Road Trip to Rantau Panjang Border -Day3 R&R at Cameron

Today was suppose to be R&R at Cameron Highlands.

This was what we woke up to:



First thing first before setting off for the day...check the engine oil level. Nice and big engine. I was a little surprised that the 2.4L version was so much larger than the 2.0L.



Breakfast at just 300-400m from hotel.



Very nice zhu chang fen with an egg on top.



Roti canai (or commonly known as roti prata here)



After breakfast, we were off to the BOH tea plantation but alas, it was closed. Never mind, since the plantation was closed and we were already there at the foot of Gunug Brinchang, the peak of Cameron, I decided to attempt the hill climb.

Half way...we stopped for some photo...and along the way we had to siam to the side of the road for others to pass through. Not an easy thing in a camry.







And then the road got narrower, with deep drench and ditch by the side. Traffic got more busy. We decided that maybe it wasn't the right time to do it. Found a spot, parked the car and started taking photo before we U-turn down.



Took some "engagement photo"like shots.



And then it started raining at about 1pm. KEPT the camera and no more photo for the day. Explored the two little town of brinchang and tana ratah. Had lunch and dinner and the rain got even heavier. Fog and storm, the perfect recipe for a cold cold cold day, colder than autumn in china.

BTW, petrol stations can be found in Brinchang. We used 55rm (26.8L) worth of petrol to travel through route 66 and route 185 and up to Cameron. This will mean that Kuala Terengganu to Cameron took slightly a little more than 50L. If we had not pump the 24L on route 4, I guess we would have reached the hotel with about 1/4 of petrol left in the tank.

That's all for today. Day 1: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-from-to-rantua-panjang.html
Day 2: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-to-rantau-panjang-thai-border.html
Day 3: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-to-rantau-panjang-border-day3.html
Day 4: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/07/road-trip-to-rantua-panjang-border-day-4.html
Day 5: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/08/road-trip-to-rantua-panjang-border-day-5.html

Road trip to Rantau Panjang Thai Border- Day 2 Kulua Terengganu to Kota Bahru to Rantua Panjang to Cameron Highlands

Day 2 of the trip started early, setting off at 7am.

The plan for the day was to go from Kuala Terengganu to Kota Bharu for lunch, reach Rantau Panjang at early afternoon and then continue onto Cameron Highlands through one of the best driving road in Malaysia.

First stop...buy kopi o kosong. I am caffeine dependent, meaning that I actually do get severe throbbing headache without coffee.



Next up. Jiak breakfast at Chinatown area in Kuala Terengganu. New noodle stall by the road side facing the sea.



Noodle was pretty good. Texture was great.



After feeding ourselves, it was time to feed the car. Amazing FC. 47L got us over 560km.

 

Time to move on...a glimpse of how driving on route 3 is like (if you know how to get to the minor roads beside federal route 3. These trunk roads run parallel to route 3 and usually in great conditions.



Continuing on back onto federal route 3. The road condition is good, much much better than some of the inner federal routes.



And then continuing onto another of those truck routes, T1 and T3. T1 is a nice place to drive through and it leads into an "island" that forms a lagoon with the main land.



Bird's nest farm at the end of the road. Personally, this is not the type of road I will explore if I was driving a sg-plated car...especially one that does not exactly blend in with the crowd.




After a lot more driving, we finally reached Kota Bharu. The JAM was massive massive. The final few km into the city took almost 1 hour. The duration of the red traffic lights were so long that I was able to dig my camera out from the rear seat, snap snap snap, put the camera back, and...it was still red. I imagine it will be an irritating encounter if I was in a conti with the radiator fan going crazy in the stationary traffic on a 36c day.



Reached U-Lang corner at mid-noon. Almost on time...almost.




Famous nasi-dagang.




After lunch, it was time for desert. Bought lots of kueh for only 10rm. Sorry, there was no photo because we were running late. 2 hours behind schedule. Any more delays and we would be driving through the mountain roads in pitch dark condition.


With more driving, I finally reached my destination! This milestone signifies the end of federal route 3 @ km 1 in Rantau Panjang.



In another few hundred meters, the road sign will say:




Yup, this is the Rantau Panjang crossing between Malaysia and Thailand.




In case anyone is going there...you will find a BIG paid car park by the side of the complex. I believe I paid 2 rm.




After seeing the Thai Border, it was time to continue the Journey to Cameron Highlands, where we will be spending the night (and the next 2 days).


Travelled on route 196 which will lead to route 4 and then eventually route 66 and then route 185 which will bring us to Cameron.

Route 196 leads to a famous keropok town. Bought keropok and continued on.

Before the intersection on route 4 that will lead to route 66, there is a BIG PETRONAS where every car stopped. I still had a little more then 5/8 tank of petrol. For some unknown reason, I decided that I should stop and fill up the car.



Used 24L of petrol from Kuala Terengganu to Kota Bharu to Rantau Panjang to this unknown big Petronas. This proved to be the MOST CORRECT CHOICE I EVER MADE on this trip because as we would find out later, the next petrol station we saw was at Cameron Highlands, just about 5 hours away!

The sort of road we went through...route 66...




And then the road got narrower...and on certain stretches where there was landslide, we were left with 1 lane for two way of traffic. Giving way to a big timber truck...still happily snapping away...






Little did I know that just 300m down, a whole segment of route 66 was CLOSED due to landslide.

