As an insatiable traveler and prolific writer, Paul Theroux is accustomed to trains and buses.

Earlier this month, he had a more memorable and luxurious experience during a gala dinner in Thailand, where Southeast Asian writers received awards at the Mandarin Oriental, a storied, five-star hotel in Bangkok. The elegant retreat has figured in stories by Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad and James Michener.

Usually, the author said, "Travel is about bad experiences and about difficulty and about finding out about yourself."

But this especially colorful gathering, he added, was "one of the great nights of my life in terms of feeling that I was in another world."

Tonight, Mr. Theroux appears at 7:30 in Oakland's Carnegie Music Hall at the Drue Heinz Lecture Series.

Mr. Theroux served as the keynote speaker during the literary recognition dinner and sat next to the crown prince, Maha Vajiralongkorn, a 50-ish fellow and the man who will be king.

The writer, who lived in Sing­apore for several years, said it's unusual for authors from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to be honored with dinner and a royal welcome.

"They had a small orchestra and they were playing show tunes," Mr. Theroux said. "They played the Thai national anthem about five times, every time the king stood up. It's almost like a waltz, the national anthem. It's romantic."

At 68, Mr. Theroux remains road ready. He is self-supporting, can do lots of push-ups, paddle a kayak and does not take a lot of pills.

"In my heart, I'm 35," he said.

He is intimately familiar with exotic places. His book, "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star," now out in paperback, is a retracing of a journey he took 33 years ago to write "The Great Railway Bazaar."

Previously, he had journeyed from London to Istanbul, then on to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. But the map of the world has changed.

"This time, I couldn't get an Iranian visa. There's a war in Afghanistan. Travelers are kidnapped and beheaded. I had to take a different route," he said.

After Turkey, he headed north to Georgia, then visited what he called "the stans" -- Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The next stop was India, a great railway country, he said.

After reaching southern India, he went on to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Japan and then returned on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The saddest sight was Burma.

"Nothing has changed in 33 years. It is just a skeletal, weird, backward country. The infrastructure is terrible, and the people absolutely hate the government."

The Burmese generals who make up the junta that runs the country, now called Myanmar, have complete contempt for the people, he said.

Theroux witnessed the most dramatic change in Vietnam, which he had last seen in 1973 when the war was still on, but most U.S. troops had been withdrawn.

"The difference between war and peace is almost unbelievable," he said. "You think that it's not possible for a place to rebuild, prosper and forgive. But the Vietnamese have done that. They have no grudge against us at all. We killed at least 1 million people and bombed their cities into dust."

He was struck by the Vietnamese people's graciousness. When he said he was from the United States, he often heard the reply, "Oh, welcome. Come in and have some noodles."

"There's something about the politeness, the welcome, the courtesy, the thank-yous, the hellos, the decencies of life. They haven't lost it. They're not all coarsened by the fact that they have become successful."

It's amazing, he said.

"We dropped 7 million tons of bombs and 20 million gallons of defoliant. They still have cancer from Agent Orange. What if that had happened in the Pittsburgh area?"

The Vietnamese, he said, are respectful of visitors.

"They have a lot to teach us from the human perspective about forgiveness and letting go. You don't hold on to the horrors of war."

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