Abe Posted April 1, 2008 Report Share Posted April 1, 2008 I was told that you can take a train to the south all the way to malaysia boader. How long is the ride? Once you're there take the ferry to Penang island,malaysia. How long is the ferry ride? I think it's only around 5 miles away from the main land malaysia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted April 2, 2008 Report Share Posted April 2, 2008 I have a friend who did the whole trip on the Orient Express train - templeton or something, that was quite expensive. Regular trains do it, there was a separate thread here about booking trains by web sites, try that thread as it had good web links. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aesthete Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 I had to fly back home from Kuala Lumpur, and was planning on training down there from Bangkok, stopping at cool spots on the way, and everytime I mentioned this to anyone, they warned me not to. In the end, I booked an Air Asia flight instead, but I took a train to Kanchanaburi, and didn't think it was that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colorwolf Posted April 6, 2008 Report Share Posted April 6, 2008 train is perfectly fine...nice trip to do once or twice...if have time, stop off in various places... bkk-butterworth non-stop takes over 24 hours...but sleeper train's pretty comfy methinks... at butterworth take ferry (they leave every 20 mins or so) for short crossing to georgetown/penang... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nkped Posted May 10, 2008 Report Share Posted May 10, 2008 By the published schedule at http://www.railway.co.th/English/Time_HTML.asp, it is about 21 hours, depart Bangkok at 1445 and arrive Butterworth at 1155 the next day. Did the reverse trip a few years ago. Not in a great rush to do it again but interesting and not at all a bad experience. The 2nd class sleeper bunk was about 74 inches long. I fit--just. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DWS Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 I'm not sure how much it's changed but I did this trip quite a few years ago. The regular train that is, not the Orient Express. I caught the over night sleeper from Bangkok to Hat Yai. Departure 2.45pm from Bangkok I think and a good thing to do if you haven't done it before and you have the time. Kick back, watch the countryside go by, have dinner and later the pursor comes and makes up the bunks. Get some sleep and wake in time to get off your stop in the morning. I got off at Hat Yai which meant an early wake up to get off at 6.00am. I found sleeping on a train okay, obviously not as restful as a hotel but ok. I spent a night in Hat Yai (Pink Lady, and then spent the rest of the night at a country & western bar where the band was an absolute cracker), then next day caught the same train to Butterworth and the ferry to Penang. You have to get off the train at Padang Basar to go through immigration Thailand to Malaysia, but this was no hassle and only about 20 - 30 minutes to get the whole train load of people through, back on the train and underway again. Getting the ferry to Penang was pretty easy of alternatively you can catch a taxi over the bridge. One quirky thing to note if you are doing the train Singapore up to KL, Penang, Bangkok etc, you pay more by starting in Singapore. Price Penang to Singapore is RM 60 (2nd class) but from Singapore to Penang is SGD 60 (about twice the price). I've heard you can get around this by booking on line and booking a dummy ticket starting in Malaysia (eg, 3rd class KL to Singapore) and a "return" leg Singapore to wherever. If you do it right the two way price is a lot cheaper that the one way ticket departing from Singapore. Cheers, DWS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 The train trip to Malaysia is fun to do ... once! It's an overnight trip from Bangkok. You leave and head south, loading up on the dining car's ice cold Singha until you are ready to crash. Train food is okay, but you might want to pick up a barbecued chicken or something to supplement it. When you awaken, you will be fairly far south, with some quite interesting scenery. Mountains seem to rise straight out of the ground, the way you see them in Chinese paintings. The ferry to Georgetown from Butterworth is a nice morning ride, maybe 15 to 20 minues. Penang is pleasant for a few days stay. The nightlife is not much, compared to LOS, but there's lots of good cheap food to be had. But once you've done the train trip, you've seen it all. After that, fly by Air Asia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 I'm hoping to retire to a condo on Penang, but I agree that its not the nightlife capital of SE Asia. At the rate that Brits are buying up the island, I may have to settle for something less salubrious than I had initially hoped for - if the Aussie 'Dinar' keeps heading south, that could be a shipping container in Butterworth. Gobble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 I could live comfortably in Penang. The first time I was there was in 1974, when Georgetown was considerably smaller and prettier. I only spent about three days there, but got a freebie from a Chinese gal! Alas, that doesn't happen to me these days anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 <> opposed to rising out of the sky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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