Chu Chu Train, Here We Come

This is a long overdue post but better late than never, right? Since hubby can’t take an extra day off prior to the Raya holidays, I decided that for a change we (the kids and I) took the train instead for our trip to Kampar. So I went to KTM website and checked it out but unfortunately the online ticketing was down but thank God the website leads me to a call center for booking. I called and verified on the availability and booked straight away. Two days later, went to the KTM office in Butterworth to get our tickets. The kids and I(the kid in me) was equally excited about the trip as it was our first time traveling on the rail tracks.

The trip from Butterworth to Kampar on 2nd class, one way costs RM23 for adult and RM16 for children below 12 and we booked the earliest train of the day departing from Butterworth at 8.00am. We woke up at about 6.20am, left the house at about 6.45am, hubby dropped us at the ferry terminal at 7.10am and we took the ferry to Butterworth. We managed to witness the beautiful sun rise on the ferry. The train terminal is about 5 minutes walk from the ferry terminal. We were just in time to board the train.

Surprisingly the train condition was quite good, clean and air-conditioned, so much space compared to buses, best of all the kids can walked up and down, draw and play, there were toilets for every compartment and also a TV for every 20 seats or so. So no complain/fuss from the kids except it was extremely cold that morning, the kids wore three layers of T-shirts as I did not bring along their jacket (suppose to travel light, imagine alone with two kids and a luggage bag).

We stopped at a few stations to pick and drop passengers at the same time… let me recall Bukit Mertajam, Nibong Tebal…..., Taiping, Ipoh and finally Kampar. The whole journey took us approximately 4 hours, quite slow but if you are not in a hurry I personally recommend this. Of course the kids made a mess in their seats as they were happily and clumsily helping themselves with snacks, drinks (they really made themselves at home), so sorry for the cleaner! They kept asking me why it took so long to reach Kampar, why it was so cold, where we were, made multiple trips to the toilet and…. (the list goes on…). Any mother can imagine my situation for that 4 long hours.

Finally at approximately 12 noon, the officer made the announcement that we will be reaching Kampar in a few minutes time, we packed our stuff. As we get ready to alight, to our delight “kung kung” was just in front of us to greet us. How nice to be back home again! Back home, my brother and his family were there to welcome us… it was a well planned journey and for the next 4 days we had great family time together and for my husband, a 4 days 3 nights bachelor life again.

Stay tune for some pictures. Here you go...

Sun rise shot from the ferry..

The girls sitting comfortably and obviously delighted with the condition..

The train condition - 2nd class cabin


Padi field scenery

Finally reached our destination, Kampar station

Kampar train station - renovated, this the train that we boarded

For those who don't know what's this... it's the railway tracks k?
Hmm.. what's next, maybe a ride in a luxury high class coach?