Arrival I was awakened by a jolt in the rhythm of the carriage wheels hitting the rail joints. A man’s strident voice was announcing something in Thai. A thin strip of light came sneaking through the gap between the curtain and the window frame. I pulled back the screen separating my upper berth from the rest of the carriage. A conductor was walking the aisle, waking the passengers, his back stiff in his neatly pressed beige uniform, the shiny black visor hiding his eyes giving him a somewhat sinister appearance. I was finally reaching my destination, Nong Khai in Thailand’s…