Amazing Train Journeys

Beginning of the journey in Ho Chi Minh Ville or Saigon: great traffic of scooters (about 6 millions of scooters), A short look at the old French buildings: Notre Dame de Saigon, the Town Hall, the Post Office, the Opera.Now Philippe goes to the railway station: he sees how people send their scooters to another station.Meeting with a woman and talk about the smile (the best thing that we can give to other persons).Another encounter: two Buddhist nuns.Arrival at Da Nang.Philippe meet at Mi-Son Mr. Tien who shows him this religious center of the Chams (a civilization from the second to 15 the century).Then Philippe goes fishing with a young man in his round basket.Philippe takes the train to Hué: women who sell products to the passengers are travelling on the roofs of the wagons.At Hué visit of the Imperial City (palaces, mausoleums, tombs).Then Philippe meets Chung t, the Buddhist nun, they prepare food and have a nice talk about peace and smiling.Then train to Hanoi: a short moment with a young woman who lives very near of the railway tracks.Then Philip goes to the Old Hanoi (32 specialized streets).He meets a woman who speaks French and is buying gifts for her ancestors (banknotes, gold bars, cell phones, houses, cars) and later they burn all these gifts n a metal box on the street.

Beginning of the journey in Guane: from there starts the first railway line build in America (1837) for the transport of sugar cane.Philippe takes the train to Los Palacios: pleasant atmosphere in the train, the passengers are smiling.Philippe asks why they travel by train and they answer it's more secure than by bus.Near Los Palacios Philippe meets sugar cane cutters: a quite hard job under the burning sun (for about 40 dollars a month).Then Philippe is in La Havana: he meets a family living in an old palace: the government give them rooms in this old building.Later Philippe goes to a mechanical workshop where the mechanic explains him how they give maintenance to the old American cars using auto parts of Toyota, Fiat or Mercedes Benz for example.In a place Philippe sees how young boys are playing baseball.Then Philippe will take the train from La Havana to Trinidad.The wagons are coming from France (former TEE Paris-Amsterdam).In the train Philippe eats fried bananas and plays cards with the passengers. In Trinidad Philippe meets a santeria priest who makes offerings to the sea and healing persons.And last travel to Santiago de Cuba: a town full of music; in "La casa de las tradiciones" Philippe listens to music (oriental son) and is also dancing with the women of this place.

Beginning of the journey in Mumbai (Bombay): India has a net of 64.000 kilometers of railways.We are in Victoria Station, the main railway station of Mumbai where about 7 millions of passengers are passing every day.Philippe visits the neighborhood of clothes washers: about 700 families doing this economical activities.Then Philippe takes the train to Cochin; there he meets fishermen using great traps to catch fishes (plaice fishing).Then he goes to the neighborhood of the spices and visits a school of the kalaripayattu martial: the master explains him the philosophy of this old Indian martial and asks Philippe to attack him with a knife: the master takes off the knife in a second.Then travel to Alleppey and the Backwaters: a net of about 2.000 kilometers of canals.Between the canals the people practice agriculture and grow animals.Later Philippe share a moment with a family whose members are fishing by hands in a lagoon of the Backwaters.Today there is an Elephant festival in the town of Trichur.The owners of the elephants are cleaning and brushing their animals before the great parade.Then two teams of elephants will fight for the prize of the best team.

Beginning of the journey in Lima: there are only two trains a month leaving Lima for the Andes: the train of the clouds climbs the slopes of the Andes: Philippe has a nice talk with the train driver (every travel is a new experience for him).Then the train climbs making zig-zag (like in Ecuador): train arrives at 4.800 meters about the sea level:a nurse in the train provides oxygen to the people who feel weak.An Peruvian woman gives Philippe coca leaves to chew to avoid altitude sickness.In Huacavelica Philippe takes a minibus to visit a chopcca community: the end of the scholar year, traditional dance of the scissors, talks about the resistance of this community against Sendero Luminoso.Arrival at Cuzco (3.400 meters above sea level), the center of the Inca empire: in many places there walls made with stones.Ricardo the architect explains Philippe that the stones were perfectly cut to get together in the wall.Later they visit an Inca fortress whose stones have a weight of 80 metric tons.In town Philippe meets a group of women cooking guinea pigs and he tastes this meat (delicious).Philippe takes the luxury train to Machu Picchu (he is alone in the train) and stop at Ollantaytambo, its day of the presidential election, he travel with a family on a pick-u and then walked for one hour to reach their village: these farmers are very careful with the earth which gives them the daily food, besides they help one another with their neighbors.And last stop, Macchu Picchu with David, a fan of this place: a very beautiful landscapes and some mysteries about the history of this magic place.

The travel begins in Dehli: just in the railways station there is a praying place near the rails.Then Philippe takes the train to Agra: What is the most famous monument in Agra ? The Tal Mahal, Philippe tells shortly the story of this monument dedicated to the spouse of a Mogol emperor.Not far from the Taj Mahal Philippe finds a Sikh temple which is open to every person who needs to pray to God.Besides this temple offers a meal to all the people who came for praying.Then another travel by to Gwalior: the Fortress, the Residence of the Maharaja and the statues under the fortress.There Philippe meets a Jain monk who explains him the Jain philosophy.In Gwalior the last Maharadja constructed a a narrow gauge train which has been working for 100 years.Philippe takes this train, once inside the wagon then the second time on the roof of the wagons.And the last travel is from Gwalior to Varanasi , a very important town for the Hindouists who come here to make their ablutions and so take away theirs sins. A young priest explains Philippe his life and his relationship with the Ganges River.