The Jungle Train & Lonely Planet is full of BS
“The Jungle Train” what a misnomer that is. The only jungle is the 20 yards or right-of-way on each side of the track, other than that the train travels through forest plantations for about 9 hrs of the 11 hr trip with the last couple hours being through rice paddies. All in all a nice enough trip but the name is really misleading.
When the guide books were written it was apparently a 3rd class train stopping at every station however now it’s a 2nd class train with A/C, kind of takes the fun out of it. Also the ticket agents in Kuala Lampur will tell you that the train stops at Gua Musang & doesn’t carry on to Wakaf Bharu. Now this is technically correct BUT in reality the #E26 train stops in Gua Musang for 15 minutes where it changes numbers to #M84 (same train same seats just # change). This you can find out in Gemas, guess it’s a brain dead simple serpent thing!
Both Lonely Planet & seat 61 are out of date on the Jungle Train.
If heading to Thailand after the trip, ignore LP’s rant in the boxed text about catching the Bangkok bound train at Sungai Kolok as you have a greater risk falling off the moto taxi from the border to the station than any “risk of violence” on the train ride. Sure thre are armed soldiers riding the train all the way to Hat Yai & at the first few stations but that just adds to the flavor.
Also the first couple hrs are through the jungle the Jungle Train promises but fails to deliver! Anyhoo the fine Malaysian experience continued to the border so I have to give it a BIG thumbs up & Bucket list Malaysia & especially KL!
After a 20 hr trip in 2nd class coach non A/C made it to Bangkok where I will be taking the TEFL course (Koh Samui was cancelled) where I have rented a furnished apartment for $225 CAD/month, gotta love Thailand!
Next challenge will be a visit to the Canadian Embassy here in Bangkok for more pages in my passport!! Stay tuned for that episode, should be interesting!
Tags: Travel
busman7
lol….you’ll come home with a bible not a passport booklet! you’ll have to frame that sucker!
Indonesia (some countries, I believe is one require 2 blank pages) & that is exactly what I have left & knowing how Canada likes to rip you off (see entry when I got my passport renewed) & make life difficult for their citizens (why in fluck can’t they put enough pages in , in the first place to last more than 6 months? Make work project by Stupid simple serpents is why!) hopefully 6 weeks is sufficient time for thier silly games???
I had to get extra pages in my US passport while abroad and it was actually really painless- went to the embassy in Dublin one morning unannounced, waited a half hour, and left with extra pages and no charge. Doing so at home would’ve cost a pretty penny and a few weeks turnaround, so definitely got the better deal!
Obviously it probably depends on the business that day, but I figure it’s probably a similar process for Canadians (because c’mon, the US is a lot more annoying about passports anyway). I’ll cross my fingers for you tho!
That’s what I thought also, silly me!!
Turns out Crap-RIPOFF-anada does NOT issue extra pages so when you have gone through the miserly 24 the only option is to get a new passport issued *^%&#@*
Next blog entry is a major rant about that & the A$$hole Simple Serpents putting time in, in the Crapadian Embassy in Bangkok!!!