Day 3 : Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur, Monday 10th June 2024
Partly cloudy / hazy / shower in Kuala Lumpur, 31°
NZ$1 = MYR3 ( Malaysia Ringgit )
MYR1=NZ$0.33
Up at 6:30am , and downstairs for breakfast; the normal fare but no bacon…might this might be a sign of things to come in an officially Muslim Country. The hotel was being stayed in by a group of Malaysian Police and they were all up for breakfast in the their dress uniforms.
Back to the room, packed etc and checked out and left at 7:30am. Walked across the road then through to the next block to the station ( about 5 minutes walk in total ). Up to the concourse then waited for the 8:30am train to Gemas to board.
As I to alluded to in the last blog the train trip today to KL is actually 2 separate trains; a slow diesel hauled train to Gemas, and then a highspeed electric ETS train from Gemas to KL Sentral. They are currently ( again as mentioned in the last blog ) building the high speed line from Gemas to Johor Bahru ( and on to Singapore ), and we will see these works on the journey to Gemas today, so eventually the high speed train will run from KL to Singapore. To make the 2 train situation more frustrating is that there are only 2 trains from Gemas to KL, and to connect with the earliest one ( at 3:20pm ) we have a 2 hour 20 wait in Gemas after our train arrived. And Gemas is not really the place to be able to fill in 2 hours.
We went through the gates at 8:05am then down and onto the train ( these are older carriages with diesel locos, but at least they have air conditioning ). While I was taking a photo of the train I got invited to take a look at the inside of the cab by a nice man; he obviously thought I was a train spotter.
We left on time at 8:30am ( seems to be the norm to be on time in Malaysia ). A slow trundle up into the rural areas inland, with more palm trees than I have ever seen in my life; they all seem to be in plantations not wild. There were a few stops on the way ( 14 stops ); most of the stations on the route are being upgraded for the new high speed trains so some stops had temporary stations slightly along from the station, others were using the new stations already. There was also a lot of track work being done, which made the trip a little bit slower/longer. All in all it was a nice trip.
We arrived in Gemas at 1pm ( 5 hrs 30 min trip ). Up the lift then across the over bridge and then down the lift and out onto the streets of Gemas. We had already been warned that there wasn’t a lot here, so we walked a little way to the main shopping street ( there isn’t a lot ) then got lunch at KFC at 1:30pm ( MYR30/$10 for 2 meals ). Finished up and walked across to the Family Mart convenience store across the road, and after buying a drink I realised I had left my bag at the KFC; ran back and grabbed it to the surprised looks from of our fellow passengers who hadn’t seen it sitting tucked away in a corner.
Gemas looks like it was once a busy town; the main road in the area ( the 1 route ) runs through the town and there is plenty of cars and trucks passing through, and there appears to be a grid of 5 or 6 streets which form the main shopping commercial area, but everything looks old and tired and empty.
We headed back to the train station ( which was also old, but had been given a minor facelift as it was now a busy station ) to wait for the 3:20pm high speed train to KL. We sat in the station watching people and getting warm ( no A/C, just fans ). At 3:05pm the crowd surged and we went through the gates and back down to the same platform we got off at, but onto a new train. When we booked our tickets for this trip ( and the shuttle from Woodlands ) we used the Malaysian Railway ( KTMB ) phone app to store the QR codes, which we then scanned at the gates to get access to the train; it was simple and worked well.
We boarded the ETS train ( ETS = Electric Train Service ) and left at 3:20pm. A bit of a faster trip through the country side, up to 140km/h in places, with a few stops. The scenery was much the same ( palm trees ( coconuts, dates etc ) and banana trees mainly ) with the occasional town /city. It was slower going for the last hour and a half with more track works underway just south of KL , then slowly into KL itself ( it was now rush hour and we were using shared tracks).
The tickets for these train trips ( which we booked in NZ before we left )
JB to Gemas NZ$14 for both of us
Gemas to KL NZ$20 for both of us
The train arrived at KL Sentral on time at 5:50pm; right into rush hour. We got up to the concourse then found where we needed to go to catch the metro line towards our hotel ( the KJ Line or Red Line ). We bought a ticket then up to the platform and squeezed onto the next train with our bags ( this is where we discovered that in Malaysia ( as we found on most of the trip ) personal space is important and at no time was anyone touching us; even at busy times there was always space around us). We only went 1 stop to Pesar Seni, then down to street level and walked the 2 blocks north to our hotel, passed the market and down a shopping street, and checked in out our hotel ( Santa Grand Classic, $237 for 3 nights ), then up to 602 on the top floor to our room at 6:25pm. A long day of travel to get here but very enjoyable.
We dropped our bags then went looking for tea; down through Chinatown ( Petaling Street ) which was a block away from the hotel, and found a noodle bar for our dinner ( MYR61/$20 for 2 meals and 2 drinks ). We walked back to the hotel at 7:30pm; there were a few homeless folk in the streets around our hotel which wasn’t the nicest look, but it felt safe enough. Got some cough syrup for Liz ( MYR12) and some supplies at the 7Eleven on the way back.
Rested / crashed.