Rail Journey

Just like pop stars and music bands, sex workers also go on tour to cities where there is an opportunity for them to sell sex. For instance, news outlets reported that thousands of escorts flew to Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games. Data also showed that the sex industry in the city grew by 30 percent during the Olympics.

According to an article published by the Business Insider, there are six kinds of prostitutes. There are independent escorts, brothel employees, window workers, escort agency employee, bar worker and street worker. All but independent escorts have a distinct place where they “peddle their goods.” This is because these sex workers promote themselves online or globetrot to wherever an opportunity arises. Such kind of escorts are observed on the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Crossing Borders

Believe it or not, there are adult websites that give advice to escorts who plan to cross borders by land through trains. These tips will temporarily cloak your escort vibe and make it appear that you are just an ordinary tourist. For example, the US immigration or border patrol takes into custody people they deem as sex workers. Those who have been toiling the sex industry for more than 10 years are the most at risk of being detained when crossing borders.

According to an adult blog site, sex workers should dress decently and avoid putting on the clothes they used in promoting themselves online. More so, travelling with sex toys or lingerie is a big no no. Sex workers can purchase them after they had crossed over.

Sex Tourism and Human Trafficking

Every time Amsterdam comes into mind, the first thing that you’ll think of is prostitution. Sex tourism in Amsterdam yields $1.1 billion, which is equivalent to five percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of The Netherlands.

Tourists, travelers and backpackers go to the city to visit some museums, have parties and of course, engage in wild sex with prostitutes. But did you know that sex workers also wend their way to Amsterdam for the same reason? Some travel by trains and buses, while high-end escorts fly to the city.

Due to the enormous sex trade in the country, sadly, some girls are coerced into sex work. As a matter of fact, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime listed the country as the primary destination of victims of human trafficking. Like any other industry, the sex trade in the Netherlands also has its grey areas.

The early Nineteenth Century was a time of growth and expansions within Americas great shift to industrialisation. Thousands of new arrivals seeking a better life, along with the entrepreneurial spirit were seeking to obtain their fortunes by investing in the railroads.

At that time in history the promise of opportunity was immense, unlike the overcrowded impoverished climate that existed in Europe, America was seen as a place that a man and his family could grasp a fortune and set a family up for many generations to come.  The opening up of the remaining wildernesses of America – the frontier lands Westward were a place that many of the big businesses of America were born.

As the developing railroads became big business, materials that were needed to develop the railroad helped create several seperate big industries which much of our daily life is dependant on today such as iron, copper, steel, machine tools and oil.

As history has always revealed to itself with all revolutions, with rapid change comes unexpected outcomes. Big business reached greater markets than were ever conceived of before and could benefit from the ability to raise vast amounts of capital that made possible the cost economies of large-scale production” (Chalmers).

This in turn resulted in certain individuals owning businesses thats influences could manipulate the market place and effect policies on Capital Hill Washington. The two words Monopoly and Scandal have always played a part in what big business can get up too when unchecked. Many Scandals can occur when industries are left unregulated, even to this day we experience big business doing the wrong thing such as the vw scandal which Volkswagen has recently been caught out on, in a very public display of corporate immorality that requires compensation lawyers to help the owners of VW cars receive justice.

Due to the cause and effect that came from the owners of the railroads gaining such monopoly powers the first cases of antitrust regulation occurred around the late 1870s. The government controls several aspects of private business because it is well understood that when business is left unchecked and able to go about its own way with any monitoring it does not always benefit the citizens within the society that that business exists within.

The South Penn Railroad is often called the railroad that never was. The idea was to build a railway from Philadelphia on the east coast to the industrial city of Pittsburgh. The proposed route of the railway was to be through some of the most difficult mountain terrain on the east coast. The railway turned out to be a financial bust. However some of the proposed route has been retain and converted into tourist trails.

I travelled through the area on a holiday with my personal trainer wife. Being married to a personal trainer can be a bit tiresome at times, we can never go on a holiday without my wife wanting to do some form of exercise. So we went to the South Penn Railroad area, as the tourist guides said there was a good combination of outdoor activities, scenery and accommodation.

There are several mountain bike tour companies operating in the area. We hired the bikes, helmets and all the other gear for a day’s riding; all the equipment was newish and in excellent condition. The tour used a combined of downhill bike trails with a train ride to the top of the mountain. There are other rides that follow the original route of the railway, the tracks have been removed. The route was planned for a railway and so the gradient is quite mild for those who are not gung-ho bike riders. There was even some snow in the area, which made the scenery even more spectacular.

We also took the opportunity to hike along a section to the proposed route that proved too difficult to complete. There were many interesting construction sites with bridges half built and tunnels half dug. We camped out overnight and sleep in a partially completed tunnel, the tunnel only went back about four to five meters, but it was cosy especially with a couple of overnight snow showers. We went in winter and so there was no-one else around and we had the camp site to ourselves, however we were told that the campsite could get a little crowed in summer.

There are also other outdoor activities, such as horse riding and rock climbing. The accommodation in the area is a little upmarket, which suited us, however the budget traveller might need to look a little harder for economically priced accommodation.      

