A Malaysian weekend adventure

I’ve been getting a bit sick of Singapore recently, so with our Marina Bay Sands trip so close on the horizon, Nick decided that we ought to make the most of the rest of the few weekend and add a couple more bits and pieces to our plan.

            I have been really keen to get the train from Singapore up to Kuala Lumpur for a while now, and with Nick out of the country for a week in May, I had thought I might use one of those weekends to take the seven hour train journey on my own. Nick has travelled around a fair amount of Asia by train, so for him I knew that the idea of seven hours with nothing new to see would not be the top of his list, but the amazingly good boy that he is, he volunteered to come with me on the trip, and so this Saturday was set as our train adventure day.

            We made our way to the top edge of Singapore on Saturday afternoon, weighed down with a ridiculously big picnic (they don’t serve food on the train, so I didn’t want to risk hunger or misery along the way), our passports and very small overnight bags.

Armed with a picnic and way too excited about getting our trip underway! 

For Nick, the journey to KL was the least exciting part of the weekend, but for me it was one of the best bits. For around £30 in total, the two of us got amazingly comfortable (much more comfy than planes) reclining seats in an air-conditioned carriage with just a few other passengers in it. The single-track, Colonial style railway track ran up through old ramshackle Malaysian towns, through small countryside stations where families came out just to wave the train past. We drove straight through the centre of palm plantations, and all the way across the jungle of the Johor Strait, up into the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

We passed through a number of countryside villages on our journey

Jungle spaces and plantations lined the route

By about an hour into the journey Nick was napping and catching up on some comedy podcasts, but I was enthralled by the countryside for the full four hours that we had light. Sadly, then the sunset quickly, and I was left staring at a reflection of my own face as the pitch black outside the window had nothing to light it up until we reached the big city a few hours later.

Still light and Nick was at nap time already 

We pulled into the station at around 10:45pm, and made our way straight to a taxi to get ourselves to the hotel as quickly as possible. With the best part of my trip done, we arrived at The Majestic Hotel where we planned to make a quick change and then head out into the city for drinks where Nick had a few favourite locations in mind. When we checked in and saw our suite at the hotel our plans very quickly changed.

            For the grand total of around £70 we had booked a huge junior suite at the hotel – there was a four poster bed, a huge bath with a TV in front of it and a view straight out of the window next to it. Everything was in a retro 1930s style, and it was utterly beautiful!

            We decided that there would be time to locate the bar in the hotel for a speedy drink before we got in yet another taxi to get us into the heart of town, but by the time we had settled into the comfy chairs at the almost empty, but utterly beautiful bar, where there was also a card room, an entertainment room and a smoking room with two huge leather armchairs surrounded by whisky bottles, all enthusiasm to leave for a loud, bustling bar where we would have to cram for space and shout to speak fled. We knew by half way through the first drink that we weren’t going anywhere, so we settled deeper into the seats and made ourselves comfortable.

The Majestic really did live up to its name in every way possible! 

There followed an almost complete repeat of our trip to Marina Bay Sands the night before. Drinks in the bar, an amazing sleep in perhaps the biggest and most comfortable bed I have ever slept in, a late wake up, room service breakfast in bed (now that Nick has realised how amazing this lazy option is, I am pretty sure he will try and refuse to eat in the main restaurants at hotels ever again!) and a lazy morning in the hotel room before we ran out of time and had to check out and head off to the airport.

The only thing missing was the Sunday papers!

It was an utterly fantastic hotel, and for the quality and service, a complete bargain. I am not sure when we will next be in KL (the city doesn’t really have anything to offer), but I really hope me make it back to The Majestic at least once more before our time in Asia runs out.