After about three hours, I felt sleepy and dozed off in spite of the rattling sound of the wheels. Suddenly, there was a jerk and the train came to a halt. The engines hissed and the brakes squeaked. I woke up with a start and looked out of the window. We had reached a station. Three minutes later, the train started moving again and accelerated gradually until it was traveling at a constant speed. I spent the rest of the journey reading as the initial excitement had gone.
Finally, the train jerked to a complete stop. We had at last reached our destination. We disembarked and walked a short distance to board the ferry to the island of Penang. It had been a very pleasant journey, one I could look forward to on our return to Kuala Lumpur.