The Eastern and Oriental Express

Sorry about the delay, we somehow lost the first blogs we'd written about our journey on this amazing train, and with no Internet access until we arrived in Bangkok, this is now a slightly condensed version of the original.

We were met by the E&O staff at the hotel where our tour started last Thursday and after check in were taken to an upstairs lounge where we met our fellow travellers and where tea and coffee was served before departure. There were 86 of us making the journey from Singapore to Bangkok. Mainly British, but also Americans, Canadians, Germans, French and Dutch. And a whole lot of Swedish female travel agents, who spent most of their time flirting with the male staff on the train. Well, you know what the Swedes are like.....

Our compartment was compact, but very comfortable. Breakfast and afternoon tea is served in the compartment and lunch and dinner in one of the two restaurant cars. The meals were prepared by a French chef and was a mix of Asian and European delicacies. We seemed to stagger from one meal to the next, the only exercise in between being walking through the coaches (21 in all) to reach the restaurants or bars. The train runs on a single line one meter track, which contributes to it swaying quite considerably and like trying to walk through an aeroplane during severe turbulence at times! Or being on a ship in storm. However we always managed to get there in time to fill up again!

We had a couple of excursions from the train, the first one to Penang, where we went to Georgetown for a trishaw ride round the old town. The second excursion was far more interesting, a visit to the river Kwai, with a raft down river and a visit to the war museum and cemetery.

With lots of unplanned stops and a few breakdowns, we ended up nearly five hours late in Bangkok. No one complained though, we were all glad to be able to stay a bit longer on this amazing, rolling, five star hotel, where we were spoiled by the incredibly friendly staff, who managed to remember everyone's name when they greeted you in corridors or entering the restaurants and bars. We even had our own steward who was available 24 hours, we never saw them off duty and they seemed to just have access to tiny cupboards, where they popped in and out of, if you happened to meet them in the narrow corridors.