Trip report: Two weeks in South-east Asia

[Mattg]

Hi everyone,

Although this trip report will just cover my trip around South-east Asia for the next two weeks, this is actually the beginning of a much larger journey for me. I am lucky enough to be travelling around the world for the next four months, starting in Asia, then travelling west to Europe, then North and South America. Instead of creating one super-long trip report, I think I'll cover it in parts.

So, here's part one! Yesterday I flew CBR-xSYD-SIN on Qantas. Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will fly SIN-BKK, then after a few nights in Bangkok I'll be travelling by train back down to Singapore, via Penang and KL. I've not done this before so it should be interesting!

Well, I'll have to start someone, so here goes..


Flight 1: QF1474 CBR-SYD
Dash 8-400 VH-QOV
Departure: 12:05 (12:05)
Arrival: 13:00 (13:00)

After saying goodbye to my parents at the airport, I boarded the Dash-8 for the short hop to Sydney. The flight departed and arrived on time and was nothing really out of the ordinary, so I won't spend too much time covering it. Unfortunately the evil overlords who cater for QantasLink were at it again today! They managed to follow up my personal favourite, the roast onion flavoured muffin with an eggplant and tomato dip, with another delectable delight. On this flight a roast vegetable "muffin" (if you can call it that...) with "ploughman's pickle" was served - another QLink meal where not only did I have no clue what I was eating, but it was impossible to consume without the whole thing falling apart. Anyway, I'm no food critic and it still beats the single cookie I got when I last flew VA on this route, so I'll move on!

On arrival into SYD I took the bus across to T1 and made it through immigration and security. My express pass turned out not to be all that express thanks to an elderly gentleman holding up the line. Although he could barely walk, the security people insisted that he removed his shoes and walk on through (very slowly) - while the rest of us waited. As I negotiated the duty free maze on the other side, some sort of alarm begin to sound loudly. It sounded as though it might have been a fire alarm, but no-one, including the airport staff, seemed to have a clue what it was and after a few minutes and stopped and everything went back to normal - bizarre.

I had arranged to meet a fellow AFFer in the Flounge but I ended up using a J lounge pass because I had one which I won't get another opportunity to use before hitting gold. By this point there was only half an hour until boarding anyway. Thanks anyway Paddy55, maybe next time!


Flight 2: QF5 SYD-SIN
Boeing 747-400ER VH-OEH
Departure: 15:05 (15:05)
Arrival 20:00 (19:55)

Overall, this was a fairly standard and uneventful flight, which I guess is a good thing! It was my first time on one of the refurbished 747s and I was quite impressed. We departed at 15:05 on the dot and shortly afterwards we were powering down 16R bound for Singapore. If my memory serves me correctly, this flight (QF5) was reviewed by someone else recently, so I won't spend to much time on it as it was nothing out of the ordinary and basically just mirrors other reviews.

Here's the bird:


Somewhere over regional Australia:


The meal served was a choice of chicken & rice or lamb & couscous. I chose the lamb, which was satisfactory:


The infamous grilled veggie pizza served an hour before landing was exactly as others have described: soggy, bland and disappointing. If Qantas were trying to take something delicious such as pizza, and make it bad, they have unfortunately succeeded.


The 747 refurbishments are certainly an improvement on the non-refurbished version, particular with the AVOD entertainment which is on-par with that of the A380s' high standards. It's a bit of a shame that getting a refurb'ed bird is hit and miss, but in my opinion either still beats the A330.

After doing a few loops and turns to the south of Singapore we touched down a few minutes behind schedule on 2L and disembarked shortly after.

I had to get the train over to Terminal 3 to catch the MRT and was a bit surprised to find a giant Spongebob Squarepants themed playground for children - that's certainly something I haven't seen at an airport before!


Overall the flight was pleasant and uneventful. The crew were generally good, although I wouldn't say outstanding.

Tomorrow I'll fly SIN-BKK, stay tuned...

