-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.2/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 2</A> The Laissez Faire City Times January 11, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 2 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ----- The Trans-Asian Express by Richard S. Ehrlich Asia Correspondent BANGKOK, Thailand -- In the beginning of the 20th century, the famous Orient Express crossed Europe and rumbled into Istanbul, but despite its exotic name, the train never reached the bamboo gardens and mystical pagodas of destinations here in eastern Asia. Hollywood recreated the train in the film, "Murder on the Orient Express," which hypnotized movie audiences in a plot of aisle-busy intrigue. But even when the train was later resurrected in 1982 as a real-life Venice Simplon-Orient Express, it still couldn't help passengers in Italy who wanted to continue traveling past Turkey. Today, however, people bagpiping atop the chilly highlands of Scotland, or basking in sunny Singapore, are looking forward to the completion of train tracks finally linking their two platforms. Scotland to Singapore by rail? The trip would be a clickity-clacking journey of more than 9,500 miles (15,200 kilometers). Enthusiastic engineers and officials here in Asia are already trying to overcome gritty wars, green jungles and giant gaps, so the trains can run on time. The difficult drilling of an underwater tunnel is also being planned. Actually, two railway journeys are envisaged: a northern route linking Korea, via Moscow, with Europe. And a southern track connecting the Malay Peninsula with the United Kingdom, curving across the Indian subcontinent. Trainspotters, traders and tourists would be able to travel on a previously impossible journey nearly half-way around the world. All in the comfort of a seat-cum-sleeper carriage. In the dining car, you could munch a spicy cuisine and other delights, depending upon your latest longitude. This so-called Trans-Asian Railway would straddle a massive continent never before girdled by steel. When you do climb aboard, be prepared to change trains several times, because Asian nations use different gauge-widths of track. As a result, some trains are thinner than others. Even a fully financed Trans-Asian Railway would not have enough money to replace all the existing tracks to standardize the route. Fortunately, an elaborate metal spaghetti almost links Singapore with the old Orient Express film-fare destination, Istanbul. The blank spots are, however, very, very vexing. Start From Singapore Starting from Singapore is the easy part. If you have major cash to splash, The Eastern & Oriental Express, inaugurated in 1993, offers its 30 million US dollar "museum on wheels" to transport you north through Malaysia and up to Bangkok -- the sometimes clamorous, often glamorous, capital of Thailand. The "E and O" is a sister of the Venice Simplon-Orient Express, and recreates an opulent flash-from-the-past Asian train journey. Inspired by its success, the Eastern & Oriental Express recently introduced an extension of its route north from Bangkok to Thailand's tourist-friendly town of Chiang Mai. Less extravagant passengers can book relatively inexpensive tickets from Singapore to Thailand on normal government-owned trains, which take the same rail lines. No matter which class you travel, be sure to eye the outside of Kuala Lumpur's Moorish-inspired central railway station -- created in what the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism hypes as "Byzantine Arabian nights" architecture -- because it displays a flourish of domes, minarets and arches. Further north, you pass through Malaysia's cool Cameron Highland, and up the leg of southern Thailand. >From Bangkok, a western leg will take you toward Burma's border, halting in Kanchanaburi where the Death Railway's bridge of World War Two is now a pilgrimage site for traumatized former prisoners of war, elderly Japanese guards, and other tourists and scholars. At the Death Railway bridge, anxious wayfarers point to the Trans-Asian Railway's first real gap: how to get further west from Thailand, across France-sized Burma, and into Bangladesh? Engineers would have to patch a route across the jungle-covered, rebel-infested, Thai-Burma border. That future link would be met by a line coming from Rangoon which is slowly being extended south toward Kanchanaburi. Unfortunately, the new sections joining Burma's coastal towns of Ye and Tavoy reportedly use forced, corvee labor because the unelected Burmese military regime insists "volunteer" work crews are a "tradition." Eventually, however, you will pull into the Burmese capital, Rangoon, where colonial-era, British-laid tracks run straight north to the central city of Mandalay, and beyond. Burma's trains continue climbing north, paralleling the Irrawaddy River, to Mogaung town, near Myitkyina. Additional