Luxury on the line: All aboard the Eastern & Oriental Express

Paul Theroux travelled the length of Asia in 1974, a trip that resulted in The Great Railway Bazaar. "Ever since childhood," he wrote, "I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it." Theroux's trip involved all manner of rolling stock, but in 1974 there was no Eastern & Oriental Express linking Singapore with Bangkok.

When everything is going according to plan, the "E&O" traces the length of the Malayan Peninsula and takes its passengers on a journey through South-east Asia's colonial past. The train feels as though it should have been there forever: transporting British officers from steamers docking in Singapore up to their new postings in Kuala Lumpur or Penang, taking writers including Somerset Maugham off to gather exotic details for Far Eastern short stories, or delivering Malay princes back to their istanas (palaces) after a university education in Britain.

Everything about the journey points to an older age – to a time when sunset over this particular corner of empire meant a whisky stengah on the veranda and mandatory dressing for dinner. The train has sumptuous, old-fashioned décor, all brass lamps and rosewood and elm panelling. The locomotive's name, Mat Salleh, is also colonial-era: it is a mildly derogatory Malay term for "white man", deriving from a corruption of "mad sailor".

In fact, the E&O has been running only since 1993, when it became the first train to make the trip between Singapore and the Thai capital; previously passengers had to change at the Malaysian-Thai border between the railway networks. Over these 16 years, though, it has become as much of an institution as the hotels many of the passengers stay in at either end of the journey: the Oriental in Bangkok, and Raffles in Singapore.

Singapore railway terminus is the polar opposite to the island's Changi airport. It feels almost hidden away from the city it serves and has a sense of decay, of having been left behind in the rush for the 21st century. The station was empty apart from the 40 or so of us about to board the E&O. Staff in green and cream uniforms that matched the train's livery guided us to our cabins, in which armchairs and sofas by day convert to single beds at night. It would be unreasonable to expect too much room on a train, but my "state cabin" had sufficient space – 7.8sqm – not to feel cramped. The shower and cupboard were, unsurprisingly, on the compact side.

The train pulled out without great ceremony and slipped through Singapore's backyards and open spaces, across the diamond-shaped island to the causeway that carries rail and road traffic to Malaysia.

Here, after around 20 minutes of travel, we had to get off the train to clear Malaysian immigration and customs. Back on board, it was soon time for an early lunch. There are two sittings, as there are for dinner, and the stewards take your preference on arrival.

My first repast consisted of fresh leek salad with lemon grass-infused crab and tom yam cherry chutney; Singapore-style dry chicken curry with Sichuan vegetables and steamed rice; and then lychee mousse on Breton biscuit with raspberry coulis.

Barely an hour later, afternoon tea was served in my cabin – a pot of tea, cakes, and possibly the most perfect curry puff I have ever tasted, with its spicy, rich filling and flaky, moreish pastry.

Dinner, by now a triumph of gluttony over appetite, offered further treats, including goose liver wonton, seafood soufflé with lobster bisque and macadamia fool.

All of this is served with a certain style. Waiters and stewards have perfected the art of backing into doorways and cupboards whenever guests approach down the long corridors linking cabins to the dining and bar cars or the reading room. The style also extends to the guests. For dinner, the train operator advises, "gentlemen will feel comfortable with a minimum of jacket and tie"; which in effect means suit or black tie. Both may seem slightly de trop in the tropical heat, but the train is air-conditioned. And there is something rather splendid about standing on the open deck of the observation car, chewing the fat over brandy and cigars, while forests of rubber and oil palm seethe and close in on the tracks as the train speeds through the night. Donning a smoking jacket and bow tie seems the least one can do.

Sleep comes easy after such indulgence, even though the track sometimes seems not to have been touched since the British pushed the railway through the dense jungles of South-east Asia in the 19th century. And, given that the Equator is only a few hundred kilometres away, there is only the briefest of dawns between deep night and bright day.

Spending two full days in such close proximity means that people do actually talk to each other. In most cases, this was a pleasure. Being a lone traveller, I was asked if I would like to share a table when dining, and thus found myself with a charming middle-aged lesbian couple the first night and a lively group of female Australian travel agents the second.

Other encounters were a little stranger. Late one night, for instance, a tall, tanned German of about 60 stopped me in the corridor. "You look like my son," he said. Out of the blue, he then proceeded to offer me stern advice on the discreet conduct of extra-marital affairs.

