Skip to main content

It's a good job I like trains!

Having hot footed it out of Khota Bahru and caught, by the skin of my teeth ( time difference of +1hr if you remember) the train down to Gemas it turned out that I could actually buy a ticket all the way through to Joror Bahru for onwards travel to Singapore so I persuaded the ticket clerk just before I boarded to swop my ticket without a penalty. This he very kindly did, but as I was boarding I noticed that he'd made the second leg on the 22nd. Now Johor Barhu might be a great place but I had no intentions of spending nearly a week there!

Oh dear, it's never simple is it?

Anyway, settled on train, seat not window and not facing direction as I was assured they would be but, heck, I'm on the flipping thing.

Chunter chunter through the jungle of which I saw nothing due to my desire to escape KB. Anyway, I think they're chopping vast areas of it down for palm tree planting, shame.

And yes, of course there was a 3 year old 2 rows in front who managed to scream most of the night.

There is MASSIVE infrastructure work going on along the line, think they must be building a new planet.



Arriving at Johor Barhu is interesting as you immediately get channeled through the Malaysian Exit system including nowadays having to have your index fingers checked by scanners for temperature levels, then through Singapore Entrance system with the same rigmarole, and it's at this stage that you
discover you haven't filled in an entrance card. Well no-one told me I had to. But they were all lovely to me and enjoyed my memories of being here 45 years ago!

Then it's on to the special train that takes you over the border, where you are finally in Singapore, eureka!



Bus to Woodlands next to connect with the MRT (their tube system)  you need the exact money of course which I don't have so pay the driver a generous 'tip' but at least I'm on, complete with an amount of luggage that would test a Sherpa.



I'm not a fan of Starbucks but when you've been travelling for the best part of 48 hours, you're dirty, tired, stressed, accommodation less and without wifi then seeing a Starbucks is like winning the lottery!

Accommodation booked in Chinatown, 3 day Tourist travel pass purchased and off I go on the MRT. Get to my accommodation and it's entry via app or wifi messages. Problem is I haven't got wifi so back to a Starbucks, they do have their uses in society! Am given my entry codes, get outside my room and the PIN number doesn't work. Back to Starbucks, get online and recount my tale of woe. Man comes round within 15 minutes and sees they've given me the wrong room number (so much for all this bl.... smart arse high tech!), moves me to another room, oh dear, that can't be right, there's someone in there, and eventually realises I'm not room 315 or 305 I'm 314. By this time that's about how old I feel!!

Room is TINY, think a rabbit would feel constrained but hey ho the pin works and the facilities are brilliant.

Final saga of the day, go out for much needed food only to discover to my surprise that unlike London or Bangkok or NY or anywhere 'normal', here they shut up shop at 9pm. So after all I've been through in the past week I end up eating a KFC, hardly authentic, but at least the place was open, even if only just.

Fingers crossed tomorrow is a day I which I can actually achieve something other than being hot and tired and stressed and lost and confused.

But I am loving every minute of it, it's what adventurous travelling is all about.

See you all soon!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over energetic followed by under energetic!

For my first full day in Penang I decided (for reasons that still escape me) that a trip to the Botanical Gardens was in order so that I could tackle the climb up to the Penang Hill Station. I read up on it and it mentioned that the first 1+km was steep. Ha, I laugh in the face of steep, I bet it's not as steep as they say! It's not, to be fair, it's considerably steeper than steep. I should have been alerted to this from the very beginning as each 100 meters warranted a distance check. I cannot remember ever in my whole life having to stop several times in each 100 metres and I'm not going to justify this by telling you that the heat was unbelievable even though it was. I'm not sure at which stage I made the decision that being intrepid was all very well but my heart rate seemed to be climbing even more alarmingly than I was and I was rapidly running out of water. Enough I thought, I'll turn back at 2.5km. Turning a sharp corner at 2.35km put paid to that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sometimes it's better to remember things as they were

Today my goal was to revisit Batu Caves, just under an hour outside KL. these caves are considered a major tourist attraction as well as being the sight of a very important Hindu shrine. From my last visit what I remember most is the all encompassing blackness of the Dark Cave, the most extreme lack of light possible according to our guide. As someone who has always been afraid of the dark it is this aspect of Batu Caves that is most imprinted in my brain. Now the Dark Cave is closed for the foreseeable future, no reason given but I wasn't planning on going back in there anyway, once was more than enough! But I remember the massive cave shrine kindly, and I definitely recall that my companion and I were the only ones there the day we visited. Today the hoards were there en masse. The first shock comes in the walk from the train station to the entrance to the caves. There is an overwhelming stench of excrement and urine, and the hawkers and stalls and piles of rubbish do nothin...
Post a Comment
Read more

And so it begins: the long journey home.

It didn't take me long to pack, I'd brought just the basics with me and left my suitcase stored in the hotel in Penang. This meant that I had plenty of time to have a good final stroll around, this time heading east as I'd covered all the other directions during my time here. I walked through the gardens on my way to the ferry terminal, having one last look at the Eagle mascot, then headed up the hill towards the eastern shore. I passed a pretty row of coloured houses (are you allowed to call them that any more?) and carried on for about another 1.5 km until I was stopped by a security guard at what amounted to a road block. It turned out that this was the entrance to the Westin Hotel and only hotel guests are allowed to pass! So this is a proper road, the shore is to my right, I have no other way of progressing along this road other than here, is that right? Yes, I'm told, private road, no passing, not allowed. This was repeated several times until it was obvious th...
Post a Comment
Read more