The Eastern & Oriental Express in Asia is restarting, crossing tropical jungles and touring around Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand
Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore have recently announced visa-free policies for China, and the Eastern & Oriental Express, which tours around Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, will make a grand return in February 2024. The train departs from Singapore, passes through Malaysia and Bangkok, and then returns to Singapore!
The Eastern & Oriental Express consists of several dark green carriages. After being renovated and upgraded, the interior is as luxurious as a five-star hotel, with Malaysian-style patterns, Thai carvings and decorations... These inspirations from different Asian countries constitute the Southeast Asian style of the 19th century, elegant and gorgeous. In addition to different levels of passenger carriages, the train is also equipped with two dining carriages and a salon carriage. The luxurious dinner prepared by chefs from the UK, France, Malaysia, and India adds color to the journey. Tasting delicious food and wine, dancing with your loved ones in the melodious music, you will never feel bored on the train at night!
The train is over 2000 kilometers long and passes through various landscapes of three countries. Through the window, from bustling cities to mysterious ancient rainforests, a unique Southeast Asian journey slowly unfolds. The returning Eastern & Oriental Express has launched two seasonal sightseeing routes, making the journey more colorful!
1️⃣ Malaysia Cultural Essence Tour Route: Singapore—Kuala Lumpur—Langkawi—Penang—Johor—Singapore
The journey lasts for 3 nights, starting from Woodlands Train Station in Singapore. Sitting in the luxurious and comfortable cabin, looking at the changing urban landscape and green mountains outside the window, heading to Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi and other places with the joy of dinner after nightfall. After a night's sleep, the paddy fields and villages in the west of Malaysia come into view, feeling the strong rural natural atmosphere. Get off at Alor Setar Station, take a boat to Paya Island Marine Park in Langkawi, cocktails and barbecues on the shore, angelfish and eels underwater, surfing and snorkeling in the blue sea, feeling free and happy. After returning to the train at night, there are performances by local artists! On the third day, arrive at Penang, the cultural melting pot of Malaysia. From the west coast to the north coast, traditional Malaysian culture thrives here. The encounter of herbs and vegetables gave birth to Nyonya cuisine developed by overseas Chinese who moved to Malaysia. Nyonya cuisine is diverse in flavor, sour and sweet, spicy and fragrant, slightly spicy, different practices bring out different deliciousness, what remains unchanged is their nostalgia for their homeland! In George Town, magnificent temples, various art studios and puppet theaters form a journey of traditional Malaysian culture and art. Strolling through the streets and alleys of the old town, indulging in a foreign country, feeling the rich and vivid traditional Malaysian tea ceremony and street art. Finally, cross the rainforest and beaches to reach Johor State, cross the strait to Singapore, the green rainforest, the vast ocean, and the modern city with high-rise buildings, the scenery outside the window keeps changing, and finally ends in Singapore!
2️⃣ Malaysia Natural Fun Tour Route: Singapore—Gemas—Taman Negara National Park—Kuala Lumpur—Penang—Johor—Singapore
Compared with the Cultural Essence Tour, there are more places to pass and the itinerary is more compact. In addition to tasting Malaysian Nyonya cuisine, enjoying the scenery of Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, and Malaysian jungles, this journey also cooperates with the global tiger conservation charity 'Save Wild Tigers' to explore the habitat of wild animals in the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. The Malayan tiger is regarded as the national beast of Malaysia, with orange and black stripes all over its body, and their images are also in the train decorations. Cross the dense jungle of Malaysia to Taman Negara National Park, where Malayan tigers live. They live in the rainforest, passengers can explore their territory, the thrilling 'Tiger Territory' wildlife exploration activity is usually hard to experience, and taking adventure photos in the jungle with local staff, leaving a souvenir photo, will be an unforgettable moment in a lifetime. Finally return to the train, after passing through Kuala Lumpur, arrive in Penang, barbecue and play with local chefs and artists; watch the sea in Johor, the endless blue makes people feel relaxed at a glance; finally return to Singapore, end the journey with the company of the sea and the forest!
This is my 2nd time visiting Taman Negara Pulau Pinang aka Penang National Park.Fees: RM10 for locals and RM50 for foreignersHiking route to Monkey Beach still close, therefore we can only hike to Kerachut Beach. Before entering the hiking area, there are some stalls promoting speed boat to come back to entrance area from Kerachut beach. Me and my friend decided to take speed boat back, cost us RM100 for 2 of us. (If you choose to stop at Monkey Beach have to add RM20) It took us about 1-1.5hours to reach the beach area. The route is not so hard and we enjoyed it very much.Kerachut beach area is nice, we chill under the tree for a-bit until we go to take the speed boat at booked time.Overall, it’s pretty cool place to visit!
me and my partner hiked up to pantai kerachut known as the turtle beach in penang island, we decided to hike to and fro from penang national park . It was an excellent experience, the tranquille environment with nature surrounding u at its finest. I do recommend everyone to try it out
Very cool park with an easy hike. Nice beaches/coves to stop off at along the way - saw some monitor lizards, snakes, monkeys and jellyfish. Monkey beach is good fun, very pretty and has good food, drinks and calm water for swimming/paddling in. Tide comes in so don’t wait too long before walking back - boat service is offered to go back but for more money.
We walked from entrance to USM beach. The path is somewhat rocky and slippery as it had just rain when we started off. Along the way, we spotted the dusky leaf monkey, hermit crab and monitor lizard. There were also many tiny transparent crabs at the USM beach. on the way out, we stopped by the jetty and saw the fisherman laying out their net to be rolled. Sadly the place lacks maintenance. some of the metal staircase are badly corroded and the wooden ones are falling apart. I really hope they can maintain it better.
It's pretty good to play in Penang, and the beach is also OK.