April, 2009: Sentosa, Singapore to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, Malaysia

Every journey, they say, has a beginning.

And if your journey is a train trip from the Southernmost point of continental Asia to the Northernmost in Europe, your beginning starts here in the resort island of Sentosa. Sentosa proudly proclaim one of its southern outcrop as "THE Southernmost Point Continent Asia". The cockiness of it all can be seen by the phallic symbol to choose to make this proclamation:
Our northern neighbors in Malaysia may not agree to that, especially the people of Johor Bahru. But by virture of a suspension bridge that link the outcrop to Sentosa, another bridge that link Sentosa to mainland Singapore, followed by the Causeway that links Singapore to JB, Singapore now has a claim to this southernmost point:
From Sentosa you can take the monorail out of the island into Singapore. The train stops in a mall. Exit from the mall, turn right and just keep walking along the main Keppel Road. This would bring you to the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station:The railway station sits on land currently owned by KTM, Malaysia Railway. That probably implies this little piece of Singapore is owned by Malaysia. The last time I took a train from here into Malaysia, I handed my passport to Malaysia custom officer before I show it later on in the trip to a Singapore custom officer.The KTM train can take you all the way up north across the border into Kuala Lumpur. From KL, move north to Penang, then cross into Hyataai in Thailand. After that, the Thailand Railway will take over.


They may take you somewhere near the Cambodia border, but until the Thai-Cambodia temple dispute has been settled, there may be no way for either the Thailand or Cambodia Railway to take you into Cambodia. Even that, the Cambodian would have to get their act together and start laying their part of the Singapore-Nanning railway. If they do and when they do, you can cross by railroad from Combodia into Vietnam. The Vietnam Railway Unification Express will bring you from southern HCM City to Hanoi. After which it will be a short trip into Nanning, ChinaWell, we can only hope.