Out of Norm Travels -2011 - First & Last Train ride out of Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (June 2011)

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Like most travelers, a trip out of home country means taking an air plane out of the country. In the not so distant past, many travel out of their country using the only means of affordable transport i.e. train. I am not old enough to say that I did that but I was glad I managed to catch one of the last few trains that departed from our grand ol dame, Tanjong Pagar Railway Station back in June 2011.

The feeling of nostalgia was what spurred on me taking the journey up north from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was surreal that I was still in my country yet the land the station stood on was actually Malaysian land. In a typical Singaporean way, I facebooked my location & wondered if I should state Singapore or Malaysia as place of origin? Anyway, this dilemma soon ended on 30 June 2011 when the land on which the train station stood was closed to the public with the land returned to Singapore. It was thus unfortunate that my kids will not be able to experience such travel; or at least they will not have any experience of departing from the old station that stood for the past 79 years.

facade of the train station

Queues for the precious train tickets started about 7p.m. Thankfully I got the tickets for all 6 of us online. Although the train was supposed to depart from the station at 10:30 p.m., the train only started chugging along the tracks around 12.30 a.m. Normally, such delay would have riled travellers used to efficiency and punctuality but us train travellers were only too happy to take advantage of the delay by utilising the time to take more keepsake photos. 

ol' train station with the flats as a backdrop

Even after we got our passports stamped at the Malaysian customs located within the Tanjong Pagar Station,  we still needed to disembark at Johor Bahru for verification.The 1st class sleeper cabin was the most luxurious (and expensive) costing around S$139. 

There were 2 bunk beds in each room. After some initial excitement coupled with the furious photo taking of pitch black darkness, sleepiness soon won over before the need to wake up to the morning light. My room-mate actually told me that I was sleeping so soundly that she couldn’t even wake me up despite numerous attempts. Thankfully, I managed to wake up in time for some morning shots before disembarking at the Kuala Lumpur Air Terminal around 8.30 a.m.

Morning train shot

Next post will be about my stay @ Kuala Lumpur....
Location: Singapore

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