The Jungle train in Malaysia.
 

Has anyone done the Jungle train from Gemas to Kota Bahru? I plan to start in Singapore and get myself to Gemas by train or bus. It looks like I will have to spend the noght in Gemas before staring the trip up north.

Have not done this, but my wife and I will be in Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand next June-July and we have considered the Jungle Train.

When are you going? We would love to hear a trip report.

Several videos on youtube including this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovtpd-pz_-w

I am planning to do it within the next two weeks. I will try and do a trip report. My biggest concern is finding a place to spend the night in Gemas. I am told the slow train, which leaves early in the morning from Gemas is better for enjoying the scenery. Which means I will have to spend a night in Gemas. Thanks for the link.

Yup, I've done it, although it was an overnight sleeper service so I can't say much about the scenery. Don't expect luxury or even much comfort: it's narrow gauge and the track is pretty poor maintained, so there's some pretty serious shaking (as in "fall out of your top bunk if not strapped in" kinda shaking) at points.

The main touristic use of the train seems to be access to the Taman Negara national park, so instead of sitting through all 10 hours of the trip, it would make a lot of sense to break your trip there.

Thanks. I was thinking of breaking the trip into two parts as sitting for that long can be very tiring, although O have done it from BKK to Chiangmai. It was interesting, but brutal.

I don't see why anyone would do the jungle train by sleeper at night. The entire purpose of the trip is the scenery.

As far as the gauge is concerned, the same gauge is used on the eastern line to from Gemas to Tumpat as the western line that goes via KL and Butterworth. Narrow is a loose term meaning anything less than the standard gauge or some specific sub 3 foot gauges. The gauge used in Malaysia is what's, more specifically, called metre gauge. So, it's not all that narrow. Although the usage is nnot well definied, I usually think of narrow gauage as sub 3 ft gauges, usually around 2' 6" or so likt the trains to Darjeeling or Simla.

It's probably the handiest way of traveling between Singapore and the Kota Bharu area (esp. Perhentian/Redang islands). Using the train is particularly useful for diving getaways, since you can get around the "no flying for 24 hours after diving" rule: fly in late Fri, dive all day Sat and Sun, catch the night train back and arrive reasonably refreshed and possibly even on time back at the office on Monday morning.

Metre gauge, being less than standard gauge (1435mm), is narrow gauge by definition. But it's not just the gauge alone: I've travelled both SIN-KL and SIN-KB, and the Jungle Railway is much shakier than the west coast mainline, even though they're both metre gauge.

I got you. You have traveled on the route, but not on the trains termed "jungle train". I will take the sleeper one way, up or down. The tickets are still hard to come by for the return part until the 7th. I thought Hari Raya rush would calm down after Eid.


Yes, metre gauage uis narrower than standard gauge. Narrower is not necessarily narrow. But anyway, do you if JB station has been relocated into the new complex? If not, do you know when the JB station is scheduled to be relocated? I have ben trying to find a bus connection between SIN and Gemas or JB and Gemas too.

Well, it's the Jungle Railway, so any trains running on it are pretty much by definition Jungle Trains... but no, I haven't taken a daytime train.

BTW, you may find this link interesting: http://wikitravel.org/en/Jungle_Railway

No, it's not open yet. As for when it's finally going to open, your guess is as good as mine -- while the structure looks fairly close to complete, it's already years delayed, and the present political turmoil certainly isn't going to speed up things one bit.

I doubt there are direct buses from Singapore to Gemas, but I'm pretty sure you can find some in JB. As intracity bus companies in Malaysia are not at all net-savvy, the easiest thing is probably just to show up at JB's Larkin terminal (easily reached by direct bus from Singapore) and ask around.

Actually, the Transnasional bus company intercity bus timetables can be found here.

I agree with jpatokal that there are no buses Singapore-Gemas. Hop on a bus in Singapore bound for Larkin Terminal in JB. For the Larkin-Gemas route, it appears there are several buses a day:

Time : 8:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm, 3:00pm, 5:00pm, 6:30pm.
Fare (Adult) : RM 14.20
Fare (Children) : RM 7.10
Phone : +607 - 2245182, +607 - 2220045
Arrival Terminal : Gemas : G7, Bangunan MARA, Gemas N. Sembilan
Phone : +607 - 9481089

Thanks for the link. If there is not bus got Gemas from SIN and I have to go to JB, train timings aren't bad at all from JB to Gemas. My thinking was that I wouldn't want to risk going to JB and finding out there is no bus to Gemas at all or that I missed the only morning bus to Gemas. (It happened to me once at the Lavender Street Station when I missed the only morning bus to Mersing.) There is a nine(ish) morning train from JB to Gemas. Now that I see there are buses from JB, it's good to know that both choices are available in the morning hours.
North Bound Jungle Train.
Train seems to be a better option to Gemas from JB as there is a nice hotel near the train station to rest up before catching the Jungle Train. he other possibility is spending the night in JB and catch the 6:30 train to Gua Musang.

At this point I have changed my plans. Instead of taking the Jungle train going uo north, I will take it cmoing back south. I plan to do SIN-JB-Mersing-Tioman and spend a a couple of days in the island before heading up north along the east coast to Kots Bahru at leisure. I have been planning to do Tioman since my first trip to Singapore in 1999.

Thanks for confirming jpatokal's hunch.

Heck, in that case, just rent a car in KL and drive to the boat put-in for Taman Negara (which is what we did) then boat into the park. It's only about a 3 hour drive from KL. You can park at that site for a low price. It's certainly true that drivers in Malaysia have a very creative approach to traffic rules, but it is doable. However, we went out of our way NOT to rent a Malaysian vehicle -- we had to go to Avis's top class and the car we got was a Toyota Corolla!

Are there two ( or more?) bus stations including Larking in the name in Johor Bahru? I have come across names such as Larkin Bus Terminal, Larkin, Hentian Kompleks, and sometimes simply Larkin. I want to be a the right lace to cacth a bust to Mersing. Are they all refering to the same bus station?

Yes. Only one bus terminal at Larkin.