long way in time, their train will abruptly leave the rice fields and climb slowly up into the mountains.

It makes slow progress and you can see the train ahead of you as it rounds the sharp curves. You can feel the extraordinary steepness of the gradients as the train clatters over bridges and culverts. Its single track is but a precarious thread, dwarfed by the mountains and threatened by the encroaching jungle, more like a narrow gauge mountain railway than the important artery that first united Thailand.


In less than a hundred years though the railway has become insignificant and almost an irrelevance. Governments have repeatedly failed to modernize and to invest, caught in a power play with the railway unions who strike to preserve the privileges and inefficiences of an outdated system. It will take strong and determined leadership to give upgrading the railways the priority it deserves, which suggests that nothing much will change in a hurry.


In the meantime I’m not personally complaining about that.

Nothing for me could be better value or fun than a round trip on the train from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai and back. I’ve done it several times before and I hope this time won’t be my last.

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POSTSCRIPT… I’m no historian and have done no research whatsoever to write this piece so if you find it’s riddled with inaccuracies or can tell us more about the story of the railways, do please leave a Comment on this blog.


Andrew Hicks The “Thai Girl” Blog November 2009

One of the most popular Thai festivals is the Loy Krathong Festival, falling on the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, in 2009 on the 2nd of November. The festival Derives from a Hindu festival in which offerings were made every year to the goddess of the River Ganges, sacred river of India. It came to Thailand probably during the Sukhothai period.

In Thailand it has come to be a purification festival, a letting go of the transgressions of the previous year, but with also a sense of making an offering to the spirits of the river, and Mae Khongkha, goddess of the rivers.

The Krathongs are small boats, originally made of banana leaves formed into the shape of a lotus flower. Sometimes a round section of banana tree is used as a base, though in recent years a circle of expanded polystyrene, or bread has become popular.

The basic boat is then decorated with flowers, leaves, incense sticks and a central candle; coins are placed within the interior - a matter of considerable interest to the small children who flock to the event. The completed Krathong are then floated ("loy" means "launch"), candles lighted, on the main rivers and canals. Unfortunately the large catfish who abound near the temple piers have wised to the fact that some of the Krathong are edible and tend to demolish the fragile offerings almost as soon as they go into the water, as we observed this year at Wat Lan Buhn, in Bangkok's Lat Krabang district.

After the unsuccessful launch, we sat in a restaurant on the other side of the canal, eating food, drinking beer, and watching the crowds flowing over the bridge. The glum looks from my friends may be because of the krathong catastrophe - some Thai women seem to believe that the behavior of the krathong reflects the future of their own relationships: if two krathong floated together, remain together, all is well; woe betide if they float appart. I have known anxious males surreptitiously tie the vessels together with string to ensure a fortunate outcome.


This colourful festival, which often includes traditional Thai Dancing, is celebrated throughout Thailand: in Bangkok at parks, restaurants and hotels, and especially by the River and Canal Bridges and Temples; most events take place between 6 p.m. and midnight.

From the 18th to 26th of october, many towns in Thailand celebrate the Chinese Vegetarian Festival. Phuket, Bangkok's Chinatown and Samut Prakhan are well known for their colorful processions and food stalls decked out in yellow flags.

The festival seems to have originated in Phuket around 150 years ago, its object being personal and communal purification. Participants abstain from eating meat and also, hopefully, from sex and alcohol. Utensils used for preparing food should not have been used in the preparation of meat.

The rail link between Nong Khai and Thanaleng (Lao PDR) opened on March 5th 2009. The cost is around 80 Baht aircon, 20 Baht non-aircon.

For years, travellers have noticed that the Thai North Eastern line continued beyond Nong Khai Station, but only as far as the Mekhong River. The new stretch of track, which crosses the Friendship Bridge, is the first ever railway in the Lao PDR and the first section of a line that is planned to connect Nong Khai with Viantiane the Lao Capital, some 20km to the North West.

Posted March 12th 2009

The State Railway Authority of Thailand has started to offer e-tickets from its website:
http://www.thairailwayticket.com/

It appears that you have to sign up for a user account before you can book tickets.

The new Rail Link between Suvarnaphum Aiport and Central Bangkok is due to open December 5th. The State Railway Authority is already running test services.

Fares are likely to be 150 Baht for the express service, and between 30 and 50 Baht for the city line service which stops at 6 stations between the Airport and Phyathai where it crosses the Skytrain route.

