The Most Romantic Way to Get From Singapore to Bangkok

1 ~~~ The Most Romantic Way to Get From Singapore to Bangkok ~ Conde Nast ~~~

It’s three o’clock at Singapore’s Woodlands station, and no one is in a hurry. Passengers dressed for the autumn heat trickle onto the platform, where staff in high-collared gray silk uniforms hand people into their carriages. We pull out, and a few of us drift toward the observation car, with its walls lined in teak and tables with brass railings to steady the highballs. As we pass quickly into Malaysia, on a rail laid in the 19th century to transport rubber out of the jungle, someone gets the idea to order pink gins, and we’re sipping these when the track bends into a stand of palm trees and we’re enveloped by a dark rustling.

Most journeys on Belmond’s Eastern & Oriental Express—the forest-green sleeper that runs between Singapore and Bangkok—last two or three nights, but in October the train takes a weeklong trip through Malaysia and Thailand. It stops in little-visited rural communities, as well as cities like Kuala Lumpur and George Town. My husband and I signed up for the extended route with this in mind, hoping to see stretches of Southeast Asia that aren’t easily accessible to travelers.

www.cntraveler.com/story/most-romantic-way-to-get-from-singapore-to-bangkok ~ September 2018 ~