North Borneo Railway

The North Borneo Railway is one of Malaysia best tourist product....but no one seems to know about it! It is a rail excursion from Kota Kinabalu to Papar and back in a one of the last wood burning steam engines left in the world. There are 2 services a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It's managed by The Sutera Harbour Resort and Sabah State Railway.

You know you are in for a very special time when you arrive at the Tanjung Aru station and see a platform with period deco, old music in the background and staff dressed in colonial uniforms.

So I quickly explore the train and discover beautifully restored rail coaches done with an eye for detail.

My excitement goes up a notch when the Vulcan Steam engine appears all huffing, puffing and hissing!

Once everyone arrives (it's a full load), we set off on our journey. Soon the staff appear with a simple but delicious breakfast, one of two meals that we enjoy on our trip. The other is lunch served "tiffin" style on the way back.

After a few stops we are in Papar where we have time to walk around as the Vulcan steam engine is turned around and the train all set up for our return journey

 It all ends too soon back at Tanjung Aru around 2pm and the wonderful staff stand-by to say goodbye to us.

Go do it if you have the time in Kota Kinabalu. For more information visit their web site : North Borneo Railway

It's a short trip back in time.

The Royale Chulan Hotel

I find 5 star hotels boring. Sure they are nice and the service is efficient but they normally lack character and personality. I love little hotels, they are affordable and as long as they are clean and they make me feel at home, I will return.

A good example is Eden54 in Kota Kinabalu. Really comfortable and a wonderful supermarket downstairs it's the kind of hotels I love. My favorite is Bon Ton in Langkawi. The staff know everyone by name and it's like home.

On the other end is The Royale Chulan in KL. What a "5 star" disaster! Every visit it will give me another thing to complain about. The latest, I went to get a take away coffee. Told the cashier I wanted an Americano. She asked me to wait as she needed to find some the staff. Finally a foreign staff arrives and asked me if I wanted "milk" with my Americano! I replied that an Americano is "black coffee". He looked at me with an arrogant expression and said "oh some people like milk". Next saw him use his fingers to "temper" the coffee in the filter basket. After he passed the cup to me I saw he just gave me a double espresso with no water. That is bad training and management.

Avoid that hotel like the plague!

Airline Meals part 2

When I was I crew, I use to think that we were insane to serve a hot meal on the Johor Bharu - Kuching sector which is just over an hour long. In fact we would rush on sectors to Jakarta, Kuching, Bangkok. After leaving, I realised that other airlines serve hot meals on shorter sectors and do it without the chaos and rushing we had. I flew on a 1 hour flight with Jet Airways from Chennai to Kochi on an ATR72. Knowing that it was a turbo prop, I expected some cold sandwiches at best. Once seated the lovely crew served a welcome drink before take-off and to my surprise once in the air, I heard the sound of ovens coming on. Minutes later the lovely ladies were in the cabin serving a hot breakfast.

I picked the vegetarian breakfast and it was lovely

This vegetarian main was superb

Came with fresh cut fruit

A croissant and jam too

The other choice was an omelette

All this was served with coffee and the crew were as gracious as ever. On the return flight it was lunch with a vegetarian and chicken choice.

Chicken please

So maybe it was a small plane and easy to serve. When that isn't true either. I have flown on Garuda between Jakarta and Denpasar and they also serve a hotmeal on a 1 hour flight on both A330 and B747-400 aircraft.

Shrimps and noodles...yum

During Ramadhan it was served in a box so that those fasting could take the meal back

So what did I get recently on a MAS flight from KUL to Phuket?

A box full of sweet stuff and a dry meat roll

Airline meals part 1

Why do you choose a particular airline? More often than not, it's because of the price if you are paying from your own pocket. It's a bonus if we get good food along with the cheap ticket but these days, I am fine about paying for food on board as long as it taste good. In fact, I prefer "buy-on-board" as I get to eat what I want and not what some airline accountant behind a desk, deep in the basement of an airline office, thinks I should eat, taking into account how much he thinks the airline should spend on the meal. Sometimes a simple drink and a small bite is enough.

A little muffin and a juice that is just nice for a short hop to Penang on Firefly

Some airlines make it a grand affair. Emirates has always been my favorite when it come to airline meals. Jet Airways of India blew my mind with an elaborate breakfast in business on a flight to Chennai

A beautiful Indian Vegetarian meal served on fine china on Jet Airways

Remember when Malaysia Airlines served great food. Today MAS is a sad shadow of what it use to be. Below is an example. Let's compare what was served pre-cost cutting on the KUL/DPS sector.

An economy tray filled with food

Then came Idris Jala and his bloody snack-box

This sad nasi lemak with nothing but half and egg and sambal kosong

So I will post more photo's soon and share what I think. Selamat menjamu selera if you can!

From JB to KL on the Sinaran Petang

On the 16th September, I decided to return to Kuala Lumpur by the afternoon train instead of flying back. During this trip I realised that KTMB had decided to "pad" the schedule so that the trains had longer block times than was needed. So we arrived at each station a good 10 to 25 minute early! So that also meant an extra 1 and a half was added to the journey time! Here are some photos of the trip

Welcome! One of my earliest recollection of travel is as a child by train to Singapore. It was like a magic carpet ride as far as I was concerned. I was bitten by the travel bug and the rest as they say is history. It was the beginning of my travels around the world thanks to my work. Until today, I can stand and watch trains go past all day, while friends wonder why I would take the train. With the train, it's the journey not the destination that excites me. So I hope to share my rail travels and also my other love...planes in this blog. All aboard!