THE 'JUNGLE LINE' - KUALA KRAI, GUA MASANG, KL, LUMUT & PANGKOR ISLAND
Once again, plans go awry as the Jungle Line is under maintenance
and there are basically no day journeys for another 2 years. The whole point of wanting to do this trip
was to take in the supposedly spectacular scenery along the way during daylight
hours… oh well, these things
happen! Lucky it doesn’t get dark here
at the minute until nearly 8pm.
We had a few hours to kill in Kuala Krai at the hotel before our train departed at
4:30pm further south to Gua Masang, a 3 hour journey costing a whole 4.70 myr! When we arrive, it’s possibly one of the
most amazing stops I have ever seen, the station itself is nothing special, but
there are 2 huge limestone karsts right across the tracks that make for an
imposing yet impressive sight, absolutely stunning.
Once here though, it was another 3 hour wait for our onward train
south to Gemas and back up and west to Kuala Lumpur, there are toilets, snacks,
noodles etc available if you are stuck there.
Tickets were 50 & 44 myr, different prices for top/bottom berth, it
was now 11pm and we just went sleep for the night, our train scheduled to
arrive at KL Sentral Station at around 10am the next morning.
After arriving in KL Sentral, a taxi for 10myr gets us to the Pudu
Sentral (Puduraya Bus Station) where there is no rest for us and we are soon on
a bus heading back north along the west coast to Lumut, jumping off point to
Pangkor Island.
Bus ticket is 28 myr and
even though I asked a few times whether it was a direct bus, not going through
Ipoh (apparently the long way round) we still ended up going there. I was continually reassured that it would
take only 4 hours, which it should, but it ended up being 6…
Bloody hell that is a pain in the ass, when you have been on the
move for so long already, we really didn’t need any more time sitting on a bus, but the scenery was really good, so not a total loss. We went with Ekspress Kesatuan and I would
avoid that company if you do the same journey.
I don’t get too upset if they try to have a lend of you, but out right
lying is not cool.
Our journey is not complete yet though and we still have a ferry
to catch across to Pangkor, the jetty is a 3 minute walk from the bus stop and
we finally catch a break, just managing to jump on the ferry as it is leaving,
saving a 45 minute wait! Tickets are 10
myr and we are disembarking at the Pangkor Island terminal in around 40
minutes.
Some snaps coming into Pangkor on the ferry
