SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:40 am I looked at the bus/train option once, maybe 2012. in reverse. Bus over to Bangkok, then train to KL.
End of the trip and i was flat broke as usual, heading back to Oz as cheaply as could - but it was more expensive than flying, especially with living costs over a couple of days.

In 1975 i caught the train from Singapore to Bangkok.
2 1/2 days, with a night in the wonderful old colonial Railway Hotel over the station in KL. Somerset Maugham eat your heart out.
In those days a lot of the Malaysian part of the trip was through endless boring old rubber plantations, nowadays it is probably endless boring new palm oil plantations.
The trip through southern Thailand was spectacular though.

Those towering limestone karsts in the early morning light, rising so suddenly and so dramatically out of the monsoon season, emerald green and silver, dead-flat-to-the-horizon, rice fields all around - and the astonishingly fertile and productive market gardens outside Bangkok, still stick in my mind 46 years later.
Probably worth doing if you get the chance.

truffledog wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:41 pm

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:40 am In 1975 i caught the train from Singapore to Bangkok.
... still sticks in my mind 46 years later.
Probably worth doing if you get the chance.

2.5 days on the train..not my type of travel experience..just hardcore trip to spend more while hoping to save? The few nice sights dont pay for the torture endured (especially if done in 2nd or even 3rd class to save money). And I would always stopover in Penang to enjoy some of the best (street) foods available in Asia.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:29 pm

truffledog wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:41 pm

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:40 am In 1975 i caught the train from Singapore to Bangkok.
... still sticks in my mind 46 years later.
Probably worth doing if you get the chance.

2.5 days on the train..not my type of travel experience..just hardcore trip to spend more while hoping to save? The few nice sights dont pay for the torture endured (especially if done in 2nd or even 3rd class to save money). And I would always stopover in Penang to enjoy some of the best (street) foods available in Asia.

Yes, it probably is a bit more comfortable with 45 years hindsight, but was the only feasible way to travel in those days. In totally foreign lands.

On the flip side, it was nothing like sitting on a foam rubber cushion and flipping thru the TV channels with your remote - which is pretty much what the whole modern travel experience is for most people these days.