 

[bass_ke]

Sounds like a great start to an awesome trip!

I've absolutely loved my time in SE Asia, enjoy the train ride back down to Singapore! Make sure when you get off the train at Butterworth for Penang that you just walk the short distance to the ferry stop, taxi touts will try and put you in a taxi that takes just as long and costs a hell of a lot more to get over to Penang. If you're lucky you may still get your Malaysia departure "stamp" at Johor Bahru written by hand in Red Pen!

I look forward to the next part!

 

[amaroo]

Love a TR. Enjoy the trip....Wow, 4 months - thats the way to do it!

Safe travels.....with plenty of photos please

 

[RB]

Looking forward to the rest. Can't say I saw Spongebob on Fri, must have just been heading to the lounge!

 

[Magpie10]

Sounds like the trip of a lifetime, enjoy and yes plenty of TA and photos where possible, safe travels.

 

[TomVexille]

Good start. I'm looking forward to following this.

 

[Mattg]

After a couple of very pleasant days in Singapore it was back to Changi Airport this morning for my flight to Bangkok.


Flight 3: 3K 515 SIN-BKK
Airbus A320 9V-JST
Departure: 11:20 (11:20)
Arrival: 12:40 (12:50)

I booked this flight as a price beat with Tiger and paid around SGD$100 including baggage and seat selection. I had originally booked a flight at around 6pm as that was the only flight of the day within an hour of a Tiger flight which I could price match with, but afterwards Jetstar altered the schedule by 5 minutes, allowing me to change my flight to the previous or next flight if I was "inconvenienced". So, I changed to the mid-morning departure which I'd originally wanted anyway.

This was another relatively uneventful flight. I have flown Jetstar domestically in Australia and New Zealand before, and this flight was almost exactly the same, except for the Asian crew. I find the Jetstar leather seats quite uncomfortable, but for a flight of two hours it doesn't really matter.

I didn't take too many photos, but here's a couple:





I wanted to get a bottle of water but when told it would be $4 I told the stewardess not to worry about it. Call me a cheapskate if you will, but to me it's a matter of principle - bottles of water go for $1 in Singapore and even less in Thailand - $4 for something which comes out of the tap virtually free is not worth it in my opinion, unless you are desperate. I personally wouldn't pay half that for a bottle of water, even in Australia.

There was a fair bit of turbulence but nothing drastic. The plane also seemed to shudder a lot more than usual on landing, but again, nothing to worry about (I don't think...).

The lines for immigration at BKK were somewhat chaotic but after reading about some peoples' experiences I'd consider myself lucky that it only took 20 minutes to get to the front of the line. I'd hate to think how busy that place would get at peak times!

I have been warned about taxi drivers trying to scam tourists and was rather cautious. When I walked up to the public taxi rank, there were several drivers standing there ready to compete for my custom. I must have looked like an easy target, being young, caucasian and speaking no Thai, but unfortunately for them I have a decent amount of travel experience and I'm not completely stupid. One persistent driver took me over to his cab, and then the discussions started. The driver spoke limited English, and even when I thought he might have been speaking in English, I could barely understand him. The first issue was something to do with the location of my hotel. I'm staying near Khaosan Road, and I thought the driver was trying to say either that he didn't know where the hotel was or that there was a lot of traffic on the way. I simply told him to go whichever way he thought was quickest, although I'm still not sure whether he understood.

Next he tried telling me that the meter wasn't working and got out his phone, typing the number "800" as if to say the trip would cost me 800 baht. This is a scam I am familiar with and I refused to accept his story. I simply said "meter on or I get out" and I think he got the message. The driver seemed quite grumpy, probably because he realised he wasn't going to get away with ripping me off. (For the record, it ended up costing around 500 baht including tolls.)

Eventually we were underway but by the time we reached the city I think I worked out what he had been trying to tell me at the airport. I'm still not sure whether he was trying to get more money out of me or was genuinely warning me about the situation in Bangkok, but I think I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in this case and say the latter.

