Train Travels

I am currently typing on a cracked computer screen in which parts of the upper and middle right of my screen are black, and a substantial crack winds itself horizontally across the entire middle of the screen.  Such a defect is due to my own stupidity at leaving my laptop on the ground, which naturally led to some unassuming soul giving it a good stomp.  This is partially the reason for once again, my lack of posting, as every time I turn on the computer, I am forced to face my own dumb decision.

At least for the moment, though, the computer is still viewable and functional, so I am finally biting the bullet and typing amidst the cracks.  As some of you may be aware, I was recently vacationing in Durban for Christmas and New Year’s and there was a good bit of material I could post about there.  I would, however, like to write about the event I am currently experiencing, and in Quentin Tarantino-style will then revert to previous days in upcoming posts.

After 4 weeks of living out of a bag and eating non-home-cooked meals, I am quite anxious to get back to what has now become my home.  Serendipitously, such a return is being enhanced by an experience that unfortunately, many American people of my generation are woefully unaware of.  I am speaking of traveling by train.

I am currently typing from the dining car after having enjoyed a dinner of beef stew with rice, followed by a post-prandial coffee.  Night is falling as the South African countryside whisks by outside of my window.  My day has been spent sleeping in the bed placed in the upper part of my cabin, reading my book “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson (blog post to follow on this great read), and watching the greenery of the eastern part of the country change to veld as we move west.  All in all, it has been one of the most enjoyable and relaxing rides I have ever experienced.  Truly, it is for times like this that I joined the Peace Corps.

I am in this situation because after having moved about by bus, taxi, and kombi over the past month, I was intrigued to try out another form of transportation.  To my great pleasure, I found that, while the train is a bit slower than other more direct options, the ticket is considerably cheaper, even when taking a sleeper car like I am.  When you are in the Peace Corps, cheap is a good thing.  That being said, after a day like today, I probably would have paid more money than a competing option like the bus.

The reasons are simple.  A bus does not have plenty of leg space.  A bus does not allow you to stretch out on a fully flat bed and take a nap.  A bus does not allow you go to a dining car and have an excellent meal.  A bus does not let you open the window and stand there with your head outside of the car as the country and wind fly by.  And a bus does not allow you to travel through countryside like I have and am currently doing.  Trains don’t need roads, only tracks, which many times go where no asphalt does.  All in all, I am now very much taken with train travel. 

I know that plane transportation has greatly improved efficiency and increased our mobility, but I feel that the experience of flying simply doesn’t compare to the method of moving in which our grandparents and great grandparents did.  There is a leisure and comfort involved in train travel that I don’t think even a first class plane ticket can offer.  I recognize that I would speak differently of such comfort if such a train ride were stretched over several days, such as one used to experience on a cross-country trip.  But at the same time, I do somewhat envy my grandparents and great-grandparents (as well as my European friends) for whom train travel was a chief mode of transportation.

I can envision my Granddad Spencer, in his roles as Agricultural Extension Officer and later as bank president, sitting in his three-piece suit, cruising across Texas and the United States in sleepers and dining cars just as I do now – taking the odd moment for a cigar and whiskey with the other gents.  In the same way, I can see the John Rockefellers and Cornelius Vanderbilts, criscrossing the nation, doing business deals in their private cars, as they built their empires.  Simply put, there is something romantic about a train ride that other types of transportation do not offer.

So with that said, may I recommend to all my readers that if they ever have a chance to travel by train (which will be more likely in Europe than the US), they should take it.  Lord knows that, in the future, if it is at all possible, I’m going to be cruising the tracks as well.