THE music is playing. The beer is flowing. People are lounging on wooden benches, taking in the cool evening air.
This could be any pub in Bangkok, if not for the trains which swish by, within inches of the patrons, every 10 minutes or so.
About 1km north of Hualamphong Railway Station, this local watering hole consists of three wooden tables and benches perched on an island of loose gravel between rail tracks.
Regulars say it's less precarious than it looks, as train drivers entering the station are careful to slow down and sound their horn if drunks stumble onto their path.
The 'bartender' is Ms Siriya Leucha, 40, who sells ice-cream, potato chips, beer and soft drinks from her wooden shack by the tracks. Bottles of the local brew, Leo Beer, go for 40 baht ($1.65) a bottle, 'the cheapest around here', she claims.
This watering hole 1km north of Hualamphong Railway Station consists of a few wooden tables and benches on an island of loose gravel between the tracks. The train drivers slow down on approach in case patrons stumble onto their paths.
On one side of her shack is a jukebox which belts out country tunes for 10 baht per song. A noodle shop sits on the other. Still, it's a world away from some of the trains that roll past them with travellers from all over the world.
Technician Wichit Suttpahatee, 52, who goes there most evenings, says: 'Our homes are small, so people sit outside on the tracks.'
His only complaint? When it rains, the party has to stop.
Developing the railway sector will diversify development away from coastal areas. Rail connection is also a hopeful sign of stability.
Meals on wheels
PASSENGERS on South-east Asia's trains rarely go hungry even in the absence of a dining carriage because they are served by a bevy of fleet-footed vendors.
These hawkers hop onto trains with their goodies minutes before they depart, and deftly jump off when the trains pull away.
One of them is Ms Phai, 57, who makes her rounds in Bangkok's Hualamphong Railway Station with a basket of sticky rice, deep-fried pork and roast chicken every day.
The divorcee, who supports a 22-year-old son disabled from polio, earns about 200 baht (S$8.40) a day.
But when she gets caught by the police, she will have to pay a 100 baht fine.
The just-in-case border refugee
MR SOA Sarath is one of the more than 20 people who make their home in the compounds of the currently disused Poipet Railway Station by the Cambodian border. He will soon have to move out as the country rehabilitates its railway network.
But the 49-year-old former soldier is firm about staying put in Poipet town. 'I like to live here, near the Thai border, because I can escape to Thailand if there are any political problems here.'
The Phnom Penh native escaped to this border town about 30 years ago to avoid persecution by the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed, tortured or banished to the countryside hundreds of thousands of Cambodians in its bid to create an agrarian utopia.
He does not work now because of high blood pressure. However, he owns the only toilet and shower in the compound and earns 50 baht to 60 baht (S$2.10 to S$2.50) a day charging the rest of the residents for its use.
He says hopefully: 'If the government is going to relocate me, I do not want money. I want land for constructing a new house, and my medical bills to be paid.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 23, 2008.