The E&O normally stops three more times between Singapore and Bangkok. First, briefly, in Kuala Lumpur, to stock up on provisions; guests are allowed to experience no more than a brief stroll on the platform to admire the faux-Moorish architecture of the Malaysian capital's station. The second call is at Butterworth, the mainland port that looks across to the island of Penang; here, travellers are taken across the straits to visit the island. A third call is made at Katchanaburi in Thailand, where the line crosses the River Kwai. But with the present unrest in Thailand, particularly the strife-torn south of the country, you cannot bank on reaching Bangkok's busy, utilitarian main railway terminus in the scheduled 66 hours – or, in our case, at all.

The train paused at Butterworth longer than usual, enough for a trishaw tour of Penang's capital, which served to whet the appetite for sights such as the Khoo Kongsi temple, the moss-covered old British cemetery, Fort Cornwallis and the island's spice gardens. And then our northbound express became southbound: as the current Foreign Office travel advice indicates, southern Thailand is in even more political disarray than the rest of the country, and it was considered unwise to cross the border. So our train retraced the route back through the towns, plantations and wilderness of western Malaysia, and across the causeway once again to Singapore: not so much A to B as A to A on the E&O.

After I returned home, I happened to hear Paul Theroux on the radio. "Luxury," he said, "is the enemy of observation." Perhaps the E&O journey would not suit his purposes. For the rest of us, however, armed not with notebooks but with suitcases weighed down by eagerly anticipated reading – the Far East fiction of Maugham and Burgess, Alec Waugh's "biography" of Bangkok, J G Farrell's The Singapore Grip, say – it is a fulfilling, inspiring, sepia-tinged voyage. The E&O captures a different, more gracious, age of the train.

Raffles: Singapore's luxury link to the past

"Raffles," said the Chinese limousine driver on the way from Changi airport. "So expensive." It is indeed. But the property named after Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of the city-state, is more than just a hotel; it is an official national monument. Over its 122 years, guests have included Charlie Chaplin, Ava Gardner, Robert Kennedy, Winston Churchill and the Queen (though not all at once).

"Feed at Raffles," advised Rudyard Kipling, an unlikely source of culinary wisdom, perhaps, but whose injunction still stands today. There are 18 bars and restaurants from which to choose, ranging from Ah Teng's bakery, where a simple breakfast of juice, coffee and a muffin costs S$7.50 (£5.35), to the Raffles Grill – smart dress only – where carpaccio of scallop and truffle-adorned wagyu beef place a rather greater strain on the wallet.

The pool is a little small, the gym rather cramped. No matter. Raffles has something that no new five-star hotel, however high end, can offer: character. The high-ceilinged suites with polished wood floors, rugs and original etchings look back to old Singapore. So too do the colonnades, courtyards and gardens, the imposing timber staircases in the lobby and the giant Sikh doorman in full turbanned regalia.

It's a history in which Singaporeans can take uncomplicated pride, as the inscription under the riverside statue of Sir Stamford suggests: "With genius and perception [he] changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis."

Traveller's Guide

Getting there

Abercrombie & Kent (0845 618 2214; abercrombiekent.co.uk) offers the Oriental Train Journey trip from £3,235 per person. The price includes return British Airways flights from Heathrow to Singapore, returning from Bangkok (or vice versa), two nights' B&B at Raffles Singapore, two nights' full board on the train in a Pullman compartment, three nights' B&B at The Oriental Bangkok, transfers and sightseeing in Bangkok.

Singapore is served by BA (0844 493 0787; ba.com), Singapore Airlines (0844 800 2380; singaporeair.co.uk) and Qantas (0845 774 7767; qantas.co.uk) from Heathrow; Singapore Airlines also flies from Manchester. Bangkok is served from Heathrow by BA, Qantas, Thai Airways (0870 606 0911; thaiairways.co.uk) and Eva Air (020-7380 8300; evaair.com).

Staying there

Raffles Singapore, 1 Beach Road, Singapore (00 65 6337 1886; raffles.com).

The Oriental Bangkok, 48 Oriental Avenue, Bangkok, Thailand (00 66 2 659 9000; mandarinoriental.com/bangkok).

More information

Singapore Tourism: 020-7484 2710; visitsingapore.com.

Tourism Malaysia: 020-7930 7932; tourism.gov.my.

Tourist Authority of Thailand: 0870 900 2007; tourismthailand.co.uk.

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