Apparently there have been protests against the Thai government for several weeks and they are escalating significantly this week. We drove past several groups of them in the city and in fact there are protesters just a few blocks from my hotel as I write this, which is a bit of a concern. The Australian government even updated the SmartTraveller website yesterday to warn travellers about this. I had booked a night tour tonight but unfortunately it has been cancelled due to the protests, which is a bit of a disappointment as I'd really been looking forward to this tour, but never mind. Hopefully tomorrow's tour still goes ahead!

I'll be spending a couple of nights in Bangkok, then I will depart on an overnight train bound for Butterworth (Penang).

If anything significant happens during my time in Thailand I'll update this thread, otherwise you'll probably next hear from me when I get to Penang. (And I promise more photos of the next part!)

Safe travels.

 

[mono88]

Good TR so far. Look forward to more. Keep safe.

 

[gazzman]

"When I walked up to the public taxi rank, there were several drivers standing there ready to compete for my custom. I must have looked like an easy target, being young, caucasian and speaking no Thai, but unfortunately for them I have a decent amount of travel experience"

Maybe you needed to do a bit more homework about catching a cab at the airport. You walk down to the public taxi rank and join an orderly queue, the despatcher assigns your taxi, gives you a slip of paper with various details of the cab number etc, and tells the cabbie where to go -with meter.

 

[Mattg]

"When I walked up to the public taxi rank, there were several drivers standing there ready to compete for my custom. I must have looked like an easy target, being young, caucasian and speaking no Thai, but unfortunately for them I have a decent amount of travel experience"

Maybe you needed to do a bit more homework about catching a cab at the airport. You walk down to the public taxi rank and join an orderly queue, the despatcher assigns your taxi, gives you a slip of paper with various details of the cab number etc, and tells the cabbie where to go -with meter.

You're certainly right, I did need to do more homework! That is essentially what happened, except there was nobody in the queue and the driver had already approached me when I got the slip from the despatcher (which the driver took from me and kept when we got into the cab - is that normal?)

 

[Mattg]

I ended up having a great couple of days in Bangkok. On Thursday I took a nine hour bike tour of the city and surrounding region which was fantastic - I would highly recommend one of these, although if you're not quite as young and fit like me, I would probably suggest a tour which is shorter than 9 hours!

On Friday afternoon I made my way to the Hualamphong railway station in central Bangkok for my train to Butterworth in Malaysia. Here is the technical info;

Train 35: Bangkok to Butterworth (Penang)
Scheduled departure time: 14:45 (Actual: 14:47)
Scheduled arrival time: 12:55 +1 day (Actual: 15:30 +1 day)

Here's my ticket:


This was a surprisingly enjoyable trip and I have lots of photos.

I arrived around 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time and the comfortable air conditioned train was a welcome relief from the hot, humid climate outside.

Here's a picture of the train at Hualamphong station:


As I boarded, people appeared to be working on the train as it sat at the station, even up until 5 minutes before departure. Someone even came along and tightened a few screws on some of the sleepers. The outside of the train was also being cleaned just before departure:


There were about a dozen cars on this train, with some terminating in Hat Yai, including a restaurant car and some going all the way to Butterworth. The seats are in compartments, with two seats facing each other on either side of the aisle. By day, they are comfortable leather seats and by night, they convert into a bunk bed, as we will see later. I would estimate that the train was around 30 years old, but while it wasn't brand new it was still functional and surprisingly comfortable.



I was fortunate enough to have been allocated a seat across the aisle from another Australian man and his friend from the US. We started talking straight away and got on well for the rest of the trip. It made the journey just that little bit more enjoyable.

At 2:47pm, just two minutes behind schedule, we were underway. This was by far the closest the train got to the schedule for the rest of the journey. There was a lot of stop-starting, mostly stopping, as we made out way out of Bangkok city and slowly entered the Thai countryside. The frequent stopping, to a lessor extent, continued throughout the whole trip. Most of the tracks were single tracks, so quite often we would have stop in the sections with double track and wait for another train going in the opposite direction to pass. I don't know if the timetable is designed for the trains to arrive around the same time, but in practice it rarely happened.

