Singapore to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
Our day started and ended with jam packed trains. The middle part consisted of trains, but those were more comfortable.
Singapore's clean, efficient subway. No garbage to be found (and no spit!)
The border
crossing between Singapore and Malaysia sounded confusing when we first looked into
the land crossing. Not so. The early morning commute on the subway out of
Singapore connected us with a bus that took us to the Border, picked us up on
the other side, drove over the causeway of no-man’s-land to go through passport
control on the Malaysian side.
Singapore check point for passports.The boys were a little gun shy of travelling by train after the Vietnamese experience. What a difference riding in Malaysia makes. Trains are clean, leave on time, no chaos in the train station, no jumble of people, no slop of rice congee going up and down isles, no cockroaches or mice. The AC a bit high but we came ready with sweaters and sleeping bags. As Levi says “Here, you wouldn’t mind doing it again.”
Note the clean floors, unstained fabric seats, no one sleeping in the aisle - wow! Everyone is tired from the late nights in Singapore. Good time to catch a snooze.
We rode for 4.5 hours to Gemas and changed to the electric train for the 2.5 hours to Kuala Lampur. Even nicer.
The scenery
is so jungle. It looks more domesticated though, with groves of coconut and
other palm trees.
Total journey cost from Singapore to KL = $15/pp.
We arrived during peak hours to ride the monorail from KL Sentral to the Orange Pekoe Guesthouse. Pushing, murmuring excuse me, and the weight of the backpacks helped secure a position on the packed train. The surrounding bodies were what was keeping us upright.
The Orange Pekoe is a little dodgy looking from the outside, but nice on the inside. More mosquitoes in here than anywhere else on the trip.
Views from our rooms.
Inside common areas and rooms are nice.
The amount of garbage and the overly aggressive hawkers on the food street made us realize we are no longer in Singapore. It is good to visit what is probably the most beautiful city in the world, but everything after does not compare.
Crowded, aggressive, noisy, food street.
KL has been
a signal point for the trip. Today, the fact that we will sleep in KL (not just
pass through like we have done twice already) means we have made it. It has been a constant reference made by the boys "How many more weeks/days till KL?" KL is
the departure point for Japan. Japan is the last stop, but it is the
icing on the cake.