True Sight: Penang->Hua Hin->Bangkok->Siam Reap->Phnom Penh 2@@9 Trip

Sill Continues......

Day 1 - 23 April 2009

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Most of my friends when they heard I said 'I am going to Thailand with train.', and the 1st response from them is 'Are you sure? If you take plane only 2-3 hours can reach Bangkok, liao'. Haha.

Well, as for me, taking a long journey train is my 1st experience. I guess because I live in KL all the time. I don't have hometown in other states or else I might have experiences travel with the train.

Soon, after we took our ferry from Penang Island, we reached Butterworth around 12.30pm. The railway station is actually just situated next to the ferry port. We had lunch at nearby Nasi Kandar shops. Nice but expensive like in KL. After lunch, we waited at the train station and the train departed at 2.20pm and expected to reach Hua Hin, Thailand at 7.00am. The ticket from Butterworth to Hua Hin cost around RM9+.

The condition of the train is OK except the seat is quite uncomfortable for long journey because you have to sit 90 degrees. Of coz I can't accept that kind of seating condition, so we tried to fold the seat into a bed. Haha. That is more confortable. There are two toilets and one of it have a shower but it is damn small. There are not much people travel using the train to Thailand actually that day. However, along the way in each station, people will came in.

Before that, me and buddy always discussed on the train passengers. We hope there will be some young female passengers sit next to us and we can make new friends. Haha. However, I think we are not so lucky because the final passenger sit next to us is an uncle. Haha. But, we still chat with this uncle. He had a Vietnamnese wife and he is visiting his sister in Bangkok. He travels to Bangkok most of the time by train. He shared his travel experiences with us along the way. Sitting in front of us is an aunty. She is going to Bangkok as well and she is cool because she brought a portable DVD player and watch along the journey. Sitting back of us is actually an old Western couples. The brought big luggages. I guess both of them are happily travel around for holidays. So Nice.

Along the journey, we saw some nice scenaries.

How I spend my time in the train.

1) Listening to music and playing games. I have loaded 800 songs into my IPod Touch.

2) Reading. I bought a story book about private investigation in Bangkok. Haha. Quite interesting book.

3) Chatting with other passengers.

4) Look out the window.

5) Sleep and relax.

Around 6.00pm we reached Padang Besar. The border between Thailand and Malaysia. The procedure is simple. Just come out in the imigration centre, chop chop passport, then come out back to the train. I guess the security level for the luggage is quite loose because we don't have to cary out our luggages out from the train.

Soon, past the border, more and more passengers from Thai came in. The train become longer as we travel when additional train decks are added up. The train workers started to take order for the dinner and we ordered Thai tomyam with rice and it cost 150 baht. OK meal. We have to fold the bed into the seat with a table in the middle. As we passed the border, the route is more shaky.

Around 10pm, the train worker started to set up the bed for every passengers. One can sleep on top and one can sleep at bottom. So, i choose to sleep on top.

I was quite tired an I had my sleep by 11pm but middle of the night I woke up because I found out that my leg was so cold. No wonder the uncle sit to next us weared the stocking when he sleep. Advice. Wear a pair of stocking when you sleep in the train.