The Drive Home

I was dreading the drive home for the past few days. When the day finally arrived, I decided the route to take with the help of one of my cousins. It would be through the new Lebuhraya Pantai Timur via Kuala Terengganu.

The drive was smooth once we entered the highway, but getting to the highway entrance was another story all together. We set off from Kota Bharu after dropping my father-in-law at the airport. We left at around 11, but only entered the highway just before 4 pm. The drive was horrendous. It seemed that there was traffic lights every half a kilometer and getting though the lights easily took 20 minutes each.

The powerbank was charged!We stopped for lunch at Jerteh as we were starving. Traffic was heavy both ways but luckily the boys were behaving themselves. It was just the sheer number of cars, there were no accidents and to be honest, they could do with less traffic lights.

Once we entered the highway, it was smooth going until we entered the Karak toll just after Bentong. The traffic piled up again and we decided to take the Janda Baik road, again reentering the highway at Genting Sempah. We finally arrived at Gombak at 8.30 pm.

I slept as soon as I unpacked at the apartment. It was blissful sleep until I woke up thie morning to send Idlan to school.

Driving Home

It was hard to say goodbye to Smokehouse when we were finally done. The boys were relieved obviously now that they were heading back to civilisation, but my in-laws would have preferred to stay an extra day. The combination of cool weather, nice room and great service made them wanted to room again and there were already talks about our next stay before we departed.

We left just after noon, deciding against staying for lunch since we had a heavy breakfast. We would later stop at Kuala Kubu Baru for a quick stop, and we did just that. I used the Hulu Yam route again, bypassing Rawang and Serendah, cutting the journey by about 30 km. We reached Gombak by 3.15, and then continued on to the apartment via Great Eastern Mall to do a bit of groceries and take-out for dinner.

We were worried that our MPV would play up, but luckily everything went smoothly. I might take a few days off in early January after the Xmas and New Year break, just before the school reopened for the boys. Maybe it would be to PD.

New Toll Arrangement

The queue at the toll booth on my way to work yesterday was longer than usual. The fact that I had a couple of clinic s that day - the morning at Park City and the afternoon back in Subang - meant that I was in a slight rush in the morning.

It turned out that the NPE - New Pantai Expressway - had gotten rid of cash paying booth. All the road user had to use electronic payment - Touch and Go - to pass through. Those who hasn't, would have to purchase them at some of the lanes. Hence the long queue.

I didn't have any problem since I had always been using the SmarTag. But I was caught in the wait.

The situation got a bit better this morning, probably because everybody had wise update to the fact. The added advantage for such system was the top-up booth were opened 24 hours. Made the job of topping-up the card that much easier.

The Gap

Since a second route was open to drive down Fraser's Hill - via Kuala Lipis Road, there were no longer the need to queue at The Gap, waiting for your turn to drive up the hill. The old route was too narrow, allowing only a single file of traffic to either drive up or down. The route would be opened according to the time of day, meaning you would go out at the hour and then the route would be the opposite and half the hour for those driving down. If you arrived at the wrong time, you would have to wait at The Gap, a settlement about 7 km from the top until your turn was up.

Without the wait, The Gap settlement had disbanded. There were ruins everywhere of what used to be stalls and cafe. The business at the Fraser's Hill town was also affected since those coming down did not have to wait for their turn either, meaning they could just drive down anytime.

We stopped at The Gap on the way up since my Dad wanted to use the toilet. Those were new buildings, but unfortunately, there were no water ..... And there were no other shops there with facilities. In fact, there were no other shops. From my reading, it used to be a thriving community there before ....

Time had certainly moved on and with it, driving up and down the hill was much easier. As I mentioned, it only took me just over a couple of hours to get from Gombak to the hotel. Maybe one day, I would just drive up with Anita for a bit of a drink, then come back the same day ....

Holiday Mode On

So, finally time has come for me to take a bit of respite. The plan was to drive to Fraser's Hill tomorrow, but it looked like I had to make a quick stop at the ward before I set off. And then had to go to the bank for a bit of business. I hope that all that could be sorted out by 11 in the morning.

Anita had done the packing earlier and we planned to take off from Gombak. In fact we were already there tonight to get ready. Our maid would also be flying back for Xmas early tomorrow morning. She would be away for close to a month.

Now that the clothes were packed up, time for me to decide which camera to bring. It looked like the A7R2 with a couple of lenses from the looks of it. And plenty of batteries most definitely. Better have some rest tonight ...