 

[Mattg]

Here's some more photos from the train window:




There were two toilets at the end of each carriage; one "regular" toilet and a squat toilet. I found it a little disconcerting at first because they are drop toilets, with the contents falling straight through onto the tracks. You can even see out the bottom of the toilet, meaning you could see the tracks below as the train sped along them. To give you an idea, here's a photo of the regular toilet:


At what seemed like every other station, hawkers would get on and walk up and down the aisles trying to sell all sorts of Thai food and beverages.

Around 3 hours into the trip the sun began to set and at 7pm a delicious Thai meal was served. There is a restaurant car with a small-ish seating area, but there was no need to go there as a lovely lady who worked on the train had already come around to take our orders for dinner and breakfast the next morning. When dinner was being served, a table was set up between the seats and the lady brought around our meals. I got Set B with a beer:

 

[Mattg]

For anyone interested, here is a photo of the menu (it is double-sided):



After dinner the conductor came around and transformed our seats into bunk beds. The seats folded out to become the base of the lower bunk and the upper bunk was folded down from above the seat. Imagine the overhead lockers on a plane being opened and there being a bed inside. It was a little bit like that, although obviously more spacious than an aircraft's overhead lockers. A mattress was laid with a sheet put on, curtains attached and a pillow and blanket were handed out to each passenger. Here is the end product:


I had a lower bunk which was surprisingly comfortable. Although I woke up quite a few times in the night, I actually slept quite well and woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and well. I am about six feet and there was just enough room, lengthwise. The lower bunk costs slightly more than the upper bunk, but it is worth the extra money for several reasons. Firstly, it is wider and more spacious. Secondly, it has a window (the upper bunk doesn't) and thirdly, it is a lot easier to get in and out compared to the upper bunk, which is reached by quite a narrow metal ladder.

I woke up a little before sunrise and enjoyed watching the sun come up as we rolled through the Thai countryside somewhere to the north of Hat Yai.

 

[Mattg]

At around 7am breakfast was served. The lady in the upper bunk had not yet woken up, so they let me eat in the overnight configuration. It was like having breakfast in bed while watching some stunning scenery go past out the window - very pleasant. I ordered the ham & cheese sandwiches with coffee, sorry about the poor picture quality.



Some photos of the scenery:



At 09:35 we arrived at Hat Yai junction, exactly 3 hours late. There is a scheduled stop here of 25 minutes as some of the carriages are separated from the train. Just before we got to Hat Yai, one of the people working on the train came through and offered to exchange Thai baht for Malaysian ringgits at a rate of 10 baht: 1 ringgit. I unfortunately didn't have a clue whether that was a good rate, but I only had 100 baht left anyway so I thought I'd might as well change it. My friends across the aisle did the same. When we got to Hat Yai, having just exchanged our money, numerous hawkers boarded the train and offered to change money for us. I didn't bother asking what rate they charged. I don't think they got too much business because, to quote my Australian friend, "the early bird caught the worm."

 

[TomVexille]

The train looks like a lot of fun. Keep it coming.

 

[Mattg]

We departed Hat Yai at 10:00 and 55 minutes later arrived Padang Besar, on the Malaysian border. It was not clear what we would have to do but as it happened everyone had to disembark with all luggage in order to clear Thai & Malaysian immigration and Malaysian customs, which involved opening and going through everyone's bags. It was a little inconvenient, but on the other hand good to get off the train and stretch our legs for a little while. The stop took about 35 minutes and at 12:30 Malaysian time (which is 1 hour ahead of Thai time), once everyone had been processed and re-boarded, we were back underway, now 3 hours and 35 minutes behind schedule.

