Burma 1984

After our overnight stay at the Metropolitan YMCA in Singapore, our group left early on Thursday morning for Singapore Railway Station.  Our first daytime view of Singapore left a lasting impression of a nation-city which was active, growing and disciplined – a nation which in many respects was more economically developed than Australia.  Where else in the world would there be a law forbidding the re-registration of cars twelve years old on the grounds that the country cannot afford to have glow cars on its roads?

Three trains were necessary to reach Bangkok.  The first was a Malayan Railways second-class train to Kuala Lumpur.  This presented students with their first encounter of “kangaroo toilets” (or, as expressed an a delightful example of Malay onomatopoeia; the “tandas”). The sign in the cubicle said it all: “Do not use while train is stopped at station”.  After passing through the Tin and Rubber Belt of West Malaysia (an increasingly inappropriate name given the widespread replacement of rubber plantations with oil palm), we reached Kuala Lumpur at 6:30pm.  During the three-hour stopover, we were escorted to Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown district by Lawrence Leong, a business acquaintance who is employed by Longmans Malaysia.  His unselfishness in giving up his evening to escort our group through the Malaysian capital was greatly appreciated everyone in the group.

Our second train for the journey was a Malayan Railways second-class sleeper which left Kuala Lumpur at 10:00pm for Butterworth in the far north of the country.

Thursday

26 April 1984

Day 2

Singapore to Kuala Lumpur

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