You Were Expecting Maybe the Orient Express??

A freelance writer friend of mine, who relocated to Bangkok several years back, emails every so often whenever he has anything related to train travel to pass along. One of his assignments included a 12-hour train ride that crossed through a part of Cambodia that had been infiltrated by insurgents and where there had been occasional outbreaks of violence.

As he was boarding his train at the Bangkok station, he noted that the locomotive was pushing four flat cars. After a moment, it dawned on him that this was in fact a safety precaution: the flat cars were there to trigger any explosives that might be laid in the tracks at some point up ahead in the disputed territory.

About 20 minutes after they were underway, as the train was sweeping through a long curve, he leaned out the window for a view of the locomotive up ahead and was startled to see that the flat cars were all full of people.

Evidently the railroad had sold tickets for that space … one would hope at a substantial discount.