First of all obtaining tickets can be done in a variety of ways (again seat61 runs through this) either via the State Railway of Thailand (I hear they are aggravatingly slow to respond to e-mails), by buying tickets at the station while you are there or by using a third party. We used a third party ourselves just for piece of mind, feel free to check them out traveller2000.com, there is a small surcharge when using the service but they will deliver your tickets to your hostel/hotel and if you mention seat61.com you’ll get a small discount on the surcharge.
The train itself is to be honest a very pleasurable experience, seats are set out in what is essentially an open compartment where a maximum of two people sit facing each other.
As for luggage storage- we had two relatively big backpacks (though I’ve seen many people with much larger) and two smaller bags, we found that we could slot the larger backs under our chairs, there is also a large rack above… though get to it quick as it packs up very quickly. Our small bags were placed next to us, to be honest you could probably quite happily seat 4 people together in the booth!
At night a member of the train staff comes around and makes up the beds (for us this happened about 19:00 though I hear sometimes you have to wait until 22:00, it seemed to be only one person doing this and there are a lot of carriages), the two seats in the booth fold out to become the lower bunk, you pay a slight bit more for this bunk; this is for a variety of reasons, number one you have a window, number two the booth is much darker, number three you get a LOT more room (not lengthways) and finally number four it’s more comfortable. Above the lower bunk is a compartment which falls down to become the second bed. The upper bed is very bright, quite cramped and a nowhere near as comfortable as the lower deck.
Picture of the lower birth and upper birth, with curtains drawn:
Food is easily obtained on the train and can be obtained at the dining cart or a man comes around with a menu, in Thai and English and you can order dinner and breakfast to your booth (I believe it costs a small fraction more than the dining cart) we missed out on dinner but it seems to be a set menu i.e. soup, curry, coffee etc.. You can also order beer. We did have breakfast and it was a simple affair of two pieces of toast with spread, two small pieces of fruit, juice and a coffee. Incidentally, if you order breakfast you may get woken up early. I advise bringing snacks on just as a backup. Also at each stop locals come on to the train selling a variety of meats, rice dishes and beer.
At the border you take everything off the train to pass through Thai and Malay customs and then you board the same train, though it seems to be sit where you can/want from here on out. This process took us 30 minutes, though I hear if the train arrives on time you are waiting around for about an hour before you pass on through immigration.
We’d read other reviews about the toilets being bad, even by eastern standards, but we found them to be very clean, with plenty of toilet paper and lots of soap at the sinks. One was a squat toilet, the other a western. Also the train was cleaned on a regular basis and rubbish collections carried out. The train itself was quite noisy and bumpy, and there was quite a severe rocking motion when we were in bed- some might find this an aid to sleep!
The journey itself is rather repetitive but we both personally found it a great way to travel; it’s safe, the staff are very friendly, and it was very easy.
A couple of photos we took of the journey;
By the way if you’re getting off at Butterworth with the aim of getting to Penang it’s very easy. Signs are in English to the ferry, I believe they run every 17 minutes and the journey itself takes a mere 10 minutes at a very leisurely pace, costing 1.20 Ringgits or approximately 20 - 25p.
Any questions please ask.
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