C17PSGR

I took advantage of the QR US-SIN J sale and have 10 days coming up in Singapore.

I'm thinking through options outside Singapore but thinking of a couple days in KL in the mix (perhaps a couple of days somewhere else in SE Asia but that's another topic )

I see that I can take a train from JB connecting in Gemas to KL that is around 6 hours or so. Is there anything interesting to see from the train? Airfares out of SIN to KL are very reasonable so its not a cost factor ... just wondering if the train is more interesting from a cultural factor.

invisible

Honestly - not really. Unless you purposely want to kill 7 hours on a train ride with changing trains twice. Take a look at Seat 61 article below

There is no such thing as a Singapore to Bangkok ticket. Or even, these days, a Singapore to Kuala Lumpur ticket. Each individual train has its own ticket and its own fare, so first look up which trains you want to take in the timetable above. Then if you want to go from Singapore to KL for example, you'd take local transport from downtown Singapore to JB Sentral as explained here, then use the table below to look up the fares from JB Sentral to Gemas and from Gemas to KL Sentral.

tide

As noted above, there is no direct train from Singapore to KL. The train operator is Malaysia's KTMB. You would take the train from JB Sentral. Multiple options exist to get to JB Sentral from Singapore e.g. several buses from Queen Street or even KTMB's rail shuttle from the Woodlands station.

Culturally interesting is always relative. I think the rail journey could be interesting if the following intrigues you
1) Passing through several town centers on the way. There is no way to see these towns if you take the bus or car (both would use the extremely boring North South PLUS highway).
2) Squatter houses on KTMB land. This has/is been a huge problem.
3) Tropical flora and fauna. The rail journey wends through palm plantations, durian/pineapple plantations and so on.
4) People watching
5) Railway fan. KTMB operates diesel locomotives on this route. This one day will disappear as they are moving to electric sets.

txflyer77

Maybe do a triangle route.

Spend two nights in Singapore working off the jetlag, pop up to Penang for three or four nights at the Eastern and Oriental, enjoying the street food of Georgetown, then fly over to Kuching in Sarawak for jungle trekking and one of SE Asia's most pleasant (IMO) cities. Then back to SIN.

https://www.travelfish.org/sight_pro...k/kuching/2327

https://www.travelfish.org/location/.../penang/penang

IMO, KL is not worth going out of your way to visit.

Depending on exactly what "10 days" means, you might be able to squeeze in Langkawi (beaches) but I think that'd be pushing it.

Deafchick

I took this route about 5 yrs ago. In my opinion, KL is not worth the trip and there is not much to do there.

I used Seat61 as a guide because it was my first time backpacking overseas.

https://www.seat61.com/Malaysia.htm

wco81

So if KL is not worth visiting, what's another destination to combine with Singapore given the long trip from the US?

I'm thinking of going in June, when it's suppose to have the least amount of rain.

Just going by weather patterns, a lot of the nearby countries have some of their wettest parts of the year in June and July while Singapore is suppose to have the least amount of rain at that time.

Thailand is close but it looks like most of the destinations (Phuket, Bangkok, Chiang Mai) all get a lot of rain at that time.

Bali seems to have the least amount of rain at that time of the year.

What's a good nearby destination to pair with Singapore?

SQ319

Not matter how you plan, you still can be unlucky and get a few wet days in June in Singapore.

I would recommend a beach resort together with Singapore. Bali, Phuket or Krabi are all pretty nice and close to Singapore. Imo, Bali is more culturally interesting than Phuket or Krabi if that's what you are after. These places are probably good for 3-4 nights.

SQTraveller

I would avoid the train where possible. Personally, I would agree with SQ319 and say fly out to say Bali and/or other destinations then KL, and then fly to Singapore for the connecting flight to QR. There are plenty of cheap flights, and I know people who spend 2/3 days in each location before flying on. They needed another holiday when they got back to the home country, but really packed in a whole lot of stuff!

wco81

You would have to fly to Bali wouldn't you, since it's a separate island?

SQTraveller

I was just trying to provide another destination suggestion, but you are correct. I should have clarified.