Route: KL (Malaysia) to Bangkok (Thailand) 030315

It's been a while since I wrote anything and my English has gone crooked again. As long as you can understand this, its good enough for me. Here is how my trip went for the KL - Bangkok route. Since I bought the ticket at the very last minute, so I only managed to get the upper sleeper which cost RM50 to Pandang Besar and another 3rd class seat train from Padang besar crossing the border to Hatyai station, Thailand. This was my second time doing this, as I did it before back in 2009 but this time I decided to shoot off straight to Bangkok. There's another alternative train that you can take from Butterworth, Penang that goes directly to Bangkok but this option that I chose was cheaper and the chances of getting last minute seats were better.

The train departed exactly at 10pm. Going through the night in the sleeper was not bad actually. A little bit bumpy at times but it was good enough. They have a cabin just for canteen and usually the staff would walk through the train to sell food, once in a while. It's a little bit expensive than the norm. I didn't get enough sleep throughout the night ride, as many mixed emotions going through my mind after leaving KL. The train would stop at each station to pick passengers.

By the next morning, I arrived at Padang Besar for the immigration just before the Thailand border. At this time, I met Shahrizan as he was on his way to recce Hatyai, since he had a requests from a group of people from Indonesia wanting to go to Hat Yai backpacker style. It was his first time in Hat Yai and so he had questions to ask me. Getting through the immigration was really easy. They just stamped and took a photograph of you. The first train to Hat Yai was at 10am, so I had some conversations with Shahrizan. Another Swiss guy in his 50's heading towards Phuket joined us for a chat. He has been traveling overland a lot in his life and he loves train. He himself works as a ticket conductor back in Swiss.

The trip to train station took about an hour as it moves very slowly. The time was minus one hour from Malaysia, so we left Padang Besar at 10am (Malaysian time) and arrived Hat Yai at 10am (Thailand time). Once, we arrived in, Shahrizan had to split off as he had to meet up with people. It was my third time here in Hat Yai, and that's why I decided to head off to Bangkok. I bought the next train ticket to Bangkok. I managed to get the upper sleeper, which cost about 775 Baht (RM87 with our bad currency lately). The lower sleeper is slightly expensive as it is slightly bigger and comfortable as it is closer to gravity. It's here where I met my travel companion for my trip to Bangkok, Syafiq. A young Malaysian traveler wanting to see Thailand for the first time. He approached me just after I bought my ticket and said he was going the same way. So he bought his ticket and we had about 4 hours before our train to Bangkok. Syafiq and me went to a nearby Muslim restaurant to do more ice breaking while having lunch. We decided to walk around but I went back to the Muslim restaurant as I felt really tired and by this time I felt like I over packed my bag because it was so freaking heavy. Syafiq went for a city tour with Tuk Tuk, costing him 200 Baht. The train was delayed for 2 hours and we left around 430 pm from train station and it would take us about 15 hours to Bangkok. The train ride was really really bumpy at first. I kind of starting to regret of taking this route as I had another 15 hours to go but after a few hours I snoozed off which was surprising as I am a very very light sleeper. Maybe I was really tired after two sleepless nights. I woke up at midnight. Shafiq & I were hungry by then but we couldn't find any Halal food on the train, so we had to wait until we reach Bangkok. We regret of not getting any snack earlier. It was a long long way and sometimes really bumpy ride until we reached Bangkok. I took a shower in the train which was quite an experience trying to do everything while the train is moving. And the toilet hole goes directly to the ground, where you can see the train tracks. At 11am, we finally reached at Hua Lamphong Train Station in Bangkok.