Romantic Train Travel in Asia

through the jungles of Malaysia

Our first post in Asia— please ❤️ or leave a comment if you’d like more travel recommendations on this continent— and click on the video for a quick daydream!

Nothing quite captures the romanticism of slow travel as does travel by train.

Particularly on a train that looks as if it has arrived from a distant past, complete with Pullman sleeping cars, dining carriages where meals are served with crystal glasses and fine linens, and a separate car with a piano and an elegant bar. Imagine a piano player’s sweet sounds enveloping this room in motion, while you sit on a velvet couch dressed in cocktail attire enjoying a cold martini, staring out the window at the passing landscape of the jungle outside. It seems an image plucked out of a dream— or a movie.

Belmond’s Venice Simplon Orient Express train from London to Venice (and other European cities in between) has forever been on my bucket list for travel. But this year, another experience has been added to that growing list— their newly refurbished, relaunched Eastern & Oriental Express, traveling from Singapore through the rice paddies, rural villages, and lush greenery of Malaysia.

The train service had been suspended since 2020 due to the pandemic, but its much-awaited return this year has brought an added incentive to re-discover this part of the world with glamour and luxury, in the way the Belmond brand does it best.

All EOE photos & film courtesy of Belmond imagery

Two different routes through Malaysia are offered, each starting in Singapore, each over the course of three nights:

• One route takes travelers through to Taman Negara National Park, one of the oldest tropical rainforests in the world, home to wildlife ranging from water buffalo to macaques, tapirs, to the Malayan tiger

• The other route instead includes a stop and a boat trip to Langkawi’s Pulau Payar Marine Park, renowned for its vibrant underwater life, where guests can paddle board or snorkel, and indulge in a luxury picnic in paradise

Both routes on Day Three take guests to Penang Island, where they can learn Peranakan cooking (this is a mix of Chinese, Malay, and Indonesian influences) or discover temples and art in Georgetown.

The restaurant menus onboard are curated by Michelin-starred chef André Chiang. The first Dior Spa in Southeast Asia can also be found here, in yet another separate train car! The spa offers both facials and massages.

Usually I like to write about destinations or a style of hospitality that embody laid-back luxury, travel with a boho-chic sensibility. The Eastern & Oriental Express is more high-end luxury travel, an aspirational experience for sure, but unique enough in its embrace of slow travel that I found it well worth sharing.

If interested in experiencing this mystical ride through the beauty of Malaysia, contact us for more information and bookings. The Eastern & Oriental Express also has journeys for the Christmas and New Year’s periods, and is available to book as a group. Traveling party, anyone?

Map of Southeast Asia & EOE Route in Malaysia