construction for another 180 miles (288 kilometers) or so, due north through Kachin state, would enable a train to reach India. Trans-Asian railwaymen hope to attract money to build that northern line by emphasizing to Burmese and international investors that the train would open isolated resource-rich regions for profitable exploitation in northwest Burma. To connect to India's cumbersome but surprisingly efficient railway system, the train would then need to be extended across the Burma-India border just a bit more, to meet Likhapani, a tiny station which is the easternmost platform in all of India. Likhapani's narrow-gauge track would force passengers to change trains there at the Burmese-India passport checkpoint in the steep Patkai Hills. India's trains clunk their way across the entire behemoth nation. After a couple of days, you would arrive in divided Punjab. There, the train would have to benefit from improved diplomatic relations between two arch-enemies, and allow passengers to cross the pancake flat India-Pakistan border. The Trans-Asian could then slide south, through Pakistan's desolate expanse of Baluchistan, where dry, bleak scenery -- including stark moonscapes around Quetta -- already enthralls passengers who travel this route near the Arabian Sea. At the farthest, westernmost point in Pakistan, the train would arch northwest, further inland, and through the southeast corner of Iran at the bazaar town of Zahedan. >From there, engineers are already planning to build 500 miles (800 kilometers) of track straight north, through Birjand, to Meshad, which would allow the train to latch onto Iran's railway system and zip west to Tehran, where the central train station near busy Meydan-e-Rahahan Park has welcomed travelers for decades. On the southern edge of sprawling Tehran, the station already sends trains back east 555 miles (926 kilometers) to Meshad, near Iran's border with Afghanistan, or 444 miles (740 kilometers) west to Tabriz, near Turkey. Wheeling past Tabriz would allow you to gaze at scenery dotted by gorgeous mosques, tranquil mausoleums and other antique architecture, while you are gently yanked into Istanbul. Engineers in Istanbul will need to tunnel under the Bosporus Strait, which physically separates the continents of Asia and Europe, or ensure there is a Trans-Asian Railway-capable bridge to span the Bosporus. On that not-so-distant other shore of the Bosporus, which also separates "old" Istanbul and "new" Istanbul, you would continue to the nearby Turkish-Greek border and board Greece's trains to get to the Acropolis in Athens, and the hop-skip-and-kilted-jump needed to zip northwest across Europe to Scotland -- via the French-British tunnel. The Northern Route If you prefer to freeze instead of sweat, a northern Trans-Asian route is also being planned. Military officials and governments on all sides must first agree to add more tracks to cross the divided Korean peninsula's 12-mile (19.2-kilometer) wide demilitarized zone, which is one of the world's heaviest guarded borders. After clearing Korea, Chinese trains would pour on the hot tea, and hurtle people and cargo the relatively short jaunt to Russia's rough-and-ready eastern port of Vladivostok. Alternate routes include northwest through Inner and Outer Mongolia, or a trip across the width of China and, with an extension beyond Urumqi, into Kazakhstan. All three Chinese gateways could then grid into Russia's railways, for further passage to Moscow. The Russian capital already allows Trans-Asian travelers to book onward trips to Europe. Experts promise it would be cheaper to move cargo by the new train route instead of by today's laborious sea journeys. Environmentalists say trains pollute less than cars or planes. And some people predict within the next decade, crossing Asia on a sleeper berth could be better than staying up to watch re-runs of "Murder on the Orient Express." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Richard S. Ehrlich has a Master's Degree in Journalism from Columbia University, and is the author of the classic book of epistolary history, "HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!"--Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews. His web page is located at http://members.tripod.com/~ehrlich. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 2, Jan. 11, 1998 ----- Disclaimer The Laissez Faire City Times is a private newspaper. Although it is published by a corporation domiciled within the sovereign domain of Laissez Faire City, it is not an "official organ" of the city or its founding trust. Just as the New York Times is unaffiliated with the city of New York, the City Times is only one of what may be several news publications located in, or domiciled at, Laissez Faire City proper. For information about LFC, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. 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