I stood outside the old railway station at Hua Hin in December 2024, having come south by train from Bangkok. Alan Whicker never crossed my mind. Yet there he was, thirty-one years ahead of me, at the same red-and-cream station with British royalty and considerably more ceremony than attended my arrival.
In September 1993 Whicker took the inaugural Eastern & Oriental Express from Singapore to Bangkok. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were among his fellow passengers. Did I see the programme when it went out in 1994? Who knows. My dad was a great Whicker fan, so there’s every chance I did. I’ve since travelled most of that line myself.
I wonder what Whicker would make of Hua Hin now. The Thais have built an elevated station beside the one he knew. It dwarfs the old building. From the new platforms you can look down on a station once grand enough to receive royalty.
I also knew the Singapore station his train left from. In 2016, I think it was, I went down to Tanjong Pagar specifically to see it. A fine Art Deco monument to British Malaya. What I remember are the bullet holes still visible in the building, marks I took to be from the final fighting when the Japanese captured Singapore in 1942. By the time I visited, the last train had gone. Singapore’s National Heritage Board
When I set off for Penang in December 2025, I had to start at Woodlands. The shuttle took me across the Causeway to Johor Bahru. Five minutes on the train, one international border, and an overnight stay before another train.
I took several trains north through Malaysia. Some were slow. On the last train I was zipping through Kuala Lumpur on one of Malaysia’s new electric expresses. Whicker had been able to settle into his carriage in Singapore and stay aboard all the way to Bangkok. I got as far as Butterworth and went to catch a boat.
The ferry took me across the Penang Strait and put me ashore at George Town. In the days of British Malaya you could have started the journey in the opposite direction by buying a railway ticket on Weld Quay. George Town had a station with a booking office, a restaurant and a waiting room. For the train itself you took the ferry to the mainland. After several days on the railway, I’d arrived in Penang by the old front door. George Town heritage guide
I enjoyed watching that programme with a 2026 lens. Hua Hin, Singapore, Butterworth, Penang. I can now simply say, “See that? I’ve stood there.”