Getting a bus to Kuala Lumpur to connect with a train to Bangkok was easy. The taxi dropped me at the door of the bus company’s office and I had to wait only an hour for a bus. Five hours later I was delivered to KL’s Sentral train station. Although everyone wanted me to take a plane, I finally convinced the porter who was trundling my bags about on a trolley to show me to the train ticket office.
Only a second-class sleeper was available on the train to Butterworth that night, so I had to take it. This is the only problem with travelling without bloging ahead. Malaysian trains run to Hat Yai or Butterworth near the Malaysian/Thai border. Then Thai trains take over, so it is necessary to make two blogings to reach Bangkok.
I had to wait in KL until eleven that night for the train’s departure. Checking my bag into the left luggage store, I met a couple of Aussies. I had no money to pay the storeman and the male half of the couple offered me a five Malaysian dollar note, then upped it to ten when I said it wasn’t enough. From then on I followed them everywhere. I told them it was because a man who’s willing to part with his money so freely should not be lost sight of! But actually it was just coincidence that they kept popping up wherever I was.
Map Of Thailand And Burma Photo Gallery
They went off to see Chinatown following my directions and surprisingly managed to find it. I met them again later in the station and we were in the same sleeper carriage on the train. We met again in Butterworth station, and on the train to Bangkok they had the sleepers across the aisle from me.
I did not have a very good night. Second-class sleepers are not compartments and their only concession to privacy are curtains across bunks that are tiered in rows down the carriage. Although I was tired after being awake from about 3.30 am when the ship docked, I had an upper bunk and the ceiling light shone in my face, keeping me awake all night.
The train arrived in Butterworth at 8.30 in the morning and I had six hours to wait for the Bangkok train. I tried napping in the waiting room, sitting upright on a hard wooden seat, and woke to find four locals standing in a row in front of me absorbed in the spectacle of my mouth wide open and dribbling. I ate lunch in a workers’ cafe outside the station where I was a novelty ‘Kangaroo!’ they called to me.
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