One hundred years ago, this is the type of vocabulary that an Englishman would use when conversing with a local while travelling in Malaya (you can click on the image to make it larger).

Some of the expressions are distinctly outdated such as 'Call a Gharry' (a gharry was a horsedrawn cab) or 'Go and get back my clothes from the washerman'. 

The Malay translation of rikisha (rickshaw) was kreta hongkong or 'Hong Kong carriage'.

The use of the term 'Asiatic' when referring to people belongs to an earlier prejudiced age and has been replaced by 'Asian'.

The author of the pamphlet warned that 'the adoption of a hectoring tone will prove fatal to mutual comprehension'. That still applies.

Here is the train timetable for the Penang to Singapore service in 1914.

A century ago, trains left Penang at 8am and arrived in Singapore at 8.16am the following morning, i.e. a 24 hour journey. How does that compare with the modern train service?

Today's Express train still departs Penang (Butterworth) at exactly 8am and reaches Singapore at 10pm, i.e. a 14 hour journey. That's an improvement but still quite slow with an average speed of only 34mph to complete the 472 mile journey. There are proposals to build a High Speed Railway from Singapore to KL and eventually on to Penang which of course would slash journey times.

Whereas 100 years ago, the train took passengers all the way to Tank Road (somewhere around Orchard Road in the heart of Singapore), the modern train terminates at Woodlands, which is 26km from Orchard Road and takes about another 40 minutes on the bus.

How about the cost? The Through First Class Fare was $25.65 Straits Dollars or £2 19s 10d at the exchange rate of S$8.57 = 1 English Sovereign. One pound in 1914 would be equivalent to £75 today, so the inflation adjusted First Class Fare of 1914 would be roughly £225 in today's money - a very hefty sum. By comparison, today's Penang-Singapore First Class fare costs MYR127 (non-sleeper) or just £25. The reverse journey however, Singapore to Penang, costs SGD127 or £63 due to a historical quirk in the pricing system.

So you can see that there has been progress on Malaysian Railways over the past hundred years - trains have become faster and more affordable. In one area though things have gone backwards. The 1914 Pamphlet talks about meals being served in the restaurant car. Now you have to make do with the snacks trolley!