The view over breakfast from the hotel room is constantly changing. Water buffalo as an accompaniment to the orange juice, a river carving through the jungle with the croissants and an elephant, naturally, to go with the coffee.

Just another morning aboard a train that would rival the more traditional hotels of bricks and mortar for sheer luxury and style. Welcome aboard the Eastern & Oriental Express.

The iconic green-and-gold carriages begin their Far East journey at Bangkok's main station, overlooked by a larger-than-life portrait of the king that all Thais revere. From here, it is a winding, 2,030 km journey to Singapore - and there is a wave and a smile from people in towns, remote hamlets and at level crossings every kilometre of the way.

Clearly, for the people who live alongside the line that links the two ends of the peninsular, the passage of the express is still an event.

In fact, the grins start even before the wheels turn for the first time, directed at a train that stands out from all the others at Hualamphong Station. We begin our journey by passing through northern Bangkok's shanty towns - where the waves from the children are among the most enthusiastic - and into the fields and villages before the sun sets and the night suddenly comes down.

By far the best place to be on the train for this preview of what lies ahead is the last car of the train, a wood-and-brass panelled open observation deck with an attached lounge and bar. The humidity of the day is kept at bay by the breeze as the train clicks over the tracks, helped by tall glasses of champagne.

While the passengers have been admiring the view, carriage attendants have delivered the luggage to the appropriate compartments, which range from spacious twin-bed presidential suites to the compact - but no less sumptuous - pullman compartments, where the upper bunk is folded back during the day and the lower tier becomes a sofa. Each compartment has an en suite shower and toilet and plenty of clever storage areas. I only located a set of shelves on the day that I was due to disembark.

Guests are summoned to dinner as the train continues at a stately 60 kph into the night and, as is befitting the occasion, dress is formal. Several gentlemen are in tuxedo and bow tie, while the ladies are similarly immaculate. The train is a five-star hotel in motion, with its residents drawn from many nations and often marking a wedding anniversary, birthday or retirement.

"The hardest things about producing consistently high-quality meals is working in such a confined space and serving people from so many different countries and with such varying taste," says executive chef Kevin Cape, who has been aboard the train since its first journey 13 years ago and oversees a staff of 12. "I have to be a little streetwise and creative with the menu - but not try to get too creative because you have to understand which ingredients work and which don't."

With a typical dinner involving terrine of tiger prawn and mango with a vanilla and lobster vinaigrette dressing, shiitake and enoki mushroom soup perfumed with truffle and steamed sea bass with tofu followed by a roast pineapple tart with banana tuille and coconut jam cream, it comes as little surprise that Cape's shopping list for the four-day journey comes to 72 pages.

After dinner, most people head for the bar, although some prefer to watch the night and the jungle rush past from the observation car. At one of the frequent halts as we climbed higher and closer to the Burmese border, the staff agreed to turn out the lights so the only illumination came from the startlingly bright stars.

And when it was finally time to retire for the evening, the carriage attendant had turned back the crisp white sheets on the bed. By 6 a.m. the next day, the observation car was again crowded for one of the most spectacular stretches of the route; the climb to the Tham Kasae wooden viaduct that appears to cling to the rock face above the river shortly before the train crossed the bridge over the River Kwai.

This most famous reminder of the Death Railway, built by Allied prisoners of war and native slave labour, it is a relatively simple structure of black-painted steel atop pilings that still bear the scars of near misses from bombing runs. As many as 100,000 labourers died building the railway for the Japanese military, along with around 16,000 POWs, some of whom are buried in the nearby Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery.

After lunch back aboard the train, the remainder of the day was spent heading south down the peninsula and watching the scenery slowly change from the hillier areas of western Thailand to more rolling countryside that was increasingly cultivated. Water buffalo pulled old-fashioned ploughs through paddy fields and 50cc motorbikes zipped along parallel roads.

The following morning, after crossing the border with Malaysia in the night - and the carriage attendants completing the immigration procedures on behalf of their charges - the 100 passengers disembarked again for the ferry ride over to Penang island.

()A short way from the wharves of Georgetown is Khoo Kongsi, a preserved clan village that includes rowhouses, a theatre and a lavishly decorated Chinese temple, complete with lanterns and frescoed walls. Loaded aboard a fleet of rickshaws, the passengers continued on to the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, which dates from 1885 and, despite the similarity in the name, has no connection with the Orient Express stable of hotels, trains and cruise ships.

Back aboard the rolling hotel, lightning cracked down on the Malaysian highlands and a sudden squall drenched the interior of the observation car. River levels rose and the temperature fell noticeably, but clothes dried off quickly as soon as the sun reappeared. The kitchen again works its magic for the final dinner of the journey, followed by a performance of traditional Malay dancing in the bar.

The following morning, the knock at the door came shortly before the train crossed the causeway that links Singapore to Asia's mainland and every passenger savoured the final minutes before that inevitable return to the "real world."

Information: Julian Ryall travelled with Orient Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises. The train only price is £990 per person based on two people sharing a Pullman compartment. This includes off-train excursions and all meals on board. The Orient-Express site is www.orient-express.com for more information. In addition, Thomas Cook Signature offers a variety of different itineraries that can be added on to form a tailor-made itinerary to the Far East, including visits to the Shangri-La Hotel's Tanjung Aru Resort in Borneo and a day excursion to the Sepilok Orang-utan sanctuary.

Malaysia Airlines operates 18 non-stop flights a week from the UK to Bangkok and Singapore via Kuala Lumpur. Check the website www.malaysiaairlines.com/uk for latest prices

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