The roads to Kota Bharu and back

I was in Kota Bharu a week ago to attend to my wife's cousin's akad nikah.

Just like any other akad nikah that i've attended, things went pretty well....

But I must say, driving to Kota Bharu was indeed an experience for me. I've ridden my bike to KB a couple of times before, but I've never driven on a car before. I guess, riding on a bike gives me a better 'pleasure' in enjoying the journey to KB

I do wonder, how does some of these Kelantanese in KL folks can afford to spend at least 7 hours drive to go back to their hometown each year...

To be honest, I didn't enjoy the journey. The roads from Bentong leading up to Kuala Lipis at times, can be a life threatening journey with all the lori balaks and not to forget the express buses. Huhu...Not a good experience at all.

From Lipis to Gua Musang is another long winding road with full of twist and turns. No wonder the road is so famous with the record number of accidents in the country. Imagine if there's an accident, you'll be stucked there for hours and hours (which actually happened during our journey back from Tanah Merah)

Anyways, I made a mistake (yes I did) in following the GPS that was installed in my car. It was supposedly to be up-to-date but for some strange reason or another, it lead me from Bentong to Cameron Highland instead to Lipis. But I enjoyed that road to be honest as the scenery can be beautiful at times, plus, it was wide and not as dangerous as the Bentong-Lipis road.

Wifey was obviously pissed, but we decided to have some tea up in Cameron anyways. It's not everyday you got 'lost' and end up in Cameron. Hehehehehe. We were stucked up the in Cameron for about 2 hours as the place was full of cars and people. At times, I was stucked behind the lori sayur and can't seem to overtake 'em due to the winding roads and blank corners.....

The road from Cameron to Gua Musang is nice. Good big roads I must say. Suddenly I felt, this could be a wonderful ride if I still have my Royal Star with me. Hehehehehhe. It took us about an hour and a half to reach Gua Musang town. During the short stop, I made a quick call to a friend asking him how long it would take us to KB from Gua Musang. He said, it could 2 or 3 hours drive.......WTF??

ANyways, Gua Musang-KBroad is another challenge (for me anyways). With all the cars, trucks and lorries, it makes the drive interesting and uninteresting, nerve-wrecking at times. Hahahahaha.....There are some areas that I can hit the accelerator, but at times, you are only driving at 50km/h. Seriously though, these places need a nice highway like PLUS or LPT.

We reached KB right after maghrib, and I was glad to be able to reach KB in one piece. Hehehehe. That's how I felt anyways. We stayed at a place near Wakaf Che Yeh and that place is all action when the night comes. Luckily we didn't have to drive to go to WCY. It took us about 5 minutes walk and spent both nights walking around the pasar malam. I do find it strange when 1 in 3 of the stalls in WCY sells the exact same things.

The akad nikah and bersanding ceremony was ok and the food was good too. I wish the newly weds to have a very successful and happy life together...

So, on Sunday, we left Tanah Merah at a bout 2.30pm and reached Gua Musang at about 5pm. It was raining quite heavily at that time. I took a quick look at my twitter account for some traffic update and true enough, there was an accident at the Gua Musang-Lipis road. I then decided to use the Gua Musang-Simpang pulai highway to 'bypass' the accident hoping to escape the traffic madness at Lipis. Not forgetting, I made the assumption that Karak will be super-chocked with traffic by the time we arrive there. Hehehehe

So, after spending about 2 and half hours in Gua Musang-Simpang Pulai road, after witnessing 2 accidents where both cars went inside the drains, we arrived at the Simpang Pulai PLUS toll. I thought everything was hunky-dory but to my suprised, the traffic was heavy. We haven't reached Tapah as yet and we were moving at 40km/h. To be honest, this traffic thingy was driving me mad and I managed to look at the traffic update in my twitter stating PLUS highway traffic is bad from Tapah to Slim River. HUH!!! Gilakah? I do wonder, why am I paying ridiculous amount of my hard earned money to pay the toll just to be stucked on the highway for hours and hours.

I then ask wifey to call her uncle in Kampung Gajah whether he's at home or not. Luckily he's at home and I then exited the highway at Tapah. After a short stop for dinner at Tapah little town, we arrived at her uncle's place slightly before 10pm. I was wrecked to be honest. I just wanna have a nice bath and sleep....I can't help thinking, the traffic is getting worse and worse in the country...there's no solution I think....the only solution is just to stay at home and watch TV....hahahhaha

Anyways, we woke quite early and had some wonderful capati for breakfast. We were on the road at 9am and reached home at 11am on Monday.

That was some journey for me. An experience indeed.....and.....an experience I wished to not experience again...ever!!....hahaha

Have a good day