Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok

We had originally only planned to stay in KL for two nights but because our awesome friend Joelle put us in touch with her awesome friend Fareeza we decided to stay an extra night. Fareeza was kind enough to meet up with us at a TGI Friday's of all places because the American Embassy in KL was having an event at the restaurant. We all had a free soft drink and then headed out for dinner.  We ate at a mamuk (stalls on the side of the road) that had Malaysian Indian food - it was great.  They ordered mee goreng and chai tea for us.  It was basically fried noodles with spices, some sauce and prawns (shrimp). It started raining on the way to dinner so our tentative plan for a driving tour of Putra Raya was pushed back to the following night.

On Wednesday we decided to head to Batu Caves (just north of KL). The train fare from KL Sentral to Batu Caves was 1 MYR/each to get there and 2 MYR/each to get back, which amounts to $1 USD roundtrip. Batu Caves are some huge limestone caves that were discovered and has spiritual significance for Hindus (if you are interested, check out the Wikipedia page).  For lunch we ate at a vegetarian indian restaurant right by the caves. We had the vegetarian medley with rice served on a banana leaf. Fareeza had advised us the day before to try this and also that when we were finished we were to fold the banana leaf towards us if we liked the meal and away from us if we didn't.  It was tasty, but could have done without the small ants crawling on the leaf.

After the Batu Caves we headed back into the city and spent the rest of the night using the free internet and resting (the night drive was canceled because Fareeza's mom was sick).

Thursday morning we got up early to catch our 7:30 bus to Butterworth. After an unexpected bus change just before the Penang bridge as well as an unexpected petrol fill-up on the second bus, we made it to Butterworth around 1 PM. We had a quick lunch at one of the many food stalls at the Butterworth bus station, then walked a few minutes over to the train station to catch our 2:20 overnight train to Bangkok.

The Thai border is about four hours from Butterworth and all of the visa activities went down smoothly in a train station at the border. While waiting to get our Thai visas we spoke with an Australian woman who had been to both Laos and Cambodia. The conversation was a torrent of information with little context, but it was good to talk to her nonetheless. Back on the train and off to Bangkok!

At or not long after the border crossing the restaurant car was attached and someone came around to take dinner orders. Much to our surprise the menu prices were all in Thai Baht (duh) but luckily they allowed us to pay in Malaysian Ringgits - then we realized we were running low on cash. Whoops. We ended up sharing a vegetarian Thai meal for dinner and had enough cash to get a couple of liters of water as well.
After we finished dinner the attendant came around and assembled everyone's bunks and put sheets on them. Katie and I opted to spend an extra dollar or two and have two bottom bunks which we read were wider. The bunk wasn't quite long enough for me, but was very wide and I had no trouble sleeping. Around 9:30 or 10 we were lulled to sleep by the clicking, clacking, rocking and swaying of train.

I woke up bleary eyed and somewhat disoriented around 7:00 AM and then it dawned on me - oh yea, I'm on a train. It was probably one of the better nights of sleep I had had recently and with a quick check on my phone I saw we were much closer to Bangkok.

The Texan expat sleeping in the bunk above Katie awoke not long after us and the attendant came by and converted Katie's side of the carriage back into seats. After a few hours of some beautiful Thai countryside we arrived in Bangkok.