I flew out from Utapao airport on 4th December. Check-in was at Bitek in East Bangkok at 7 a.m. and we boarded our bus at 11 a.m. The bus then waited 90 minutes while a convoy of around 10 buses formed. During this waiting time there was no information about the cause of the delay, no refreshments and no toilet facilities on the bus. Eventually a mobile loo pulled in just around the corner, though no-one told us what it was.

We drove to Utapao airport under police escort in about two hours, and eventually turned into a military base to get to the aircraft. The bus pulled up right by the plane and we boarded without ever entering the terminal building, or meeting the group of Navy medical staff who were waiting to greet us - presumably in case any foreign tourist had been overcome by lack of alcohol on the journey from Bangkok.

Generally the evacuation was well executed except for lack of information at Bitek, and lack of refreshments. I went from 6 a.m. to around 4.30 p.m. without so much as a glass of water. The young guy sitting next to me on the plane must have had a similar experience - he went so far as to ask (unsuccessfully) for another lunch! I have never seen so many empty plates after an in-flight meal.

Posted by Matt M., December 6th 2008

For once I had time on my hands, so I decided to take the train from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani. Usually, I fly; a few boring hours, mostly spent waiting. I have always liked trains, but this was to be my first sampling of Thailand's highly esteemed rail service.

I had not made a reservation, so I showed up at Hualamphong Railway Station - easily found at the end of the BTS line - on a Saturday morning, hoping to purchase a 1st class sleeper ticket for that same evening. The only available berth was for a female - in 1st class, sexes are separated, two to a cabin - so I settled for a 2nd class sleeper. At 671 baht one way, it seemed like a bargain. The railway station and booking process are simple. The station is well signposted, in English as well as Thai, and there is even a special ticket booth for foreigners. This seemed a far cry from the railway system in my own home country. Within a few minutes, I left the station, ticket in hand, and knowing which platform I needed to come to later that evening.

I arrived at the station early; a combination of having already checked out of the hotel and being unsure of traffic conditions at that time of day. This time I travelled by taxi, having luggage with me. The train had not yet arrived, so I stocked up on snacks for the trip; a small bottle of Sangsom, some soda, and ice. Soon the train arrived, and well before the scheduled departure time of 20:30, I was able to board and get settled.

In 2nd class, the sleepers are arranged like bunk beds, a row down each side of the carriage. The bottom bunk folds away to provide two seats; one each for the upper an lower berths. Genders are mixed, and my travelling companion turned out to be an interesting and friendly middle-aged Thai lady. Noi was a teacher in Sisaket, returning home after a short break. She taught business administration at a technical college, and proudly showed me photos of former students she had visited whilst in Bangkok. One was working at the checkout of a 7-11, and it reminded me how hard it is for young people to find good employment in Thailand, even with a good education.

After we had chatted for a while, I sensed that she was ready to sleep, so I made my excuses and went in search of the dining car. This allowed the steward to convert the two seats we had been using into her bunk. Each bunk has a curtain to provide privacy when sleeping.

The walk to the dining car took me through the rest of 2nd class and all of 3rd class. The latter looked rather uncomfortable, and most people were already trying to get to sleep in their seats. When I arrive in the dining car, I was the only passenger. The other occupants were all railway police, guards, stewards, etc., in their various tight-fitting uniforms. I was soon served a delicious "wrap egg", a bottle of cold beer, and a bucket of ice. One of the guards eventually joined me my table; actually, I think I was at his table. Daeng was a shiny faced, friendly chap, missing his front teeth. At each station he jumped up to look out of the window; this seemed to be his only duty. He told me that he makes the trip up one day, down next, and sleeps during the day.

As the train picked up speed out of Bangkok, through Ayudhya, and beyond, the windows wide open, I smiled and raised my glass to Paul Theroux, that most intrepid train traveller. How happy I was to be here!

Later, as the diner filled up, I joined another farang, Erik, and Lek, a Thai lady who had some business somewhere; but by now the Beer Leo was flowing and I can't remember what it was. We chatted on and on, until finally the stewards, probably wanting to get some sleep themselves, urged us to turn in. Apparently the inter-carriage doors are locked at night for added security. I returned to my bunk, which was now made up, for a satisfied sleep, rocked in the cradle of The State Railway of Thailand. The bed was comfortable, with a clean crisp sheet, pillow, and a blanket sealed in a plastic bag. The toilet facilities, entirely stainless steel and well ventilated, were basic but clean and without any unpleasant odours.

By the time we reached Sisaket, most passengers had gone, so I got up and sat in a spare seat to watch the routine of early morning rural life begin. Finally we arrived, punctually at 07:25, in Ubon. "This is your station", said the pyjama clad stewardess in charge of my carriage, "have a nice day".