Frontier towns in the Wild West were magnets for itinerant travellers seeking their fortune. Some were prostitutes, some were gold prospectors, some were fortune hunters, and there were, even, fortune tellers making their way to these portals of opportunity. People were on the make, taking risks with their investments and hoping that the very newness of these places would allow them to get a foot hold up the ladder to wealth and success. Some succeeded, but the majority failed, and either returned from whence they had come, or stayed, and made the best of a bad lot. You can imagine that with the wheel of fortune spinning so loudly in every one’s ears that the teller of fortunes would find a prominent niche in the market.

Superstition was alive and well in the old days and many would travel by rail from town to town earning quite a good itinerant living – they were there next to the snake-oil salesmen plying their trade and often finding a few ways to earn an extra dollar or two after dark. By dint of the cards, a crystal bowl, reading palms and all the other modes of prophesy, these men and women would curry favour with the locals and those passing through building relationships with promises of second sight and a sixth sense. Hope would be so entrenched in the minds and hearts of these folk, taking their chances in the Wild West, that a few choice words about bright prospects in the near future could earn the teller a shekel or two.

Casting a horoscope for a dreamer, psychic readings and seeing visions for important personages, all in a day when there were not the entertaining distractions of television or radio, would have been a popular past time. Drinking in the saloon and conversations might turn to the palmist promising a glimpse of your future. Wandering gypsies and Chinese fortune tellers were also traversing these towns. Desire for fortune was so strong that the gullible were thick on the ground. Optimistic messages from the beyond would be an ally to those risking life and limb in the pursuit of untold wealth. Fortune tellers in the Wild West had a captive market who ate up the lies and fanciful predictions.

The thing about the wheel of fortune, as it turns, some are raised up and others are cast down, but it just keeps turning just the same. Fate and destiny are determined by the spin of the wheel and whose hand is upon this spoked circle?

“She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes, she’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes”, well, this song, the modern version of it anyway, is about a train. You can imagine the excitement building in small towns and hamlets, as trains full of new things and people made their way around the mountain to your home. The 19^th century train driver was an important personage with a lot of responsibility and status to go with it. It was his train coming around that mountain, bearing goods and passengers, which, just might, positively impact that town.

Train drivers (engineers in American parlance) were responsible for checking the rail worthiness of all the carriages and the mechanical operation of the train. The train engineer had his brakeman and conductor to assist him on the journey, as they made their way ‘round that mountain. Occasionally, some drivers would stop their trains to pick up contraband and be paid by smugglers and black market operators as well as having their carriages cleaned by the local spotless cleaning company. Much like this kind of stuff continues to this day, with transnational bus drivers and twenty first century train drivers. Although GPS tracking is now making unscheduled stops far more dangerous for nefarious drivers of all modes of transportation.

What about the land equivalent for the sailor with a girl in every port? The confessions of the 19^th century train driver did include the odd interlude with a lady of the night. A vacant carriage and with the support of the assistant driver that rolling stock could really rock ‘n roll. Trains are particularly suited to rhythmic activities and the chug chug of those grinding wheels just keep on and on. Lots of girls love a uniform with shiny buttons and the attentions of an important man. “She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes”, you know the rest of the song.

Train engineers in the nineteenth century also faced the dangers of bandits and train robbers, as they often carried the wages and valuables of companies across the land. These trains were the life blood of commerce and industry all over America, distributing the wealth. Criminal gangs would target these gold laden trains, as they made their steady way from east to west and north to south. The engine driver and his underlings would need to be ever vigilant, armed and on the lookout for signs of impending danger. It was a time of life and death in the frontier towns.

Some people get excited when they hop aboard a blowing billy, a real choo choo train, and embark upon a journey by rail. Whether it be the grind and roll of those metallic wheels on a track, or the cultural association of train travel down through modern history, there is a frission in the air for these train buffs. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie comes quickly to mind and I also think of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina departing tear stained by train in Russia. The heaving metallic beast, smoke emerging from its chimney, contrasting the white snow of a Moscow winter; somehow makes train travel romantic.

What are some of the best rail trips on planet earth: marketing the rail road adventure? The Orient Express sadly ceased to operate in two thousand and nine; best to get the bad news out of the way early I thought. Product development in this niche tourism market has expanded rapidly and some of the offerings are incredible. The Bergen Line in Norway is so breath taking, passing glaciers, fjords and peaks from Oslo to Bergen, that the train employs five different breaking systems. Alternatively, the Bernina Express is the slowest scary train ride you will ever take, crossing over one hundred and ninety six bridges over chasms and plunging down mountains, and boring through fifty five tunnels, and climbs two thousand two hundred and fifty three metres over the Albula Pass to St Moritz.

In Australia, the Ghan, named after the Afghan camel trains which used to transports goods and messages between Adelaide and Darwin, travels one thousand eight hundred and fifty two miles through the middle of this vast continent. In South America, in Peru, the Cuzco to Manchu Picchu train journeys fifty miles through spectacular scenery through the Andes Mountains. In the US the Coast Starlight, a double decker train, goes from Seattle to Los Angeles, and it is a grand rail experience with fine dining amid breath taking views of this dramatic scenery.

In India, the Siliguri to Darjeeling steam train chugs its way with antique charm up to the hill station and offers amazing views of the Himalayas and teak forests and gardens. One, generally, does not think of parts of Britain being wild, but Glasgow to Maillaig in Scotland by train will change your mind. The Rannoch moor is so inhospitable that no road crosses it, and there are castle ruins, and mountains and Loch Lomond; dramatic vistas abound.