Travel: Asia by train

Travelling by train abroad, the contrasts between rich and poor, by their strangeness, are exacerbated, and travelling on a train like the Eastern & Oriental Express you become part of the scenery, and a very rich part indeed.

The train was fabulous; a stretch of 24 polished and gleaming green and cream carriages pulled by a huge engine. The Pullman carriages were luxurious, featuring minutely appointed compartments with a place for everything, and comfortable bunks that folded away in the daytime to create equally comfortable seating. It was compact, and stowing your things away was like playing house in miniature, but within hours we got used to shuffling around each other. There was even a strictly-one-at-a-time bathroom with a surprisingly powerful shower.

The public spaces were Victorian/ Edwardian restaurant cars of varied decor – some resembled a gentlemen's club, while others had a pretty boudoir-like aesthetic. There was a saloon, a reading room, bars, and an observation car, all designed to transport us in extreme comfort from Bangkok to Singapore, a journey of some 2,160 miles, in four days.

The contrast between rich and poor struck me immediately. We had arrived in Bangkok and stayed at the wonderfully elegant Sukhothai Hotel, in the embassy district. There, in such a hotel you are insulated from life on the streets, and as we transferred from the hotel to the care of Orient Express in Bangkok station we saw little more, and besides, it was obvious that Bangkok is a thriving modern city. Then as we pulled away from Bangkok station we saw the homes of the people who live there. These were ramshackle plywood shacks with cooking stoves set alongside the track, and, lacking gardens or other outside space, families sitting at plastic tables smoking and drinking beer in the small spaces between the tracks, with trains thundering by just inches away.

They ignored the regular trains as they passed, but for the Eastern & Oriental Express train, they waved and smiled and held up their small children to wave too, and there we were, if we hadn't known it before, very firmly placed in the rich camp.

Not that all the passengers on the train could be said to be rich, for this was a journey of a lifetime for almost everyone. A 60th birthday, a retirement, a special anniversary; all were celebrated on board, and because of the excellent policy of changing your table, and companions, at each lunch and dinner, we met many of our fellow passengers over a meal. Most were English, with Scots, a few Australians, Malaysians, Chinese, and Swiss. It was a good mix, guaranteeing lively conversation in the bars and dining cars, and even when squeezing past each other in the swaying corridors as we walked up and down.

We were kept amused with entertainments during the day and in the evenings – there was a resident pianist, a Chinese palm reader, dancers, talks on food, and stops and excursions away from the train.

Our last excursion involved us crossing by ferry to Penang in the company of a very witty guide, who gave us the lowdown on Malay society, showed us a fabulous Chinese temple, checked us into trishaws and told us to keep our bags and wallets clamped tightly to our sides.

We also visited the Bridge over the River Kwai, and the Thailand-Burma Railway museum, the main reason for the trip for many passengers. To see the evidence of the cruelty and the suffering it caused was rightly disturbing. Pathetic scraps of cloth, tin mugs, photographs, and some written evidence are displayed together with vivid audio visual presentations, and astounding sculptures. We learnt that Australian, British, Dutch, and American prisoners worked on the construction of the railway, and of these Allied prisoners some 16,000 died, together with the largely anonymous Asian labourers, of whom between 80,000 and 100,000 died.

Then we crossed the road to the Allied cemetery, to the memorial, where we were encouraged to leave the small bouquets of fresh flowers placed in our train compartments. Most passengers did this and then turned to look at the immaculate rows of graves, and it was a quieter, shaken, group that returned to the train.

The train company is obviously well used to these reactions, and so we were greeted, as always on our return, by our stewards, who cosseted us with afternoon tea in our compartments, allowing us all time to recover before another very social dinner.

Cosseting is something the Eastern & Oriental Express does very well. From breakfast in bed through to dinner, we were fed, from the tiny galley kitchens, amazing and elaborate meals, which blended the cuisines beyond the windows with European tastes. And, the views from the windows kept changing.

Most passengers brought books with them, but you would see them abandoned on laps, for the scenery outside was far more compelling.

The villages and towns gave us glimpses of homes, temples, and mosques, but the scenery was most impressive in the richly fertile agricultural lands: in Thailand we saw rice, sugar cane, coffee, mangosteen, bananas, bamboo, and other crops. It was lush country, but still relatively poor, which was apparent from the state of the rail tracks – bumpy in Thailand, smoother in more prosperous Malaysia.

The trackside homes were also more obviously prosperous in Malaysia, and the scenery even lusher and more beautiful, for by now we were deep in the tropics, heading down towards equatorial Singapore.

Here even the water buffalo appeared sleeker, and the dark green of the palm oil plantations were occasionally interspersed with dramatic limestone columnar hills. During the day we travelled at a reasonable speed, allowing for gazing out of the windows, but at night, if I occasionally awoke, it was to the realisation that we were really speeding along. It was necessary in order to keep roughly to the timetable, and my only thought as the rocking of the train encouraged my drift back to sleep was the consoling one that the train manager had assured us that they employed four drivers working four hour shifts, so that they were always fresh and alert.

Delays happened because we had to allow for the regular timetable and wait behind local trains, and on one such halt we looked out of the window and saw an elderly lady with a parasol walking away from us down a village track unaware that she was being followed by a huge (approximately five feet long) dragon-like lizard.

We were so amazed at this sight that, over a Singapore Sling, I mentioned it to someone at Raffles Hotel in Singapore at the end of our journey – I know, I know, more cosseting and the ultimate in colonial splendour, but where better to follow the Orient Express?

"Oh, yes," she said, calmly. "They're water monitor lizards. They can grow to ten feet long. Very good to eat, but also very dangerous."

Trains – as I said earlier, you see so much from them, and from this journey the things we saw and experienced will stay with us always.

The facts The Eastern & Oriental Express train journey is available from www.orient-express.com, 0845 077 2222, and is four days/three nights, Bangkok to Singapore, or three days/two nights, Singapore to Bangkok, from 1,230 per person including all meals, and excursions, based on sharing a Pullman compartment. Flights from Edinburgh to Bangkok or Singapore are extra. Hotels, including the Sukhothai, can be booked through The Leading Hotels of the World – www.lhw.com; Raffles Hotel, Singapore, www.raffleshotel.com

Visit www.holidays.scotsman.com for more great holidays

This article was first published in the Scotsman, May 8, 2010