IDNO

N.12786.EVN

Description

Scene on a railway platform. European men and women on a railway platform with coolies. Baggage as well as wicker baskets with goods can be seen on the ground. [SG 23/10/2008]

Place

SE Asia; Thailand [Siam]

Cultural Affliation

European; Thai

Named Person

Photographer

Evans, Ivor Hugh Norman

Collector / Expedition

Evans, Ivor Hugh Norman

Date

?1935

Collection Name

Evans Collection

Source

Evans, Ivor Hugh Norman

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The negative was found in the wallet now numbered C252/5/ which was found inside the wooden box now marked as C252/.

Place: In The Years Behind Me, Evans provided many descriptions of his various railway travels. This image may relate to his travels in 1935, which took him to Bangkok and Chiengmai. Evans recounted: “I have still to say something about my travels by railway in Siam. When I first went to Bangkok the through line from Malaya had only just been opened, and as trains did not run at night, the journey took the better oarts of four days, with early starts after each of the three nights spent on the way. [...] I had, and all in favour of the Siamese line. On the F.M.S. line the running was so noisy that one had to shout to make oneself heard, the crockery was coarse, the food poor- the usual tiffin was tomato soup from a can, a piece of fried fish (species strictly unknown), a piece of sweaty-looking and scrawny, cold chicken with a slice of indifferent ham, half a canned peach over which somebody had apparently been sick (it was called custard) cheese, coffee, and I rather believe that there was a little dried up chop with some canned green peas of the buckshot variety.
I found the Siamese Mail train comfortable and modern. It ran smoothly, and one could converse in a normal tone, the crockery not all of the work-house variety, the food good and well cooked, the Siamese servants well trained and attentive. So that was that” (pp. 490-1) [SG 23/10/2008].

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Sudeshna Guha 23/10/2008]