SERPENT ACROSS THE MEKONG
also known as
The State Railway of Thailand is Decadent and Depraved
When there is a floating stone and a giant serpent across the Mekhong, Lao will be at permanent prosperity.
–anonymous Lao sage
The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge opened on April 8, 1994.
The inauguration of the first passenger train service across the bridge from Nong Khai, Thailand to Tha Naleng, Laos was on March 5, 2009.
This is the story of what happened on the 6th.
(Plus another week’s worth of dazed wandering around rural Laos and the Golden Triangle after that.)
Readers are asked to excuse the florid verbosity (or maybe that should be “pleonasmic prolixity”) of the prose — you try writing a trip report while reading Infinite Jest. If it gets unbearable, skip ahead and it’ll get better. Or, quite possibly, worse.
Drifting Clouds 片雲の風 