I’m at the Northern part of Malaysia, and I’ll be heading further up north this Sunday. All the way to Bangkok!
My uncle drove me to the KTM train station at Bukit Mertajam to enquire on the train ticket to Bangkok. Bukit Mertjam is about 30 mins to 45 mins away from Penang. It depends on the traffic condition.
Over the counter, the lady understood English and she appeared to be friendly as well. Basically, I asked the following questions:
Q: What time does the train departs from Bukit Mertajam and what time does it arrive in Bangkok?
A: Train departs 3pm today and arrives tomorrow at 1pm. Almost a 24hrs ride.
*Brain registered that it would be a long ride, and I started to think of the books I can read, and also to remind myself to have my portable charger fully charged. And yeah, I need to pack some dry food for my meals onboard. My uncle commented that with that travelling time, I could have flown to USA!*
Q: Is there a train departing for Bangkok from Bukit Mertajam everyday, and how many trains a day?
A: One train everyday at 3pm
*Oh, that’s nice. I can take my time and decide again*
Q: How much does the ticket cost?
A: RM 111.20for lower bunk (sleeper) and RM 103.20 for upper bunk (sleeper)
*Great, I would love to have the upper bunk as it would be safer and less easier for any train thief to reach out. Pretty much decided that even though lower bunk means convenience. I also want a place that’s in the middle of cabin as I don’t want it anywhere near to the doors. It gets very noisy when you have heavy human traffic in the cabin.*
Q: Are they any stops in between?
A: Yes, it stops at every other stations along the way to Bangkok. The station where the Malaysia and Thai Borders are is Padang Besar Station. The rest of the stations in Thailand, I don’t know.
*Great, that’s quite helpful. I hope the crossing border and customs clearance works the same as the one between Johor – Woodlands.*
Q: Do we have take the same train or there’s a transfer?
A: No transfer. You take the same train
Ok. Based on the above questions, I felt it was enough for me to decide to buy a train ticket. I picked 8th April as I was supposed to head out with my cousins on 7th. Train tickets were all sold out on 6th till 9th except for 7th. I didn’t want to wait till the 10th as that would means spending too many days here and leaves me very little days. So, got myself a ticket for 8th April.
There were a few other travelling plans in back of my mind. I would not want to waste much time in BKK and scoot off to Siem Reap the day after I arrive at Bangkok. Have initially planned to return back to BKK the weekend to celebrate Songkran. But now, there’s some other plans going on but will need more research before making further decisions. So for now, priority is get my ass to Siem Reap before Wednesday.
So, I’m left with less than 2 days here in Bukit Mertajam. I want to have that char kway teow with duck egg one more time before I leave cos it is just too delicious! It’s not the duck egg, but it is the way it was stir fried! And it was stir fried in the wok over charcoal flames! So what do you think?!
One more thing in my head as well, do I bring my laptop with me or not? Sigh
30 to be. 