Trains in Thailand sometimes want to derail. Sometimes? This is happening on an assembly line. The Dutch Railways can also do something about it. No derailments here, but switch failures and work on weekends that push up the travel time to sometimes an extra hour.
On my way back from Schiphol to my hometown, after a visit to acquaintances, I myself was the victim of a switch failure between Delft and Rotterdam on Tuesday evening. Consequence: the train did not go further than Den Haag HS. The travel advice was: transfer to the train to The Hague Central Station, take the train there to Gouda and change in Gouda to the train to Rotterdam. There I should have switched to the half-hourly service to Hoek van Holland, with a 20-minute walk to my home in my hometown.
When the departure board indicated that the train to CS would be at least half an hour away, I gave up. Walked out and took a taxi to get home at a reasonable time. There went part of my vacation money. Along the way it started pouring and lightning, which gave the ride on the highway a slightly macabre touch. Arrived sprinted to my front door. Nice, such a holiday in the Netherlands.
My striptease
In my previous Message from Holland I told about my striptease. Started with shirt, winter sweater and winter jacket, it has now progressed to shirt with open winter jacket and sometimes I even take off my jacket and wear it casually over my shoulder.
I'm not going any further. Although I have Thailand-tanned legs, I don't walk down the street in shorts and a shirt, as I see many men do. But they all have milky white legs. I don't want to give them an inferiority complex. Those shorts will come back when I get back to Thailand. Plus T-shirt and slippers. Would it still be hot in Bangkok (35-40 degrees) or has the mercury dropped a bit? Just a few more weeks and I'll know.
Coup
When the state of emergency was declared in Bangkok, I was not at my post. Hans Geleijnse was then so attentive as to make a news item. And now again. A coup is being declared and I am not sitting in front of my laptop. So Khun Peter, now back from vacation in Thailand, wrote the coup report.
At that time I attended the cremation of a well-known friend of my parents' family for many years. One of his sons is married to a Thai. In the auditorium of the crematorium I counted three Thai women besides her, dressed in black according to Thai tradition. Black was an exception among the Dutch attendees.
I have attended a few cremations in Thailand. I don't want to say that there was a party atmosphere, but the seriousness and silence of our Dutch funeral services was missing. There was plenty of food and drink and one even had a stage set up for singing and dancing. And that for three days with visits from monks every morning.
I don't know which form of grief - because that's what it is - I prefer. Perhaps to the Thai because it has more rituals and the relatives are not left alone for a second. That must have a comforting effect, I suspect.
Dear Dick, miserable and negative messages all from the Netherlands. Come back to paradise on earth soon, luckily it's much better here.
You see, when the boss is away for a few weeks, you immediately get coups from all kinds of figures.
I think when you get back everything will go back to normal.
Moderator: please don't chat.
The NS never tells you that you can also take the Randstadrail, if there is no transport between The Hague and Rotterdam. You then change at Beurs station to the metro to Spijkenisse and at Vijfsluizen station you take line 56 and you will be on the Liesveld in no time. Would you have saved a lot of money Dick because a taxi is no longer an undivided pleasure in the Netherlands.
@ Han Thanks for the tip. I didn't know that the Randstadrail runs to The Hague CS, otherwise I would have taken a taxi to CS, because I didn't feel like waiting half an hour for HS. Now I know better. My taxi ride was very pleasant, by the way. Had a nice chat with the driver. He now knows who Troelstra was.