The Overnight Train to Kuala Lumpur

Again, I followed my travel intuitions and decided to take the overnight train to Kuala Lumpur.  To fly is cheap and only takes an hour but I wanted to have an adventure... so I left Langkawi by ferry boat to the mainland to Kuala Perlis...  

I was the only foreigner on the ferry so I was thrilled to be off the beaten path!

Then I took a taxi to Arau.  I love Malaysia; the country is clean, I was always given a fair price, and the roads are top notch...

And somethings still take a LONG time.  The computer took about 20 minutes to pull up my train reservation... but it was worth the wait!

Here is the train station before everyone arrived...

And here we are waiting for  the overnight train...

This is an old train track switching device of some kind...

The sun was setting as the train pulled in...

And then I was in heaven...  I booked a full first-class sleeper car all to myself and it was GLORIOUS: crisp clean white sheets, pillows, blankets, ice cold AC, flat screen TV, complimentary cakes and water, a sink, and a stunning sunset view:

Second class is a communal sleeping car like a dormitory with 20 bunks in the same room separated by curtians.

Then I passed out and woke up in Kuala Lumpur (KL). We departed Arau at 7PM and arrive into KL at 6:30AM.  This was one of the best travel experiences of my time in Asia.  I want to come back and travel all of Asia by train.

Here a monk hustles through the modern KL Sentral Train Station in the early morning hours: