Well, I had this chance of choosing different modes of transport to be in Hatyai for 1 night. Well I chose to take the train, off to KL Sentral to purchase my tickets and bought myself a sleeping berth.

I have not been on the train for a good number of years, so it's exciting again to go on a journey like this.... the moment I stepped on board ... wow... the same setting I remembered when I was a kid. My parents use to take me to Singapore via train when I was a kid. 20 years later I see the same outlook except it has air-condition coach. KTM must have done a really good job in maintaining these coaches.

Never mind, I just put my bags on my upper sleeping berth and climbed on.... Guess what, either the bed had shrunk or I had grown in size.... as I remembered not too long ago when travelling with my parent I use to have so much space to sleep on the upper berth.... errr, , wait, wait... reality hit me.... hey it's 20 years later... duh!

Oh well, make do with the amount of space I have.... There were backpackers foreign tourist and local in the same coach. A foreign tourist asked me where does she store her backpack, err,,... good question.. well I just said up on our beds I guess.....

Next were senior citizens that occupy the bed below me and opposite me as well, as they got on the first thing they said to each other is take care of your belongings. The stories they've heard .. waking up and all your belongings are taken away..... wow.. I could not believe this statement. and guess what... big stickers everywhere saying be careful of your belongings... haiz.... we live in the year of 2007 now, Malaysia has pushed so much in ICT and a safe country for us to live in .. but KTM cannot invest in a CCTV camera to view coaches for security reasons.... oooo I forgot , they must preserve the whole outlook of the train....

Onward with my journey, 2045 hrs it says on the ticket, we pushed off at about 2050.... about 15mins later I saw a station coming up and I viewed thru the window.... aiks dejavu... I'm seeing Sentral Station.... errr... okok it's only 2145hrs, I'm not dreaming yet, can't be..... ohhh we traveled the opposite way and came back ... I wondered why????

I slept ok, waking up at almost every stop the train made. Morning came and it was sunrise, picked up my camera and took a few shots of the sunrise, waiting and waiting to arrive at my destination. I went to the bathroom... aiyeeeee..... I don't think you wanna go if it's really necessary..... but I had to go ....

After various announcement , yes there is announcement but you really have to pay attention because the announcer shouts into the mic , and it's kind of hard to make out what he says at times....

We have arrives in Padang Besar, the border between Thailand and Malaysia. this is interesting.... No proper announcement of what to do, just some mumbling over the speakers, the foreign tourist was talking amongst themselves of "are we taking our bags down, changing trains" most were just clueless including me.

Oh well I just took my camera bag and walked out the train. Oh it's the checkpoint here, we have to stamp our passports here in this station. So much for information and visit Malaysia Year... absolutely no proper information to tourist and locals alike..... When does the tourism ministry and KTM wake up to know that to attract more tourist some small details needs to be looked at....

Proceed to get my passport stamped, had everything cleared and about to board back to the train.... we have to wait 30mins before we can get back on board, reason: they need to refuel change coaches... but but but.. my backpack is still in there and so it the other passengers..... the train then chucks along in reverse... and I'm just hoping to see my backpack again.

The train arrives back at the station except now it looks a lot shorter, the engine, 2 coaches and a generator coach I think. Passengers go back into the coach, and everyone just see if their belongings are still there... phew it is....

Waiting anxiously as when again the train is going to move out again to get to my final destination. At last by the time it arrived into Hatyai station it was 15 1/2 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Hatyai..... phew

If I remember vaguely , I travel form Frankfurt to Amsterdam by rail took me about 6 hours.... wow I survived a 15 plus hours train ride.
Definitely a Malaysia boleh concept for rail travel for me that is... I'll definitely vote KTM an award for slow scenery travel ......