Holiday with Mum - Bangkok to Penang

The next part of the holiday is an overnight train journey from Bangkok to Butterworth, in Malaysia and then a coach journey to Penang. This train line going west out of Bangkok has been closed for 4 weeks because of the floods, so we expect to have to take a coach for the first part of the journey; however we find out that the line has opened this morning, so we will be on the first train out of Bangkok.

Bangkok railway station

When we get to the station our train is waiting for us and 3 men are going up and down the platform cleaning it with brushes and a hose.

Cleaning the train

On the train we have plenty of space, sitting in two wide arm chairs facing each other. As we leave Bangkok we go past shanty houses built right up against the line.

Shanty house by the railway line

Once in the suburbs to the west of Bangkok the flooding is on both sides of the track. Houses, shops, businesses and roads are flooded and people are carrying on their daily lives wading knee-deep in water. A man and woman walk through the water carrying a small child on the man’s shoulders and several improvised boats made from polystyrene are transporting goods.

Flooded communities

As we go through small stations people are camping out under tarpaulins on the dry platforms. At one point the water comes right over the track and the train leaves a wake as we go. These are the sights out of the carriage door:

Water outside the train door

As the train line turns south we leave the flooding behind us and continue through farm land of rice fields and other crops.

When it gets dark dinner is served at our tables. We get soup, a main course and fruit. It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare for the catering manager, as we have all ordered slightly different combinations.

Sorting out the dinner order

About 9pm a man comes down the carriage and converts our chairs into a bed and pulls down a bunk. He puts clean sheets, pillow cases and blankets on the beds and attaches a curtain to each one for privacy.

Making the beds

There is a certain amount of hilarity as people sort themselves out for bed and decide who is going on the top bunk, but before long we are all settled down and the train continues to chug through the night, rocking us to sleep.

Time for bed

We are woken before first light for the beds to be put away and breakfast is served as we reach Hat Yai, the last station in Thailand. Here the train is split up and only two carriages continue on the line to Butterworth. In the morning light  we can see that it is raining outside; not a heavy monsoon-type rain, but a grey drizzle from a heavy sky, making the landscape look more like England that Thailand.

When we get to the Malaysian border everone and all the luggage has to get off the train and go through emmigration from Thailand and immigration to Malaysia and then we get back onto the train again and settle bck down for another 3 hours to Butterworth, where the line ends. We are met by a coach and driven across the 8 mile bridge that connects Penng island with the mainland. We get to our hotel 24 hours after leaving Bangkok.