Blog - SIN/KUL #2: Night train to Kuala Lumpur

SIN/KUL #2: Night train to Kuala Lumpur

Thursday, September 20 - Friday, September 21
Singapore -> Johor Barhu, Malaysia -> Kuala Lumpur

At the end of our first day in Singapore, we were already headed to Malaysia by night train. Malaysian train company KTM charges ticket prices in the departure country's currency. For trains leaving Singapore, the price is in Singapore dollars (S$1 = $0.68 USD = ¥80), and for trains leaving Malaysia, the price is in Malaysian ringgit (RM 1 = $0.30 USD = ¥34). So far it all sounds normal, but the "amount" (number) is the same!.. while a ringgit is worth less than half a Singapore dollar. Riding a train from Malaysia is always half the price.

So in order to get a good deal, we got to the closest point in Malaysia, Johor Bahru, and rode the night train from there. To get to Johor Bahru we took a bus from Queen St. Terminal in Singapore, just a bit northwest of Bugis. The 30-minute bus ride costs only S$2.40 ($1.60 USD or ¥185), and includes a stopover at the Singapore immigration. After passing through immigration, we got back on the bus and then ride again to the Malaysian customs and immigration, from which we walked out in Johor Bahru. We had a crazy bus driver who'd always speed up to close to the next car in front, and in a moment the car would inevitably switch lanes (who wouldn't?).

Someone indicated us the way to the KTM train station (go straight and cross the street by the pedestrian bridge). We got there and confirmed that the e-tickets that we had bought online were ok. We still had some time to waste so we went to the mall across the street and had coffee at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The staff there was very friendly, especially the guy who seemed to be the manager, he came to chat with us, telling us that his brother lived in Japan.

When it got close to boarding time, we got back to the train station and waited for a little while. We saw a small wall lizard outside the station. Inside, the big fish tank indicated that it was feeding time at 23:00 but no one came to feed the fish.

We got on the train where we had a "first class" small compartment with two bunk beds and private toilet and shower. This wasn't quite luxury though, some stuff was broken and the train kept shaking quite badly throughout the trip. Even though it was already past 23:30, the train staff comes to take orders for dinner and the next morning's breakfast, which is included in the price. Dinner came a bit later, with free water bottles too, it wasn't especially good but not bad either. Breakfast was some random bread with a RM 1 price on it (¥35).

Anyway we could get a bit of sleep until we arrived at Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station around 7am.

Posted on October 5, 2007 at 00:16 | Tweet |

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