After a relaxing day yesterday, we got up in the morning and went down for breakfast. The hotel had a great breakfast spread and we really enjoyed it. Even the restaurant setup and ambiance were great. We then went for a walk around the hotel. We wanted to stock up with a few food items for our journey to Thailand.
We decided to be a little adventurous and take the bus from our hotel to the jetty to take the ferry to Butterworth on mainland Malaysia. We didn’t have to wait at the bus stop for long. The bus ride was nice and we were treated to some great views of the Andaman Sea on the way. We also caught a glimpse of Georgetown.
At the jetty we boarded the ferry along with many people and vehicles. The cars were on the lower deck and the passenger seating was on the upper deck.
On the way we saw the famous Penang Bridge which is among the longest bridges in the world, the longest bridge in the country as well as a national landmark.
Butterworth railway station was just a quick walk from the ferry terminal. On reaching there we walked around a bit and got some food to eat at the nearby hawker center. I had planned our travel from Malaysia to Thailand by rail. We wanted to do something new and different and not the standard set of things Indian tourists do when they visit South East Asia with group tours.
seat61.com is a great site which helped me put everything in place. As we waited for our train, the International Express IE\36 to arrive we also saw the magnificent Eastern & Oriental Express, the luxury train for the rich and famous to tour South East Asia from Bangkok to Butterworth (Penang) to Kuala Lumpur to Singapore or vice versa.
Soon our train arrived and we made our way to our seats. There were just two compartments with a diesel engine. It was nice to sit back and relax and watch the Malaysian countryside go by. Our train slowed down as we approached the border with Thailand and stopped at Pedang Besar railway station.
This was going to be a first for us, international border crossing by rail. We were looking forward to the novelty of completing the immigration and customs formalities at a railway station; most people only do this at airports. We had gone from the USA to Canada over land earlier. So having covered international border crossing by air, by road and now by rail, the only thing remaining was by sea (which I finally managed to do, years later, when I visited Estonia).
We had to leave our bags in the train for inspection by the custom officials. We then completed the immigration and customs process to leave Malaysia and then to enter Thailand. The whole process didn’t take more than 15 minutes. I found a place to change currencies and soon we were back on board making our way through Thailand. We had ordered dinner and it was served after the coach attendant set up the table for us.
The sun had set by now and there wasn’t much to see outside. We soon approached Hat Yai, the first major town and railway station on the Thailand side. Our two compartments were then attached at the end of another train heading to Bangkok and soon we were on our way to the capital of Thailand. Our coach attendant then set up our berths for the night and soon we were off to sleep as our train made its way northwards reaching its destination the next day.
🚍 Rapid Penang Batu Ferringhi to Georgetown
⛴️ Penang Ferry Georgetown to Butterworth