The Jungle Train

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We climbed aboard the 10am local bus from Kuala Tahan back to Jerantut, and headed directly towards the train station, we were unsure of our destination, as we couldn’t decide whether to stop off at Kuala Lipis or Gua Mustang, we would leave that up-to fate, or realistically the Malaysian rail service. The train stopped at both stations, after conducting some preliminary research - I.e. consulted our Rough Guide, we decided on Gua Mustang, primarily because of the early morning local train that departs from here, this is the ‘proper’ jungle train which takes 6 hours and stops everywhere!

Whilst waiting for a train, we enjoyed a stunning curry each with rice for next to nothing, the bill come to RM 12 (about 2 pounds 30 pence) in total for a chicken and a beef curry with rice and a hearty portion too!, also a cup of tea and an orange soft drink. This is one thing the Malays have got right, decent cheap food at train stations rather that the expensive crap you get at UK train stations!

The train we boarded was an express train from Singapore to Tumpat up towards the Thai border, we opted for the cheaper economy class at RM10 each, our sit had the worst view of the passing jungle; also the fact that it was air-conditioned meant that you couldn’t open the windows! I (T) headed off towards the restaurant car, now this is a disagreement between G and I (T), G prefers to sit in the comfortable allotted seat whereas I (T) has a nostalgic, somewhat romanticised notion of the restaurant carriage, going along the lines of an old saying that trains are for a journey! And this one in particular had the windows completely open so I (T) sat there watching the world go by drinking a cup of tea.

We arrived at Gua Mustang around mid-afternoon and wondered along its main drag, looking for somewhere to stay, we went to the cheapest establishment listed in our guidebook called Evergreen Hotel! It was a shitty little place and ironically the most expensive lodgings so far in Malaysia, as we were going to be leaving at 6:30am and we had less than 12 hours there so we just stumped up the RM 40 roughly 8 pounds of the Queens English and checked in.

We ventured out to explore Gua Mustang and instantly caused stares but all friendly with massive smiles, ten minutes later Gua Mustang was explored, so we hit the town’s internet café at 17:45hrs to occupy ourselves for what we hoped an hour or so to be told at 18:00hrs that it was closing!!! So we were back on the ‘main drag’ again, when “what’s that says T” pointing to the Chinese restaurant called the GM Food Garden , ”there is a Royal Stout advertisement on the wall” - “but you don’t like that” says G and quite rightly so, its bloody awful stuff - 8% stout, but I suspected other brands in stock, so after three very dry days we venture in and yes they sold large bottles of Carlsberg, now I (T) know that no self respecting beer drinker admits to consuming Carlsberg, but this is not the crap you buy in the UK, its 5% stuff of a reasonable standard, so we had a few bottles before eating some dinner and retiring for the evening.

It was 6:30am and we were sitting with our packs in the dark, on the platform awaiting our train, there was a hive of activity buzzing about, but worryingly the ticket office was closed. Our train was then reversed into the station - it looked a tip! Finally the ticket office opened and T was in the front of the queue, on asking for two tickets to Wakaf Bharu, the ticket dude responded: “you on the slow train?” yes I (T) replied, probably a little too enthusiastically, to which he responded “you like the jungle train then friend!” and with a big smile on my (T’s) face we paid the RM7.20 each and ran on to choose our preferred seats.

On board the train was every bit the tip it looked from outside, broken windows that hang down, broken chairs that remained in the reclining position and rusted doors. The inside was covered in cobwebs and some baby cockroaches running about the place. It was brilliant, just what I (T) wanted, G on sight of spiders hanging precariously above her, and the baby cockroaches that scurried across her foot had other opinions! But it was rustic, we had branches coming through the windows as we travelled through overgrown tracks, we stopped at all the tiny stations, hamlets and villages unknown to us or at least unpronounceable that is serviced once or twice daily by this train, we sat and watched the locals bringing on their groceries to take to or from the market, although I (T) was slightly disappointed that there was no livestock onboard. The passengers where a proper mix, firstly, there was us, the only two foreigners on board, the traditionally dressed older generation and there was the cooler younger generation, who hung out of the passenger doors kicking the plants and branches as we passed - it was brilliant, much more interesting that the hermetically sealed, air-conditioned express trains which speed through!

Four and a half hours later and the novelty had worn off and we still had another hour and a half left! We finally pulled into Wakaf Bharu roughly 7km outside of Kota Bharu - our chosen destination; we walked to the bus stop about a 10 minute stroll away from the station and boarded the number 19 bus for RM1.50 each rather than the RM15 taxi fare and headed to our next stop Kota Bharu.

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