The train at Padang Besar:
View attachment 21119

The rest of the trip to Butterworth was relatively uneventful, although we did strike up a conversation with some Malay girls who boarded at one of the regional stations and had to stand in the aisle as there were no more seats.

Maybe it was just me, but we seemed to travel faster once we reached Malaysia. The stations looked more modern and there was a fair bit of work going on, both on the tracks and on stations. Some of the stations looked like they had just been built, and I think they are electrifying more of the railway network too. It is quite clear that there is significant investment going into Malaysia's railway infrastructure which can only be a good thing. For some reason I photo I had of this was attached to the previous post.

Some more scenery:
View attachment 21120

Approaching Butterworth - if you look closely you can see the bridge linking Penang and the mainland in the background:
View attachment 21121

Almost 24 hours after we left, we finally arrived in Butterworth at 3:30pm (2 hours, 35 minutes late). Although the trip took even longer than a flight from Australia to Europe, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would gladly do it again. When you spend almost a day on a plane, it feels like a day and you generally get off feeling exhausted, especially in economy. That was certainly not the case, in fact I felt relaxed and refreshed. The journey didn't really feel like it took 24 hours as the time passed pretty quickly.

The train at Butterworth:
View attachment 21122

Unfortunately my phone ran out of battery at this point, so I don't have any more photos of the ferry across to Georgetown/Penang. Once we'd made it past a mob of taxi drivers trying to take us to their taxis - no doubt for a much higher price than the ferry - it was a short walk over a bridge or two to the jetty for the ferry to Georgetown. It was very reasonably priced - just 1.20 ringgits (41c) on the outbound trip and free in the other direction.

Having been on the train for a day I thought it would be a good idea to get some exercise and walk the two kilometres or so to my hotel in Georgetown. I was wrong. Unfortunately, I had not counted on several things:
-it felt a lot hotter outside once off the ferry
-there are hardly any footpaths in Penang and there's a ****load of traffic
-crossing the road was a bit of a nightmare, especially with a suitcase
-my map did not have the name of the street I needed to turn down, meaning I got hopelessly lost.

Needless to say, I'll be getting a taxi to the jetty for the return trip tomorrow!

Overall, this was a surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable trip and I would gladly do it again. The cost was around 1,200 baht, plus around 300 baht in various booking/ticket delivery fees (this translates to AUD$51). I got to see some great parts of Thailand which I would have never otherwise seen, got to meet some great people and had a great experience!

Tomorrow I will get another train from Butterworth to Kuala Lumpur, then after three nights in KL I'll continue onto Singapore. I can't wait!

 

[markis10]

10 to 1 is a pretty good rate given the Xe published figures


10.00 THB = 1.00116 MYR
Thai Baht ↔ Malaysian Ringgit
1 THB = 0.100116 MYR 1 MYR = 9.98841 THB

 

[Mattg]

10 to 1 is a pretty good rate given the Xe published figures


10.00 THB = 1.00116 MYR
Thai Baht ↔ Malaysian Ringgit
1 THB = 0.100116 MYR 1 MYR = 9.98841 THB

Good to know I did do a little research after writing this and must say I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[drron]

Don't worry about the BKK taxi Matt.Those with a lot of experience know you can get into trouble even if you get the despatchers note and the fellow uses the meter.The taxi drivers have innumerable tricks up their sleeve.I have been asked to pay a special airport fee,fee because taxis have to pay a higher toll,even a crossing the Chao Praya river fee-to the Peninsula as well as a special fee to be dropped at the Hilton Millenium which I have reported previously and which I am convinced the particular Hilton doorman was complicit in.
So we arrange transport.Yes we pay more but we don't start our stay with an argument.
Looks like an interesting experience.Keep up the good work.

 

[serfty]

... and the driver had already approached me when I got the slip from the despatcher (which the driver took from me and kept when we got into the cab - is that normal?)

You are supposed to retain the slip as it has a 'complaint' form (with the driver's details prefilled) and instruction on it for you to employ should you deem it necessary.

The drivers often try to snaffle that slip.