So I'm on this train. I have an upper berth because that was what was available. It has a bit of extra privacy because it's higher up than most Thais (and there's a curtain). It also has a "real" bed, whereas the lower bunk is just coverted from two seats into a bed and looks to have a bend in the middle. My back doesn't need that.
What it doesn't have, is a window. This sucks: I'd hoped for some view of the Thai scenery, and I'm not going to get it. Not so bad, the train is due at 9:00 am so that's not that much daylight. But I like the idea.
It feels a bit clandestine. I'm in my little cloister, no window, the inside curtain is drawn; two leather straps run from the ceiling grab-bar down to the bed, to keep me "upstairs" should the train pitch violently (or the Sleeper). It is encouraging. A little. It feels clandestine because while others jaw on their cell-phones, as meals go back and forth from the dining car and people to and from the toilet just in the next car, I'm here typing away at my "secret" report. Thinking of every bad James Bond movie I've ever seen. I don't expect to meet and seduce the beautiful girl (she's coming by plane at the end of the month), and I'm barefoot and in shorts, hardly the dashing hero. I've never made love on a train. It's probably time. Not getting any younger...
Crouched at this PC, a Scott-PC-train-berth sandwich. Quietly typing secret messages; secret until unleashed on a small world, the Internet.