"Malaysia - Truly Asia, By Rail & Road!"

It all started with a Phone call... One of my college friend working here at Singapore called me sometime in October to convey some good news - "My wife is in India. I am a bachelor for a month" :) A long weekend was coming up in the first week of November and both of us were missing driving here at Singapore. So, we decided to plan for a driving holiday in Malaysia! I had to apply for Visa and following typical Indian suggestions(big mistake), landed up at Mustafa Travels at Farrer Park in Singapore. I saw the pathetic customer service and crowd there and immediately left from there without applying for a Visa! Then found another authorized travel agent near my place and applied for the same. 45 SGD for multiple entry visa to Malaysia. Next step, try to get more guys to join for the trip so that we don't go bankrupt! Initially, the group count was 6 which finally got reduced to 3. TSK had started his Europe Trip log and I got to know about booking.com. (I did not know about this site until then!). We started hunting for good deals in Malaysia's main tourist places even before we decided on the location to visit! After a lot of brain storming, we decided to visit Penang, Cameron Highlands and Genting. Our initial plan was to rent a car from Johor Bahru and drive but sanity prevailed and we decided to rent from Kuala Lampur instead of Johar Bahru so that we get more time for the vacation and don't end up spending 4 days just on the road! And we came across this deal from Avis: Attachment 851153 And we booked Medium-Compact Plus (Honda City 1.5 (A) or equivalent) for RM388. We did not want to drive the Proton Boxes anyway! The only problem with this deal is Avis is very particular about the timings as per the first line in terms & conditions. Hotel Booking for Penang was done through booking.com @Hydro Hotel, Batu Ferringhi, Penang at 450 MYR for two nights. Attachment 851164 So, we had to reach Kuala Lampur on Friday morning to pick up the car and then drive to Penang. This created another problem. None of us had applied for a leave on Friday. We finally agreed on calling in sick on Friday morning from Kuala Lampur! lol Note: IDP is not required for driving in Malaysia. I had to provide a photocopy of my India Driving Licence & Passport number at the time of booking. Spending some quality time at work had me stumble upon a real nice website - Seat 61. And we decided to try the train from Singapore to KL instead of traveling by the buses/coaches. Tickets bought in Singapore are more than double the price of MYR and hence we decided to cross over the causeway to Johor Bahru and then take the train from JB Sentral. Booking tickets on irctc is much easier than booking on KTMB! The website does not allow us to buy tickets within 2 days of departure! We have to get the tickets at the counter only. We somehow tested our patience and booked our return tickets from KL to Singapore but we did not have tickets for our onward journey! Crossing over to Malaysia from Singapore is fairly simple process and we rushed to JB Sentral's counter to check if there are tickets! Good news, we were hoping to get seats at least but we were able to get hold of the last 3 vacant second class berths on the train @128 MYR. We were happy that we will be well rested by time we reach KL so that we will be fresh for the drive to Penang and boy, were we wrong! The tickets were for second class sleeper. The berths were comfortable, etc etc BUT we were tossed around like we were hitching a ride across the village roads in a bullock cart! (Do trains have suspension? Our second class compartment did not have any!) Some pics of the train at JB Sentral Station (EKSPRES RAKYAT): Attachment 851166 Attachment 851167 Attachment 851165 Attachment 851168 Interior of the second class sleeper coaches: Malaysian Railway KTMB The train left at 11:55 PM on Thursday night (03/11/2011) and reached Kuala Lampur Sentral at exactly 6:30 AM on Friday morning. Attachment 851170 We dumped our bags in the 'paid' lockers at the station and decided to roam around KL for some time since we had to pick up the car from Avis after 10:00 AM. The lockers gobbled up 20 MYR to lock! Attachment 851171 Attachment 851172 Getting out of KL Sentral into KL City was a mild shock for me as I was expecting the city to be similar to Singapore! :D Quickly finished our Breakfast at a restaurant in one of the by-lanes opposite KL Sentral and we decided to visit Batu caves instead of just hanging around! Attachment 851175 True Story: We did not feel tired or exhausted after climbing all those stairs! :-P Attachment 851173 Attachment 851174 Attachment 851176 KTM Komuter Train: Attachment 851177 Things you cannot do on the train: Attachment 851178 Having done with the tourist attraction(!)- Batu Caves, we now headed back to KL Sentral to pick up our bags and took a cab to Avis's office at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Mutiara. It was 11:00 AM by the time we reached there! We also picked up a local Malaysia SIM and made "Sick Leave" calls to our respective managers! Attachment 851179 Finished the formalities of signing the documents, etc at Avis and the car arrived at the hotel lobby. As expected, it turned out to be the equivalent and not the Honda City! Our car till Monday evening - Toyota Vios 1.5 G It was a relatively new car with 60k on the odo. 1496 cc, 109 BHP, 4 speed automatic, ABS, EBD, Front Airbags. We did a quick inspection of the car, checked all the existing dents/scratches etc and signed the document! Attachment 851199 Attachment 851200 Attachment 851201 Attachment 851202 And the road trip begins: Being used to my E-Zen, I pressed the clutch with my left foot in heavy traffic while getting out of KL. Luckily, no one was behind us! Phew! Safe! Destination Penang! Attachment 851203 I used Sygic maps for Malaysia on my HTC Desire for the whole trip. Route Map: Singapore to Johar Bahru - By Bus Johar Bahru to KL - Train KL - Penang - Cameron Highlands - Genting Highlands - KL - By Car KL - Singapore - Train Attachment 851204 Attached Thumbnails

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