Tagged With "Train"
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Re: France Train Service, SNCF, Expands Low Cost Trains and Buses
It's great news for budget travelers. I took the Ouigo train from to Marseille in 2013 and loved it.
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
What an amazing trip! A real reminder of when few traveled and it was not a packaged experience. I wish I had the guts to do a trip like this. Thank you for sharing it! Do you think with Burma more open these days things will change much, or will people like me show up in the cities and still not go where you went?
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
A fascinating journey and, I think, very well suited to the younger crowd. Thanks for sharing this story with us. I felt like I was on that ride with you!
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
Thanks FlashFlyer. The thing about adventures like this is you have no idea what an adventure it'll be until it happens and you can't get out of it even if you want to. So, no guts required. Yes, Burma will certainly change, has already. Currently not enough infrastructure for those wanting to visit but if you've traveled in Asia you know the entrepreneurial spirit is alive & well and it won't be long, I suspect, before it will come to resemble other parts of the region. So, good news as...
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
I hope that wasn't your last venture into third world high speed travel. Reminds me of Austria on the Zillertal Bahn Valley Railway. The Train went so slow that passengers would lean out and pick wild flowers from the trackside. Each carriage had warning notices - in English - not to do this. But ....
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
If I live it won't be my last. Just prior to that one, same trip, I'd gone from Guilin to Nanning, then after lunch got on another, overnight to Hanoi. Later overnight again, Hanoi to Hoi An. Now that I think about it I realize they got progressively worse as I went along, culminating in The Worst. I hadn't thought about it until just this minute, hindsight is a wonderful thing that way. A great disappointment to me several years ago was the apparently permanent cancellation of the Hanoi to...
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
That's a real cool story, PortMoresby! I like my wheels to rubber, not steel, but what a great trip!
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
My brother says that he would love to travel to countries like this. He says it would be really cool to travel on a train like this. I think I'm more of a Europe guy, but it would be a really cool experience to go on a train like that.
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
It isn't cool to travel on a train where you get thrown around in the carriage because the tracks are warped with age John ! Many journeys take 24 hours of hanging on like a Roller Coaster ! That's just in Asia. You'll be fine in Europe.
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
Fascinating read! If I do take this train trip, and it's currently included in the plan, for our hoped for trip to Mynamar later this year, I can't say I wasn't warned. Coming from a country that shakes, rattles, and rolls pretty much every day there were two things about the earthquake that worried me. First, it was big enough to produce screams!! Second, it seems that no-one bothered to check the tracks before the train left the station. And so as I was reading I expected a derailment -...
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Re: The Worst Train in the World
Jill, one thing I didn't think to say when I wrote this report is, consider buying 2nd class seats. I could see into the next car, as it swayed in the opposite direction from ours, and it was fitted with wooden benches, presumably bolted down and consequently a less harrowing ride. It may be more crowded but also more interesting.
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Re: "Doggie-Door" makes lockers easier to use
It is a good and useful idea. Kudos to the Doggy Travel locker door.
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Re: Sept. 27, 2017: Balloon Man Running, Denver
That's a fun piece, Sam! I do love finding an interesting piece of street art.
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Re: All Aboard the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
Great trip through some remarkable scenery! Likely as much fun as it seems to be!
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Re: All Aboard the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
One of my biggest regrets of my Colorado road trip of a few years ago was deciding we didn't have time for the Durango and Silverton...and you just reminded me why I regret it! Great story!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, June 17, 2014: Cobble Stone Square in Aix-en-Provence
Aix is a favorite with us, even though we've spent only limited time there...but long enough to have posted a Picture of the Day featuring the local market , not far from the scene of your picture...it's really a great walking town.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, June 17, 2014: Cobble Stone Square in Aix-en-Provence
An evocative image, Islandman, and no -- I can't think of any place this could be but France. Thanks for sharing the photo and the story behind it!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, June 17, 2014: Cobble Stone Square in Aix-en-Provence
You sure captured France!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, June 17, 2014: Cobble Stone Square in Aix-en-Provence
Draws me in...and back to my days in Provence, too many years ago. Thanks for the reminder of France's southern beauty.
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Re: Gallery: The Worst Train in the World Redux
This is the true Orient Express.. Thanks for the great pictures, and the chance to "be" somewhere truly special.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 23, 2015: First Class, Nanning Train Station
I suspect "stabling" refers to the train being at the station -- like horse returning home. But I love the sense of mystery and imaging you did to, PM! Nothing quite as much fun as a terrible translation!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 23, 2015: First Class, Nanning Train Station
With a waiting room like that, I've not sure I'd care to leave and get on the train...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 23, 2015: First Class, Nanning Train Station
I'd definitely get on that train. My curiosity about what badly translated signs are out there would get the best of me.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 23, 2015: First Class, Nanning Train Station
I wouldn't dream of occupying while stabling in the train rest room, but in the waiting room? I thought that's what they were for. A wise man, or FaMale, should know better than to leave a nice comfortable clean place and get on a train in some parts of the world. It was a lesson it took me several trains to learn on that trip.
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Re: SNCF: Oooops, we made the trains too big!
I'm astounded at the level of incompetence! Does SNCF order trains without providing manufacturing specifics, like how tall and wide a train should be? Really?
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Re: SNCF: Oooops, we made the trains too big!
I suspect, although without evidence, that since the trains are very close to the previous size, that someone looked, saw a fairly familiar measurement and said, say “2.6 meters…that’s not so different from 2.5…OK!” Puts me in mind of the rocket that missed Mars because one team was measuring in metric units and the other in English… http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
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Re: Nov. 8, 2018: Milano Centrale railway station
Actually, in passenger traffic, it's listed here as #8 in passenger traffic. Perhaps it's #1 in mainline traffic? Certainly #1 Gare du Nord and Gare de Chatelet, both in Paris, have heavy concentrations of commuter and regional passengers.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 19, 2015: Aswan Station, Egypt
It looks like you're with a group of backpackers? Sounds like you had a good time, IslandMan.
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Re: Jan. 31, 2016: Spuyten Duyvil Train Station
Not only a classic railroad picture, but one of those moments when you realize that although there are many 'commonplaces,' there's really no such thing as 'ordinary!'
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Re: Jan. 31, 2016: Spuyten Duyvil Train Station
As you can see, I also spent the day experimenting with "monotone." I think that added a little extra to the photos.
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Re: The Ghan - an Australian rail journey of style and comfort
IslandMan - A superb experience ! Thank you for sharing !
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Re: The Ghan - an Australian rail journey of style and comfort
This looks like a fantastic trip and any reason to go by train is good one to me. Wondering if the place names (Adelaide, Alice, Katherine) recall days of too few settler women for the number of men?
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Re: The Ghan - an Australian rail journey of style and comfort
Thanks for taking us on that journey! A wonderful piece!
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Re: The Ghan - an Australian rail journey of style and comfort
M. Poirot regrets that he had necessity of leaving the journey before the end. An important affair required the attention of his gray matter...
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Re: San Diego Model Railroad Museum: Where Gumbo Was #39
So nice, i love trains And i love to travel by train too, i don't know why but traveling by train makes me more relaxed!
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The Worst Train in the World
The earthquake should have been a clue. But having rather enjoyed the ride, as I have since childhood in an earthquake-prone part of the world, it didn't occur to me that it might be a warning. I should have listened. I'm seriously...
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Road Trip, Day 1: City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and The Skunk
Gateway to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas March 9, 2015 In the late ‘80s, I lived in L.A. for a couple of years. My S.O. knew lots of cool L.A. stuff. One of those was something he’d read that...
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Can Channel Ferries survive new rules?
A few weeks ago, we wrote about the continuing popularity of the Channel ferries between Britain and the continent ( HERE ) Now a new issue has made the outlook less clear. The British Competition and Markets Authority has ordered Eurotunnel to either...
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Sirkeci Terminal, Istanbul: Last stop on the Orient Express
Last summer in Paris, we visited an exhibit at the Institute du Monde Arabe, featuring cars and artifacts of the Orient Express and its mystique. A significant part of the exhibit, given the venue, focused on the exotic spell it had for Europeans...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 23, 2015: First Class, Nanning Train Station
My trip by train from Nanning, China to Hanoi, Vietnam transpired years after my first plan to travel between the 2 countries was thwarted by a landslide that covered the tracks between Kunming, in Yunnan Province, and Hanoi. After...
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Free WiFi starts on Japan's 'bullet trains'
With demands for free and fast WiFi as the norm spreading all over, it's no surprise that it's been spreading in Japan, too. But up to now, on the railroads, not so much. That's changing! Since May 1st, free WiFi has been available on the...
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JetBlue's boutique hotel: Sorry! No vacancy for you!
JetBlue, which has its training center ("JetBlue University") in Orlando, along with some operations and maintenance centers, has now opened its own 196-room boutique hotel with all the amenities, from pool to gym to good food. But it's not...
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Amtrak's Auto Train - Relax your way to Sunshine
There is a rhythm to train travel that is different. This is especially true when you are taking a train for a long distance. I recently took a round trip excursion on Amtrak’s Auto Train. And it immediately reminded me why I enjoy train travel...
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Japan's mag-lev bullet train sets new 375mph record
Magnetic levitation trains—a staple of my childhood Popular Science reading—have not only become reality, they're setting new speed records. Japan's newest "bullet train" line, from Tokyo to Nagoya, is testing its first stretches, and hit...
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Sept. 27, 2017: Balloon Man Running, Denver
A whimsical sculpture in Denver caught Samantha's interest; she shares views of it in different lights and times.