It has been a while since my last update on this blog. I was so busy for the last couple of weeks since I was backed from UK with both work and life. So I decided to give myself a break after such a long period of work. For this time, my destination was set to be Bangkok. Yea right, it is Bangkok again. This would be my second visit to the city as I went for the Songkran Festival earlier in April. The reason for this revisit is because that Bangkok is closer to Malaysia, It is a very happening city with never die at night like 7-11. It is also the best place to do year end shopping as lots of sales going on. And last but not least, let's not forget about the wonderful food available in Bangkok. You can eat yourself around the world at Bangkok with lot's of good and reasonable restaurants serving international cuisine, let alone the yummy street food at Bangkok! There are just too many reasons to visit Bangkok really!

For this round, apart from the few points that I highlighted above, I am in real excitement that I will be going on a train to Bangkok from Butterworth. I will be traveling up from Kuala Lumpur to Georgetown, Penang for overnight stay before heading to Butterworth Train station to catch my train to Bangkok. I opted to go by train instead of flight as I rarely travel by train before. So I thought this could be a very good experience for me to go by train as it will definitely helps a lot in my coming China trips which will involve train travel a lot.

A big thank you to my sister and brother in law for spending a wonderful weekend at Georgetown, Penang with me and Elaine. I was really sorry to'em as I was not able to attend their wedding last month as I was on a business trip to UK. So I thought this is a good chance for us to have a time together to travel around Georgetown, a place that both of them wanted to visit for so much but did not get a real chance to do so as not familiar with the roads there. With them, they made our travel to Butterworth a lot easier as they drove us to the station. Thank you!









Upon arrival at the station, we found that there were only 2 or 3 people waiting there for the afternoon train. As train travel in Malaysia is not particularly popular especially for international train travel, I can truly understand that. We waived good bye to Mimi and Anson and seated quietly waiting for the train.



Slowly, people started to gather at the station and to my surprise that there were nearly 30 of them! Not a small group then :). After 2 hours of waiting time, train arrived around 2:10pm. We boarded the coach 3 and managed to find ourselves the seats. We settled down, putting down our big luggage and seated quietly in excitement awaiting for the train to depart.





*Some small tips/information about train ticket between Butterworth and Bangkok:
1. You may get your ticket from Butterworth to Bangkok from KTMB offices. (The one which is easiest to find would be at Kuala Lumpur Sentral station)
2. As for return ticket from Bangkok to Butterworth, you will not be able to get it from KTMB office but will have to go through travel agency at Bangkok to secure a ticket for you. The service that I got my ticket from was offered by Traveller2000 Pte. Ltd. Ticket purchased through them will be delivered for free to your staying hotel in Bangkok.
3. There were 2 different types of seats for this international train. Lower and upper berth. the difference of prices would be RM125 for lower berth whereas RM115 for upper berth. The lower berth is much spacious than the upper one. So be wise not to be stingy with the RM10 which will give yourself a hard night sleep!

Too~~too~~, our train departed from the station at 2:30pm slowly moving northwardly leaving Butterworth behind. My heart was pumping fast in excitement just like a school kid going on a year end vacation trip! As the train moved slowly on the rail track, I can see the changes on terrains becoming flatter and were all covered by rice fields. Yea, the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia where the states of rice of west Malaysia there it is, Kedah and Perlis. Houses were getting lesser and lesser as we moving north, leaving behind with all the paddy fields. Soon, we were speeding between distant hills after Sungai Petani. We was passing by beds of oil palm plantation field and forest after forest of splender trees, in between many the forest there were areas which were clear out for rubber tree plantations (which used to contribute most of the export's revenue for the country).

Soon after 6pm, we arrived at the Malaysia - Thailand border town, Padang Besar. We were told to get off the train to clear the Thai immigration custom. As soon as we get our entry visa granted, we moved back to the train and continue our journey to Bangkok. Sky was getting dark so fast. We bought ourselves dinner boxes right at the exit of the Thai immigration building and took our dinner on board the train.





After dinner, here comes the sleep time =_=". Coach staff was busy setting up beds for passengers. So to make his job easier, we agreed to go to bed early at 8:30pm - Bed Time!









It was a tiring day for me. I quickly fall asleep as the train continue running northward to Bangkok.It was a good night sleep for me although I was woke up a couple of times through the night as the train made a few stops at some of the stations along our way. I woke up 6am in the morning and quickly get myself brush up awaiting for my first sun rise shooting on a train :p.















Soon after we arrived at the station Hua Hin, they were locals coming on board selling breakfast. I got myself a cup of coffee and another box of noodles for 20 Bath for my breakfast. Train continues surging towards Bangkok, I was thinking to myself that it would be best if I can go for a hot water shower as I felt kinda unpleasant after more than 24 hours without bathing.















Phew, our train finally arrived at Bangkok Hua Lomphong station at 11:30am. It was the longest train ride for me! We quickly get off the train and rush ourselves to the nearest LRT station to catch a light rail transit to our hostel at Sukhumvit - Suk 11 Backpacker's hostel. Yes, I can finally go for a hot water bath!



*To think that this could be my longest train travel experience so far, it was totally wrong. It went worse for our return journey, There was a derailment happened some where after Phetchaburi station. Our train was forced to stop for 4 hours at the station waiting for the rescue team to clear the accident scene and reconnect the track. It was not until midnight 11:30pm that we can continue from Phetchaburi southwardly towards Hat Yai. Our train was delayed for a total of 3:30 hours.

We arrived late to Padang Besar at 12:55pm which was 3 hours behind the scheduled 10am. We were forced to transfer to Bus transport to Butterworth then from Padang Besar. The bus was not arrived until 2:15pm and we finally arrived at Butterworth 4:30 pm. which was 3:30 hours behind the scheduled arrival time!

To think that we are safe, the worse is to come. We caught a bus from Butterworth Bus station to Kuala Lumpur at 5:30pm. The normal bus travel time would take 4 hours to KL the longest. But I don't know what is wrong with our driver that night, it took us 5 hours to KL at Pudu station! Thinking back as we boarded the train at Hua Lomphong station at 2:30pm yesterday, we only arrived at KL the next day 10:30pm! It was the longest ride of my life so far! Be it on time or on distance. It was a 3000 km round trips for both of us :p!