Monday, January 18, 2010

Second Trip to Kuala Terengganu

    After couple of months I’m taking another trip back to Kuala Terengganu again. This time my mission is to deliver a small transportation call “Kancil” from Penang to Kuala Terengganu. The delivery date was 1st Jan 2010 and I have two companions along the trip. The mission estimated will takes about 7 hours of driving. I have to say, driving such a small car on such a long journey is not a good idea. As this is the only option that we have, we just have to do it carefully.

    We start the journey at about 7am in the morning. Everything looks ok. The “Kancil” car has been check and service couple of days right before the journey. It should be fine and free from all the possible damage that can cause the car to break down. You definitely don’t want to have a break down in the middle of the trip from Penang to Kuala Terengganu. The first half of the trip is going up the hills and forest. The only thing that you can see is the road, a few transportation and lots of trees. One thing for sure, cell phone signals are not available at certain areas. So if you really do have a car problem, you’ll just have to ask those who pass by for. Imagine the helpless and danger that you might face if you were to drive at night. Plus animals like elephant or other wild animals might appear along the road during night time. For all that reasons, try not to drive at night if you’re heading to Kuala Terengganu from Penang.

    Driving a small car going up and down hills is not easy, or shall I say it’s far more dangerous than I think. That’s because there are lots of turns and the road condition is not good. Sometimes we have to keep a distance from trucks that carry tree trunks. A simple kiss from these giant trucks is enough to knock us down the hill.

    When we left the hills and enter the second half of the road trip, it began to rain. This part of the road is much safer because we can see houses, mosque and schools along the road. At least there are people living close by the road. For the second part of the trip, the rain is the problem. It never did stop raining once it started. A small car with small tires can easily slip when there is water on the road. Thus we have to drive slower than usual.

    We finally reached Kuala Terengganu but it took us about 7 hours of driving. Lucky this is the second time that we do this but with a smaller car, we have no problem in reaching our destination. As a reward for mission accomplish, we were treated will “Big Tea Rice” at Kuala Terengganu China Town. Check out the photo of the entrance that I took at night.


    We didn’t stay long in Kuala Terengganu. We left the next day taking the bus. The bus departed at about 9:30am in the morning and reached Penang at about 5:30pm. That’s about 8 hours of journey. Don’t think I’m going to take another long bus trip any sooner. It’s really painful having to sit in the bus for such long hours. When we reached the up hills and down hills area, haze form around the road. That’s about 4pm in the afternoon and it’s raining. Driving up and down the hills when it’s raining and the haze around, it’s just dangerous.

P/S: The trip is a bit dangerous but there are lots of great places that you can stop by for sightseeing. There are couples of small waterfalls close by the road that you can have a picnic too.

3 comments:

jj-momscashblog said...

May I ask what did you take this dangerous but adventurous trip for? Was this part of your job, it sounds very interesting whatever it was for. You must leave an interesting life. I love reading about other countries and traditions and hearing about elephants in the woods/jungle that may come out at night. All we have here is maybe a wild dog/coyote but nothing like elephants. Great post. thanks jj

Yodi Insigne said...

Seems like an interesting place.
It is like the "China Town" here in Manila,Philippines

kumowai said...

I'm just helping a friend to deliver the car from one place to another. No doubt the journey is a bit dangerous because we have to go over the hills and forest. We even saw a tiger crossing the road in the first trip. Life is interesting when you try to enjoy it.