.. and still rolling along, in luxury of course…

After Kanchanaburi, Nicolas Pillet had left the train, to be driven back to the headquarters of the Eastern&Oriental in Bangkok.  After an interesting night’s sleep – best described as emulating baby-time when a great aunt who had no sense of rhythm rocked the cradle, back and forth and sometimes forward with a hard jerk – the gal woke up in State room D4 of this luxury train. My steward was knocking on the door with breakfast, always served in-room. This is room service with style. Today’s no-choice menu was a whole banana, an open bowl of cereal, two warm and tasty croissants and a semi-sweet roll (another day I had cantaloupe bits in a flute glass, and open aloe voghurt). I had opted for coffee, which comes in a shapely silver pot that I somehow want to call Queen Anne. Butter has its own little silver dish, and lid.  The jams are French…

As, coincidentally or not, are the other two managers who are still onboard.  Valentin Waldman is the omnipresent manager in a suit. Yannis Martineau is the gregarious chef, in crisp whites.  There are four women among the 55-strong crew, Guest Relations, the Boutique manager and two at the bar, where I could order an E&O Cocktail, gin, maraschino, lychee and pineapple juices, fresh lime, green apple syrup (the list also includes Johnnie Walker Black Label, The Macallan, Hennessy XO, and glass of Concha y Toro’s 2012 Sauvignon Blanc or Merlot. There is also Dom Pérignon, at $560 a bottle – one might stick with a glass of vino for $10.  All alcohol and boutique purchases, by the way, will be discreetly settled on the final night, and American Express is accepted.

We are called through to lunch. There are two seatings, 11.30 or one, and the sensible majority goes early. Chan, the outstandingly computer-like and charming Maitre d’, makes sure that everyone is handed a reservation card for the next meal – he is generally brilliant at matching people with people, although I still have to find out why I was put next to a 20-year old Swiss woman with limited English who, when she graduated, with French majors, had the main interest of having lots of babies.  Today I am in Adisorn, one of three exquisitely wood-embellished dining cars, all with crisp linens, tall-stemmed cut crystal and floral-edged local china, and French (Peugeot) salt and pepper mills. Lunch is three courses, including a labour-intensive dessert.

I can see the chef standing in the corridor minutely inspecting, and ‘passing’, every dish as it is carried out of the galley, and boy do they work hard in there.  Where is the storage space?  How on earth do they produce, and store, the bite-sized afternoon tea items?  This is once again served in your apartment (sounds better than ‘room’).  My velour pouffe is covered with devices, plus cords for MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone – the two sockets below a small folding table, between my two windows, are both US outlets.  My afternoon tea tray is therefore placed on my bed, now in its day-form as fitted sofa.  Some people presumably eat all this.  Few seem to be going out of their way to take exercise…

But you can keep fit. At some times the rear Observation Car is, apart from the two omnipresent Security, deserted and you can use the Car’s bronze rails for ballet exercises.  I have taken onboard the two empty 50cl Highland Spring water bottles I now always travel with. Filled up with water from my ensuite’s bathroom, I can use them as weights.  For morning floor exercises, down on my hand-tufted Thai carpet, I find that by hoisting the easy-chair and the velour pouffe up on to the bed-sofa, I can just do necessary horizontal stretches without sustaining bruises.  As two large bruises, one on each lower arm, testify, the same cannot be said,  for walking the 22 carriages end to end.  Tip for those of you lucky enough to be taking future trips on the Eastern&Oriental, take a long-sleeved top, first to combat onboard air conditioning and, equally importantly, for walking the narrow corridors when being bounced from side to side like a yo-yo.

It is time to change for dinner. There is room for me, but not a sumo, in the shower, which produces instant hot water (toiletries are Bulgari, green-top, and thick white towels are embroidered with the E&O logo). Right, I am ready, for dinner in this luxury hotel-on-wheels. Valentin, as always, wears black tie. A Japanese couple wear kimonos. The St Martin’s fashion graduate who is now working back home in Milan is chic as ever. The set menu tonight starts with an amuse, then foie gras terrine with a curved tuile, a plain salad instead of a Thai soup, New Zealand lamb rack, and a frozen coconut mousse. I have a glass of Gevrey-Chambertain 2008.  And then it is, once again, bed, for another rock-a-bye-adult/baby sleep.