I had a great night of sleep at the Le Meridien in Kuala Lumpur. There was no train noise and no call to prayer at 4:30AM. Or maybe there was since I wasn’t too far away from the main train station or a huge mosque. In any case, I didn’t hear anything and got the best night of sleep during my entire trip so far.

The Le Meridien itself is a great hotel and conveniently located at the KL Sentral train station. You walk from the train station across a skybridge into the lobby. Coming from the airport on the KLIA Ekspress train, it can’t get much more convenient. I’ll post separately about the hotel itself because it has grown to be one of my favorites after 3 stays.

However, this post is about traveling to Ipoh..

The long distance trains bound for destinations north of Kuala Lumpur were completely booked for the day. There was a sign at the ticket counters warning people who wanted to purchase day of departure tickets that none were available. Luckily I purchased mine online a couple of days ago, so I already had a barcode and could simply scan my ticket through the turnstiles.

The train itself is a modern, electric train. The long distance trains in Indonesia, other than the new high-speed train are all diesel engine trains so the low noise and smooth ride is nice in Malaysia.

The train was completely full, at least in the carriage in which I was seated, so the train company certainly wasn’t kidding about the train being sold out. The train began and ended its journey on time, and made a number of stops in between. The total time was about two and half hours to travel the 200km between Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh.

The train has a small cafe on board, serving drinks and even some heat-on-board meals. The seats are comfortable, and I whiled away the time looking out at the passing countryside and watching a downloaded show about the Tour de France. Spoiler Alert: Jasper Philipsen is a jerk.

There was a short walk from the Ipoh train station to my hotel, and despite a nearly impermeable language barrier, I managed to get checked in. The hotel is squeaky clean, but very, very basic. Not even just in comparison with the Le Meridien, but in absolute terms. But, I think it will be just fine for four nights before heading back to Kuala Lumpur (and the Le Meridien again).

I’m looking forward to the adventure of sightseeing and eating around Ipoh.