As if the daily grind of grocery shopping wasn’t enough, try having to navigate around the train schedule, too, like these shoppers at the Maeklong Railway Market outside of Bangkok.
video: fast-track shopping
this train for oban
The train from Glasgow to Oban, where I’ll eventually meet my friends and catch the ferry to Mull, is a two-carriage “dinky” which seems to hug the shore of every loch in its path through the Highlands. If there’s a journey that could be described as lilting, this is it. As mellifluous and rolling as the Scots accent, it’s a pleasantly relaxing two and a half hours. Thankfully Oban is the terminus of this particular train, leaving me free to nod off with impunity.
training grounds
The train journey from London up to Edinburgh has to be one of the most pleasingly tranquil five hours your can spend on public transportation in the UK. Leave your baggage off at the luggage car in King’s Cross station and settle in for a wide window view of hills, dales, the Yorkshire moors and England’s scenic east coast. The final two hours provide some of the prettiest scenery of all as the train hugs the coast from Newcastle to Berwick-upon-Tweed, before alighting in the center of Edinburgh at Waverly Station.
