All Aboard the Langkawi Express

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Our last day in Langkawi was car-free so we took it nice and easy for the day with a whole lot of doing not very much at all! We had a long lie-in and when we did finally emerge from our comfy bed, the skies were looking a bit gloomy. We took this as a sign to continue chilling out for the day and it wasn't until dusk that we finally donned a pair of shoes to take our evening stroll along the beach. Much of the debris had been cleared, jellyfish included, and we enjoyed the sensation of feeling the sand between our toes one last time. As we walked, we saw countless crabs scurrying in all directions and honestly I thought we would tread on one at any moment - thankfully all crabs lived to tell the tale!

The next day was travel day again and we decided to travel back to Kuala Lumpur by train. The atmosphere at the hostel was a bit grim before we left as Zack, the owner, had had a bad run-in with a jigsaw and nearly severed his thumb - eek! He refused to get medical attention and just sloped around being grumpy at everyone so we were grateful when his wife offered to drive us to the harbour instead of him.

We had plenty of time to kill before our train so took the opportunity to explore some of the area surrounding the ferry terminal. At one side of the port there's a massive statue of an eagle, which is the symbol of Langkawi because there are many eagles to be seen soaring the skies here. We lumbered around the statue in the midday sun carrying our big packs for a while but when the heat got too much for us, we made a quick exit and went for a bite to eat at the air-conditioned KFC (don't worry, I'm still a veggie!).

We caught the ferry at 1pm and arrived in Kulah Kedah almost 2 hours later after a very dull boatride indeed. We hopped in a taxi and arrived at the railway station just 3.5 hours early for our train. Now, we're usually more than happy to get to places early just incase we have to change our plans for some reason (remember the derailed train in Chiang Mai?) but this time was a bit different: Alor Setar station is tiny - so tiny in fact that it reminded us of Wymondham train station! There was hardly anyone around but at least there were some seats on the platform for us so while I guarded the luggage, Glynn ventured off in search of food and drink as there was nothing available at the station and for the first time ever, we hadn't brought anything with us - typical!

We finally got to board the train a little late at just gone 7pm and settled quickly into our comfy lower bunks. The train had an eerie feeling to it as there were very few passengers aboard. In fact we had our carriage almost entirely to ourselves with the exception of a friendly Malay-Chinese man, Lum, and his wife. We chatted with Lum for a good hour and learnt loads about Malay culture and society as well as his take of all things Chinese. It was fascinating to hear his views on China as he is Malay born to Chinese parents and only got to visit China once at the height of Chairman Mao's reign. He wasn't complimentary!

With only a bit of junk food to sustain us for the 12 hour trip, we decided to give the buffet car a go and were surprised by the price and quality of the food. It was weird on the way down going through 6 other carriages and finding them virtually devoid of life - it was like we were on some kind of ghost train. The journey to Kuala Lumpur was comfortable (we were in second class sleepers again, identical to the train in Thailand) and uneventful although neither of us managed to get much sleep.

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur was nice as we already knew our way around and knew that a cool, comfortable room would be waiting for us at the Trekker Lodge when we got there (and it was!). It really felt like coming home and we had barely dumped our bags before collapsing exhausted on the bed and falling fast asleep Zzzzzzzzzz

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