Eastern Orient Express

Eastern Orient Express Travel Guide.

Information and Photo Guide about our Far East holiday trip on this famous long distance railway journey travelling between Bangkok and Singapore.

Below is some travel information and also a series of photographs which were taken on the luxurious Eastern Orient Express railway during it's long journey from Bangkok in Thailand via Penang and into Singapore.

The Eastern and Orient Express makes the 1260 mile trip from Bangkok in Thailand down through Malaysia to Singapore 2 to 3 times a month - the train gives you the height of luxury with beautiful accommodation and an excellent observation area at the end of the train where there is also a bar. In the middle of the train you will also find a proper old-fashioned piano bar. Each of the train's rooms (cabins) has it's own bathroom with shower and each of the carriages has a 24 hour personal attendant - the staff on the train are amazing and will do all they can to make your trip really enjoyable. You do have to dress quite formally for dinner - i.e. suit and tie and so on - really sort of James Bond style - the restaurant is silver service. The costs for drinks on board were surprisingly inexpensive and you could have any combination of drink you might think of.

The train journey starts off in the evening from Hualampong railway station and gets you into Singapore on the morning of the fourth travelling day i.e. you have two complete days on the train plus bits.
One particular place of interest is at the River Kwai - here the train waits for a while so that travellers can take a short cruise along the river and also have a look at the North Temple and the Chinese Cemetery.

To give an idea of our own trip - we flew from Singapore to Bangkok on a low cost flight (this was only 70 UK Pounds for the two of us). We stayed two nights at the Oriental Hotel (this hotel is really luxurious) and then caught the train on a Sunday afternoon and travelled out of Bangkok towards the River Kwai. We stopped for a cruise on the river and a also took the tour around the museum and cemetery. Then it was back on the train to then have a quick stopover in Kuala Lumpur and then another stop as we neared Penang. The train stopped again and we took a ferry over to Penang for lunch.

The train journey then continued on into Singapore where we arrived on the Wednesday morning. For two of us this was approximately 3500 Ukstg (we were in the middle standard cabins). This train journey therefore is quite expensive however we considered it well worth the money and to be one of those "trips of a lifetime". Note any prices quoted are for guidance - they apply to when we did this railway journey which is now a couple of years ago so expect things to have increased somewhat.