The Lunatic Express

No, this post is not about Daily Kos. There's a railway in Kenya that has the nickname. It runs from Mombasa into Uganda, and it sounds like quite a picturesque ride.

The silverware in the restaurant carriage has definitely seen better days.

And where once besuited British colonial administrators occupied the elegant, leather-furnished cabins, now backpackers in cut-offs lounge in style.

Yet more than a century after its inception, one of Africa's most famous train rides — the "Lunatic Express" - still retains many of the characteristics of its early days.

Waiters in starched white jackets serve four-course evening meals on pristine tablecloths to first-class passengers as the train chugs painfully slowly through the darkness between the Kenyan coast and highlands.

A quaint four-chime gong is rung outside sleeping compartments when it's time for breakfast, leaving passengers to marvel at giraffes and impalas as they tuck into bacon and eggs and watch the sun rise over the plains.

It's a really fun read having nothing to do with politics, go take a look.