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

-
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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Out of Norm Travels -Beijing China - Walk up to Great Wall of China (JinShanLing section) on 21 May 2012

-
Image
This is a tick of my "to-do" list - Climb the Great Wall of China. There was never a doubt in my mind that I will do this climb & I was fortunate enough to do it again before I turn half century old.  Unlike my recollection of my first trip up along the Great Wall where I had little time to explore the Great Wall, this trip was arranged specially to ensure that I got to travel from one end of the Wall to another. As a result, I got to spend a significant time taking photos of the journey up along the Wall (without the thousands of best friends that would get their head into the picture). I specifically avoided the more popular Badaling section is where hordes of tourists are ferried when it comes to climbing the Great Wall.  This time the climb was carried out at the JingShanLing section of the Wall - where the old section of the Wall is still standing. This meant that in most areas my group of 3 was very much walking up along the Wall on our own with not many other t
Read more

Out of Norm Travels - Iceland The Land of Contrasts

-
Image
As I wrote this, I had already finished my last bits of  Skyr, Iceland's famous low fat yogurt  and with that last bit, all my lovely memories from a land I had visited in early February 2016 started flooding back.  This land is located some 12,680 km/7,878 miles away from home and took me some 16+ hours over 2 airlines before I finally landed on  Keflavik   International Airport ,  Iceland's international airport located in   Reykjavik, which is also Iceland’s capital. Reaching Iceland has been nothing short of a dream with my travel into extreme cold where "normal" means 0 degrees or less. For me, Iceland is a country of contrasts where Fire meets Ice, Water claps hands with the Earth, Skies says hello to the Earth and the Land where Giants, Trolls and Elves used to roam.  Our travels across this vast land first brought us towards  Kirkjufell  (West Iceland) on the north side of the  Snæfellsnes Peninsula   where we encountered the mighty  Kirkjufell Mo
Read more

Out of Norm Travels - Adventures in Japan: 2019 - (August) Lake Biwa and Osaka Naniwa Yodogawa Fireworks

-
Image
In August, I made it 2 fireworks with  a single flight to Osaka .  The first fireworks is held at L ake Biw a (Otsu) which is a short 30mins ride from Kyoto for its Lake   Biwa  Fireworks  ( びわ湖大花火大会 ) . This  is a spectacular fireworks event held at the largest  lake  in the country,  Lake   Biwa  in Shiga Prefecture .  This hour-long fireworks event displays over 10,000 colourful fireworks over the magnificent  lake , inviting over 350,000 viewers every year.  As I didn't manage to get the seating area, I basically went to a nearby shore area in the afternoon to witness this event. Here is a short video (albeit tilted) and some photos taken at the event:  For more info of this fireworks event, go to  https://www.biwako-visitors.jp/hanabi/ .  I've enjoyed my time at Lake Biwa and will see you again in 2020!  The 2nd Fireworks event is held at Osaka city itself near the Yodo River. The 2019 Naniwa Yodogawa Fireworks Display is on its 31st ann
Read more