Mike Chapman
(posted 19th November 2008)

After a horrible day cancelling our TOT satellite internet contract and emptying my wallet in the process, I felt like having a day out. There were a few takers for a train ride to nowhere, especially as it happened to be free, so we all piled into the pickup and headed off to Sikoraphum.

The railway workers have been on strike in support of the demonstrations against the government but now they're back at work again and the bosses are punishing them by making train rides free. I guess the idea is to attract people back to the railway and incidentally to make the strikers work harder coping with crowded trains.

The idea was for us to take a train from nearby Sikoraphum to Si Saket and back but on the way there Cat suggested we go the other way to Surin instead as it's not so far.

Just as we arrived at the station a train to Si Saket was just rolling in. Only a few seats were filled but we stuck to our plan and didn't get on board. Cat went and bought some grilled chicken while I wielded my camera.

Sikoraphum is notable for its 900 year old Khmer temple and more recently came back to prominence when the railway line was cut through a little over a century ago. What's charming about the town is that it has hardly changed over the years. The centre is a series of narrow streets and Chinese shop houses, all well kept and bustling but without the demolition and disruption that usually comes with relative prosperity.

It's hard to believe how remote Sikoraphum must have been before construction of the railway. A millennium ago it was not so remote though, looking to Angkhor, the great centre of the Khmer empire. Only a few hundred kilometres away, the journey would have been relatively easy passing through a gap in the Dongrak hills at Chong Jom and across level ground to the capital.

With the decline of Angkhor, the political balance swung East across the plateau towards the Mekong, which allowed river access to the great capitals upstream. Then as Laan Chang declined, the region became beholden to the kingdoms of Thailand, but how very far it was from their capitals in the Chao Phraya basin.

Bangkok was impossibly distant and for government officials visiting the fractious North East the ascent onto the plateau was extremely difficult. In 1891 King Rama V therefore ordered construction of the railway, a huge and herculean task to integrate Isaan into his modern kingdom.

Laying the tracks northward across the plains progressed well but after Saraburi came harsh mountains where the German contractors faced many hazards and risks. It was only in 1900 that the railway reached Korat not so very much further on, during which time forty Germans and over 500 Chinese workers are said to have perished.

Pushing on through Buriram, Surin and Sikoraphum and at last to Ubon was then relatively quick and a remarkable vision was finally achieved.

Saraburi today is now only an hour or two out of Bangkok by road, so it's hard today to grasp the significance of this feat of modern civil engineering. Sikoraphum, once far away on another planet, had become accessible in safety and comfort on an overnight train. This was a huge leap into the future, though since that time the railway has been allowed to slip gently back into the past.

Today the line to Isaan is a delightful time warp and a lack of investment in the railways has preserved it in a pleasant state of sleepy decay. The old station signs are as they always were, the wooden buildings, the track and systems substantially unchanged. It's all much as I remember the small station in sleepy Warwickshire village from which I used to take a train pulled by a puffing tank engine a few miles to school and that's a good few years ago.

The heavy levers for changing the points that the German contractors installed are still in use, a polished brass bell hangs above a decorative fountain and the long platform is clean and well kept. In fact it has an almost military feel and the staff look sharp in brown uniforms, their toe caps gleaming as they wave their green flags to send the Bangkok train on to Si Saket and Ubon.

All is now anticipation on the crowded platform as the Surin train is in sight down the line. We're on our feet as it rolls into the station, an elderly diesel engine drawing tatty carriages that must be at least fifty years old.

Then I realize to my dismay that it's packed out with people. It's going to be standing room only, damn it.

We move down the platform to avoid the worst of the crush and try to make it up the steps at the end of carriage, but the corridors are jam packed with people. It's almost like the Indian sub-continent with bodies hanging off and not a spare inch inside. Offering free rides has certainly brought out the travelers

We don't have to go anywhere today though, as we're here to enjoy ourselves. A battle like this isn't going to be fun so we admit defeat and scramble down onto the platform again and watch the green flags waving as the train moves slowly out of the station.

Shall we have a good look round the market instead, I suggest. There's some nice pictures to be taken among the fruit and veg, but then it starts to rain.

Clearly this wasn't our day, though savouring the retro mood of the station in Sikoraphum was like stepping back fifty years.

It's a rare and special experience that can make me feel like I'm twelve years old again.

Reprinted by kind permission of Andrew Hicks who owns the copyright
Originally posted on www.thaigirl2004.blogspot.com.