A Trip From Penang to Kuala Terengganu

Lately I happened to have a chance to travel to East coast Malaysia – Kuala Terengganu. Consider it as a mission to escort 3 lovely princesses for relocation. We have 5 knights with 3 iron wagons fully loaded with supplies. We also have a little fairy call GPS that guide us all the way to our destination. We began our journey at about 6:30am in the morning. We started off from the petrol station at Permatang Pauh and below are the details of our journey.

Permatang Pauh (Road 67) – Kulim (Road 67) – Kuala Ketil (Road 67) – Kupang (Road 67 to K171) – Baling (Road K173 to A173) – Gerik (Road A173 to 4) – Jeli (Road 4) – Ayer Lanas (Road 4) – Machang (Road 4) – Jerteh (Road 3) – Permaisuri (Road 3) – Kuala Terengganu (Road T4)

Basically it’s a simple straight forward road as there is only one way to get from West to East side of Malaysia. We just drive straight ahead until we reached Machang. Turn right as we reached a junction that switch from Road 4 to Road 3. After that just drive straight ahead until we reached a road about. Choose the 2nd exit or 12 o’clock straight ahead road which switch from Road 3 to Road T4. Drive straight ahead for another 10 minutes and we’ve reached the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge. After crossing the bride we arrived at the city of Kuala Terengganu.
I have to say this can be a dangerous journey if you’re not careful. We saw lots of dead animal lying around the road side including monkey, cow, dog and bird. These animals probably hit by cars or trucks. If you’re not careful these animals might cause serious accident. Along the road side we witness signs indicating appearance of deer and elephant. I was hoping to see these animals but instead I saw something that took me by surprise. We saw a wild tiger crossing the road while driving, but that was on my return trip. There are about 500 wild tigers left in Malaysia and it’s very rare for tigers to come out broad day light. Chances of having to see a wild tiger is very slim. I suppose we must be very lucky that day. By the way, the passenger next to me saw the wild tiger too. So I got a witness to prove that I’m not lying. We saw the tiger at about 11:00am in the morning. We couldn’t help to imagine what will happen if motorcyclist saw the wild tiger instead of us. Half of the journey is going up and down between the hills and forest. We are actually very close to where these wild animal lives. At some part of the roads, we did kind of worried about the foggy condition but it was just a short distance only. It was about 9:00am but the foggy condition still there, must be due to the high altitude and the forest around.We were lucky that the weather is fine all the way we drived. The road condition can be very bad if rain. Not to mention if trying to drive at night in these roads, just imagine how dangerous it is. Most of the roads don’t even have lights or reflectors. I can imagine it’s like driving into pitch black with no ends. So what’s the worst condition that you can get if trying to drive at night? Here’s what you might experience, driving through pitch black with no lights, raining, foggy and bumping into wild animals. For safety, it would be best to take this journey day time when the sun is shining above.

This journey is a bit dangerous and time consuming but the views along the road is great. That is if you love site seeing. Some rest area along the road side on top of the hills has great views. We’re able to enjoy the cool wind standing high above the hills scouting around the land below. Perhaps the best views throughout the whole journey are around Tasik Temengor, where we need to cross couple of long bridges. As for the buildings along the road side, I can only remember lots of schools and mosques.

We reached Kuala Terengganu at about 1:00pm. That’s about 7 hours of driving including stopping for fuel and rest. We could reach Kuala Terengganu earlier but for first timer it’s better to take more time and be safe. Crossing the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge was the most exciting moment as that is the sign we reached Kuala Terengganu. The first thing that caught our eyes the moment that we drove on the bridge is number of mosque buildings on our right hand side. I suppose there are at least 5~6 mosques.This is surely an exciting trip and we were able to reach our destination safely and found the castle which our princesses stay. The castle is situated high above the ground and situated in the middle of the city. The view from the castle is gorgeous as we can almost see half of the city. That includes the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge and the mosques. After staying for couple of days and safely relocated our princesses, we return to where we came from. Some of the knights took flights but couple of us drove back hitting on the same road where we came from. Mission accomplished!!