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Published: November 12th 2010
Bangkok here we come...at noon our first train departed from a very un-Singapore (Malaysian run) train station to Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia. Arriving in the evening we had 6 hours before our next train so we ate like kings in the station (we demolished a whole roast chicken with mash and gravy) then enjoyed a few drinks in, of course, an Irish bar in the financial district.
Our next train departed at 2230 for our first sleeper train. The beds were arranged like bunk beds, rows of 2 with an aisle running through the middle. We didn’t have much time to adapt to our new surrounds as we had to settle down for the night straight away. Overall quite a comfy way to travel, excluding sleeping with all your baggage and being woken up by people boarding the train at 3am, but we slept none-the-less.
The next morning we arrived before sunrise at Butterworth, Malaysia. With about 7 hours before our final overnight train to Bangkok we set out to explore Georgetown on the Island of Penang. Watching the sunrise over the river we took the ferry (the fare was just 20p) with the locals on their way to work.
In Georgetown we went to visit a temple with a giant statue high up in the hills, half way up what felt like a million stair climb we found a strange pool filled hundreds of turtles of various sizes. Deciding this sight was a good compromise worth the hike, we went back down to shamefully photographed the temple from afar instead.
Georgetown runs a free bus which circles the town and stops again at the harbour, with little else to do we rode it 3 times mainly because it had aircon (and to grab home comfort food…KFC!).
In the afternoon we were surprised to see that our final train was only two carriages in length, one to drive the train and the sleeper carriage. It soon grew though on route, by the time we arrived in Bangkok the train was made up of over 10 carriages. Our new train was a delight, with clean and comfortable bunks, the bottom one is made up from seats and the top stowed away until bedtime. It was a very relaxing way to travel and great to watch the world outside change from Malaysia into Thailand. We did have one hiccup enroute, when
a lorry carrying a container jumped the crossing and our train clipped the back of it. Fortunately the train was not damaged, the container and lorry were knocked clear of the tracks, so we were on our way within the hour. In 48 and a bit hours we had made it to the Thailand capital, Bangkok.
Love, train spotting Jim and Carla
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