It might not have the same history as the original Orient Express, but the five-star service and opulent decor has the same appeal.
On a 15-carriage train, where my car F is 12 carriages from the piano bar, a certain knack is required for walking while the train is trundling along at 90km/h. I master a technique that necessitates a hand on each wall and a step-stop-step balancing act with my shoulders taking the weight when the slim, narrow-gauge track curves and the carriage leans.
A berth on the E&O Express has been in my sights since travelling in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province about 15 years ago.
The journey begins at Malaysia’s Woodlands Station, the border checkpoint near Singapore, where, straight after immigration, I spot the E&O Express curved along the platform behind a big old diesel engine, a line of smartly attired porters ready to welcome passengers on board. The scenery shapeshifts between haughty rows of palm and rubber plantations and little villages with simple corrugate and concrete houses and primary coloured rooftops – what’s left of the tin mining communities originally serviced by this railway.
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