Chugga-Chugga-Chugga-Chugga Choo, CHOO!!

January 10 - 14

The "Jungle" Train
Our plan after Singapore was a 3 day train ride through Penninsular Malaysia and Southern Thailand to reach Bangkok. Laura had heard that there is a route that starts in Singapore and goes through the "jungles" of western Pen. Malaysia and we were both excited to ride the rails and be stunned by the spectacular scenery.

It had been raining in Penninsular Malaysia for quite a few days before we were set to leave. The morning of our departure we phoned the train station to make sure that the schedule was correct. We were stunned by the information we were given. All trains heading out of Singapore were cancelled due to vast flooding in Malaysia. Since we were going to be meeting Laura's mother in 3 days, this news was a little disheartening, especially because of the situation it caused the locals. Many people lost their homes and their lives in these floods. We thought/hoped it would be ok to stay with Per for a few more days and decided to fly the same day Laura's mother arrived. We left a note because the phones were acting up and went out sight seeing for the day.

At around 5pm, Per gets a hold of us and explains that we are unable to stay at his place because a friend of his will be visiting and needs the room. Shoot! We really don't want to stay in Singapore if we have to pay for an overpriced budget hotel room but we can't take the train! Frantically, we search for a cab to bring us back to Per's apartment. Once inside a cab, the friendly cabbie begins chit-chatting with us and so we tell him our failed plans. But we're mis-informed, he told us. The trains are up and running, he just heard it on the radio. Hoorah! We call the railway station to confirm and rush over to Per's to pack and hurry back to the station just in time to catch the train.

Originally, we had planned to take the day train, in order to take in Malaysia. We were unable to do this, but it was probably for the better as all we would have seen was the horrible damage done by the floods. We arrived at Gemas late in the evening and had to wake the hotel owner up to give us our room.

The next day, was supposed to be THE scenery day. We awoke bright and early to catch the slow 3rd class train, which is really the only option for daytime travel along the line. We excitedly jumped aboard to find the perfect window seats for our viewing pleasure. When the train pulled out our eyes were glued to the window in anticipation for the incredible scenes to come. Three or four hours later we were beginning to wonder if the passengers who had dubbed this line the "jungle" line had ever really seen a jungle. We passed many trees, but most of them composed massive rubber plantations. We saw palm oil plantations, but no jungle!

Nearing the end of daylight and just when the lulling of the train was putting us both to sleep, up from the land rose tall limestone mountains harboring majestic cliffs. We were in awe. At two different stops we watched monkeys playing in the trees behind the train station. It was well worth the monotonous rubber trees and barren fields.

We disembarked at the small town of Dabong. Not far from Dabong is a very large waterfall gushing down the bare limestone rock. It is so large and placed so high on the mountains that it can be seen from the train and from the road in the middle of town. It was a peaceful little village, far from the usual tourist path. We stayed in the only guesthouse in town.

The next morning we got up excessively early to catch the train. We hadn't anticipated this, but we chose to embark on this journey right in the middle of a massive timetable restructuring. When we arrived at the little train station there were a few people sleeping on the benches but otherwise no activity to suggest that a train would be stopping anytime soon. Not even the ticket booth was open. After about an hour, an employee showed up and although we had some miscommunication problems it was finally discovered that there were some issues in the implementation of the new schedule and the first few train would not be arriving. We waited about 3 hours for the first train. This train was nicer and we ended up in a freezing compartment. The scenery was nice but nothing like what we witnessed the day before, all a bit anticlimatic.

After the train, we rode a bus to the border and then hopped across the bridge to Sungai Kolok, Thailand. There we were interrogated by the immigration who finally stamped our 60 day visa and sent us on our way.

Suddenly finding oneself in a new country is always a bit nerve racking at first - especially when the new country speaks an entirely new language and write using a completely different script (ie Thailand). Jumping across the border, we landed in an entirely new world...or so we thought at first. Everything was written in the Thai script and therefore we assumed that everyone would be speaking Thai. But we should have realized from the name of the town, which is Bahasa Melayu, that this would not be the case. Almost everyone we ran into was muslim and after attempting some Bahasa it was clear that they understood. It was your typical mix-match border town!

We had a little scare when someone tried to get us to take the horribly long bus ride to Bangkok by telling us that the trains weren't running because a bomb exploded somewhere. Good thing we decided to check things out for ourselves cuz that turned out to be a load of crap. It took us an EXTREMELY long time deciding what class ticket we should get for the train. Laura had her hopes set on a sleeper car. She had visions of her sleeping in peace on an actual bed. But, we hadn't anticipated the costs of the sleepers and Casey was feeling that double the price might not be worth it, though he doesn't understand the rough sleepless nights spent in a small semi-reclining chair on crowded overnight transportation because he sleeps soundly through anything. In the end, we decided on the second class fan with reclining seats. This was actually not a bad option. We took the later train and thus didn't see much except the low rice paddies of Southern Thailand. It had been a while since we'd seen so much rice and it reminded us both of so many of our travels in the Philippines.