After a four-year hiatus and glorious refurbishment, Belmond's Eastern & Oriental Express has returned to the tracks in Southeast Asia.
Singapore and Malaysia
I could've sworn I saw that French couple canoodling at the bar at Raffles Singapore a few days earlier - so why were they seated at separate tables during our on-board meals? And what was the deal with the Japanese gent who consistently lingered far behind our group during every off-board excursion? Plus, Jack and Christie from Maryland, both dripping in diamonds: Were they really the construction moguls they claimed to be?It might've been my third lemongrass-spiked negroni speaking, but there, zipping through Malaysia's steamy jungles and palm plantations aboard the Eastern & Oriental Express, I felt as if I had stumbled into an Agatha Christie mystery.
The fantasy began well before our first nightly cocktail hour when I, along with this motley crew of characters, boarded the train at Singapore's Woodlands Station for a three-night jaunt up and down the Malay Peninsula.
And while the E&O's 15 carriages still sported their iconic cream-and-green exterior stripes, the train's interiors sparkled anew, having just unveiled a long-overdue spruce-up. Channeling the glitz of Golden Age train travel, the cabins are bedecked in paneling from polished rosewood and elm, jewel-hued silks and wispy dragons swirling in green damask. The two dining carriages also got upgraded. Belmond tapped Taiwanese superstar chef Andre Chiang, who reigns over a small galaxy of Michelin stars, to completely reimagine the menus with his polished, East-meets-West flair.
Every day, a handwritten card left on my nightstand would assign a table for lunch and dinner, where I'd tuck into Chiang's creations, such as a prawn-studded laksa bouillabaisse or Nicoise salad with kimchi and Champagne vinaigrette. None of it would've looked out of place at a white-glove fine diner somewhere in Tokyo or Hong Kong, which made the fact that it was all prepared in the train's shuddering, stamp-sized kitchen even more astounding.
I awoke in my state cabin that first morning aboard to see that Singapore and South Malaysia's urban sprawl had been replaced with the mist-shrouded mountaintops poking out of the Taman Negara, one of the world's oldest rainforests. We divvied up among jeeps for a tour of the park - curiously, the French lovebirds again took separate rides - and hiked among howling gibbons and giant squirrels on elevated walkways weaving through the canopy. On a trek guided by volunteers from Malaysia-based Save Wild Tigers, I learned that only 200 of the elusive Malayan tigers still roam these tenebrous jungles - their turf, in part, protected by donations from cash-flush benefactors rolling through on this very train. The only Malayan tigers I saw that day, though, were gleaming in gold, embedded on the E&O's carriages and dancing over the rims of fine China at breakfast.
Another morning, we ferried to George Town, a candy-colored colonial port on the eastern tip of Penang Island. A dozen-or-so rickshaws awaited to whisk us on a choose-your-own-adventure of the city, past Chinese shrines swirled in incense and Hindu temples with a thousand gods peering down from kaleidoscopic roofs. I spied Jack and Christie browsing Peranakan antiques as I dipped in and out of Penang's plentiful coffee shops and dim sum joints.
All fine and good, but my favorite moments were the simplest ones, curled up on my cabin's sofa, watching teeny villages, glittering lakes and endless jungle whiz past my window in a blur. With the touch of a shiny brass button, I could summon my steward, the affable Vishnu, to deliver silver pots of oolong tea or arrange a massage at the on-board Dior Spa. And fortunately, my inner Poirot could take some time off. My suspects were all cleared. The only crime carried out that weekend was the caterwaul sing-along leaking from the Observation Car's karaoke kit.
The Lounge Car
Fresh details in a Pullman Cabin
Details:
Your travel advisor can tailor itineraries in Southeast Asia with three-night journeys departing from Singapore aboard the Eastern & Oriental Express, a Belmond Train. Rates from $3,750. Note: The previously popular route to Bangkok remains suspended until upgrades to the tracks in Thailand are complete.