I have always been fascinated by overland train travel and when Laos reopened its border to tourists in May 2022, the idea of taking its newly-opened high-speed railway was formed in my mind.

With leave days to clear in my old job before my upcoming new role as well as the blessing of Mrs, I decided to embark on an overland journey through four Southeast Asian countries, with the ultimate aim of reaching Boten, Laos' border town with China.

Segment 1: Singapore to Kuala Lumpur

A journey of a thousand miles (more like 1,800 miles in this case) begins with a single step and mine was getting to Golden Mile Tower to board the 1.30pm coach to Kuala Lumpur.



I wished that I could take the trains all the way but to travel between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur by trains was simply too much hassle these days. Things will change when KTM completes its double-tracking project in Johor (hopefully by October 2022) but in the meantime, the coach will be faster and more hassle-free.

The bus ticket was booked online the day before, costing 30 SGD (21.60 USD). I was required to verify my booking at the office and the staff informed me to wait for the bus outside.


The coach arrived at 1.26pm and I was surprised to see passengers coming from Kuala Lumpur alighting. I later learned that the original bus had broken down and the replacement bus had to do an immediate turnaround back to Malaysia.



I boarded and settled into seat 01.


Despite the confusion arising from the newly allocated seat numbers, the bus departed only 15 minutes after the original scheduled departure time.

The Singapore leg of this journey took only half an hour and most passengers breezed through Singapore's exit immigration control.

It was my first time crossing over Second Link into Malaysia after two long years of COVID-19 pandemic. Forest Citydevelopment could be spotted in a distance.



I managed to clear the Malaysian immigration within five minutes of arrival and no proof of vaccination was requested. However, the Malaysian immigration control presented some problems for an Indian family traveling on the same coach and they took close to an hour to be cleared to enter Malaysia. It meant that I had plenty of time to observe the closed shops at the waiting point.



Our coach only got going from Malaysian CIQ at around 3.35pm, almost two hours since departing Golden Mile Tower. The driver kept driving for the next three hours until we reached Nilai R&R where we had a bathroom break.



It was sunset time when we were driving into the heavy Klang Valley traffic.



Despite the delay, we rolled into Terminal Bersepadu Selatan at the scheduled arrival time of 7.30pm and some of the passengers alighted.



Fifteen minutes later, I alighted at the second stop of Berjaya Times Square and decided to have a quick dinner at Nando's (27.90 MYR or 6.32 USD). How apt to have chicken for dinner on the first day of Malaysia's ban on chicken exports to Singapore.



While traveling on the coach, I've booked my accommodation for the night. Mercure KL Shaw Parade was a block away from where I alighted and the cost was a very reasonable 50.14 SGD (36 USD).

The room was pretty nice and I couldn't complain at this cost.



It also has a small rooftop pool.

And of course I couldn't leave Kuala Lumpur without a shot of Petronas Towers and KL's cityscape.





Distance travelled so far: ~ 370km