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Published: October 29th 2007
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Our journey to Kuala Lumpur began omminously as before we'd even made it out of Singapore and into Malaysia, our train pulled into the small border town of Johur Bharu where all passengers were asked to step off the train and pass through a passport and visa checkpoint. This should have been a formality but on opening Trung's passport, the woman in charge at the desk couldnt find his exit visa from the country so he was taken into a side room for some questioning to explain the missing form.
I was sure this was all just red tape but while I waited, the numbers of folks passing through the queues from our train reduced to a concluding trickle of elderly folk and within 5 minutes, I was sat in this empty hall waiting for Trung to emerge from his interrogation and (for all I knew) rubber-gloves session. I was really hoping I wouldnt see the train start pulling away from the platform as our bags were still on board and I also didnt want to have to make a 'Trung versus Luggage' decision. Thankfully, Trung appeared and we legged it down the hall, over the platform and onto the awaiting Express train to KL.
The rest of the 7hr train ride went fine, although the final 3hrs after Gemas were a drag as we knew we'd have to rewind back down these same miles of tracks to get to Kota Bharu after our time in Kuala Lumper. On arriving in the Malaysian capital, we were treated to a great evening taxi ride through the city towards our nice hotel, The Citrus, which we'd prebooked from Sleepy Sam's before leaving Singapore. It was great to see KL's mosques, grand buildings and leafy avenues bordered by fairy lights but the real treat was the view of The Petronas Twin Towers which looked imposingly spectacular and shining brilliantly through the dark night sky.
Trung had already visited KL this year and so could have quite happily bypassed the city and I had no real urge to visit as I simply didnt feel drawn to it plus I preferred the prospect of taking the train through Malaysia to Kota Bharu instead; however, when our plans were shifted by the mass of people demanding trains back from the festival of Eid in Singapore, we were happy enought to visit KL to kill
some time and me especially as I'd never been there before.
We had a decent few days in this emerging and vibrant city and found it had similar facets to Singapore in that both cities have buzzing city centres and are escalating and strengthening economies in SE Asia. In saying that, Singapore's impressive wealth and vitality is unmistakingly 'old money', evident from the number of grand collonial buildings (like the famous old
Raffle's Hotel) that grace the CBD alongside tall skyscrapers of the usual financial institutions and corporations, whereas KL appears to still be in the middle of revamping and reinventing itself, working from the centre of town and then outwards.
We had a lot of fun in the city's massive Times Square shopping plaza, a behemoth of a building at least 10-storeys tall and shops selling everything from breast implants to billiard tables. It also had an I-Max theatre, which we visited to pass another rainy afternoon in wet South East Asia. Since we arrived, it's been all rain and very little sun so we got around most places by using the cities very cool monorail that futuristically zips between the districts and 'scrapers. The other thing
we still have here in KL is suffocating humidity. It's not all doom and gloom though as the food is absolutely amazing and every meal we have had has been awesome - Shazzie, you'd love the food here. My chop-stick technique is improving by the mouthfull and the next dish-skill to be honed with the wood is noodles - to be commenced tomorrow evening!
With our English neighbours playing both Rugby and Football internationals on the one night, their viewing pleasures took precedence in the Irish pub we'd banked on showing the crucial Scotland v Ukraine qualifier - so much for the good old Celtic connection. So we sat there with our pints a bit miffed at not only missing what Alex McLeish hailed Scotland's 'Best hampden win'; not only that, but we had to watch England play against, my god, I can't even remember who it was, it was such a bland fixture. When the Scotland goal flashes came up at the foot of the screen, it made the not-knowing a little easier but even still, the anxiety was unbearable! Watching England play on telly while Scotland are on the other channel, on the brink of qualifying for
a football tournament for the first time since I still wore a school uniform... I wouldnt wish that on anyone... Alas: Scotland 3 - Ukraine 1... wonderful ; )
We arrived at Kuala Lumpur central train station in time to settle into our couchette aboard the 'Jungle Line' night train, an epic 14hr journey from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bahru on the South East coast of Malaysia. I was disappopinted to miss this train from Singapore during the day but once we reasoned that we would pass the exceptional jungle scenery early the next morning, we were happy to miss the previous 10 (trying to) sleep.
This sleeping-side of things didnt come easy, at least not for me. It wasnt because we were sharing our carriage with 38 other men, woman and children (at times crowded into the same bunk as each other) or the position our bunks were, right next to the constantly opening and closing doors between the cars. It was more to do with the fact that the 3rd class train's couchettes were about half a foot too small to accommodate a 6ft+ Scotsman. I felt like I was sleeping on a matress with the
dimensions of
The Beano comic and the train clattered over the tracks so much, that it was like sleeping in a shopping trolley while being pushed down a flight of stairs. In saying that, our experiences from night-training around Europe on past journeys together afforded us a few hours broken sleep and on awakening at 6am after being tossed against my window for a final time by the train, I decided to stay awake and take in as much of the jungle scenery as I could.
It was worth staying up for and after peering through my small portal while lying in the cochette for a while, I decided to get up and take in the journey by hanging out of the doors of the train between the carriages, with a technique I'd learned from a kamikazee kid in a Man United top on the way to Kuala Lumpur. The scenery of the last few hours through the mountains was a real priviledge to see, with the misty mountains through which the train cut being topped with rain-forest and passing over rickety wooden bridges and through tiny small rural villages and towns.
When we arrived in Khota Bharu,
we bartered a taxi and headed to a hotel to drop our bags. From there, we dropped by the Thai Consulate General to sort out our travel visas to enter Thailand. Unfortunately, with Eid being on, we were unwittingly affected again and the office was closed up for the next two days. Bad news, but one way or another, we were leaving for Thailand's border (now only a mere 10 miles away) the very next morning...
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