A temporary bypass was constructed through the "jungle". Doesn't seem too bad, but when you consider that it was practically a mud and gravel road of extreme steepness and that we did not know where it led to, it was disastrous. The road closure signs were all in malay. Not a single word I understood. I had two options: U-turn or continue. I was so scared that I forgot to take photo. The terrain was so steep that those timber trucks had to be assisted by bulldozer to climb up.

After what seemed like eternity (which was actually only a few minutes, we finally went back onto the tarmac road. Scary experience and definitely not a  pleasant experience if I was driving my own car. But if you were driving a rental car...nothing is too much.

Continuing on the road, we were met with another roadblock- a seemingly harmless road...




Turned out to be part of what was once a bridge. A temporary bridge was built and it was a new experience. Fearless, if you were in a rental car, as we were. Only issue was that this is a single lane 2-way crossing. This means that you better pray there was no car from the other way when you are crossing...



The camry after the ordeal. Amazingly reliable car.




From route 66 merging onto route 185 was EPIC.

Route 185 turned out to be the BEST DRIVE of the whole trip. MASSIVE 2-3 lane mountain roads with lots of nicely sculptured curve. It was so scenic that we had to bring the camry off the tarmac onto the gravel road for some photo taking.



The fact that we haven't seen a petrol station in the past 3 hours also meant that I haven't relieved myself in the last 3 hours...while eating and drinking in the car...I decided to...in the vast wilderness...ahem ahem...I fed the mosquitoes too.



Due to the really really tight schedule, there was no photo taken, but I just want to highlight that route 185 is a MUST TRY road.

At about 8pm, we finally reached our hotel in Cameron, in pitch black darkness no doubt. Hungry, tired, bladder full. Used almost half a tank of petrol from the last fuel stop to here. We would have made it without that 24L of fuel from the last stop, but it would have been a drive full of anxiety. It was really no joke because we probably saw less than 20 cars on the whole 1.5 hour journey through route 185. Just imagine running out of petrol in darkness on such a deserted road...

Anyway, the hotel...Copthorne (or previously known as equatorial)...has very decent sheltered car park that faces the lobby. Although the lots were a little small.





View outside the room. Decent but nothing to shout about.





The room.



Mileage travelled for the day, about 500km. 13 hours on the road.

Day 1: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-from-to-rantua-panjang.html
Day 2: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-to-rantau-panjang-thai-border.html
Day 3: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-to-rantau-panjang-border-day3.html
Day 4: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/07/road-trip-to-rantua-panjang-border-day-4.html
Day 5: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/08/road-trip-to-rantua-panjang-border-day-5.html

Road trip from to Rantua Panjang Thailand border-Day 1 Johor to Kulua Terengganu

5 days.
1785.7km.
162.5L of petrol.

A while back, I got "retrenched". That gave me the free time to accomplish my dream of driving to the Thai Border and back. I was planning on visiting the Border at perlis, but the other half did not have the time required for such a long trip. Moreover, I had always wanted to "complete" the Malaysia Federal Route 3, from the start to the end.

Having decided on the duration of the trip, I planned my stops and decided on these cities.

The plan:

Day 1: Drive from Johor Bahru to Kuala Terengganu
Day 2: Go Kota Bharu for lunch, visit the Rantau Panjang Immigration complex., then reach Cameron Highlands.
Day 3: R&R at Cameron Highlands
Day 4: Visit Ipoh for lunch, then make my way back to Kluang for the night.
Day 5: Back to Johor Bahru.


Having decided on the locations and hotels, I needed to settle the transport.

There was no way I was going to do the trip on my car because I am not prepared to lose it. My motto is to never bring what you cannot afford to lose. Moreover, I wanted something that may blend in better with the east coast traffic. So...I rented a Toyota Camry. This proved to be the right choice (on day 2).

On the day of travel, I picked up the other half from her place and left my precious at my regular car park lot at home.



We went to JB via Bus 160 to collect the rental Camry at The Puteri Pacific Hotel (Hawk Car). It wasn't my first time renting from Hawk Car, so it was almost like a regular routine to collecting the car. There was no chance of getting lost. As usual, lugging all the stuff wasn't too easy, so Taxi from Johor Sentral Terminal to:



I was pleasantly surprised when Hawk Car gave me a 2.4L Camry with full electric and leather seat.

You see, the previous times when I rented from them, I was always given the 2.0L version. On one of those occasions, the Camry even came without leather seats!



Handsome car with 90k km on the clock. In Camry speak, this has only just completed the run in.



Due to the massive jam at causeway, the trip started a little late, 1.5 hours later than I expected.

Did the usual stuff- buy water, buy biscuit...etc- and by the time I finally got on the journey proper, it was already early afternoon, with 550km of travel ahead.

After some driving and circling, we finally reached Mersing for lunch at 2pm. 2 hours later than I expected.



A quick lunch and off we were gone. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I took a wrong turn on route 3 and ended up in Endau.



Beautiful mistake because this allowed us to have a little durian before we move on. You see, the first time I did a road trip, I went hungry for most days because I was always circling around for the "perfect food". What I realised later on was that on such a trip with uncertainty of when is the next meal, you will rather eat too much than not eat. So....

And we moved on...stopped as the coast side for some photo taking. The beauty of Federal Route 3 is that you get the drive beside the sea at certain stretch before and after Kuantan. This is one of those "trunk road" the runs beside route 3 and often lead to a dead end. In this instance, this road led to a collapsed road that had blend in with the beach.



Rained. Lost our way. More rain. Minor ponding. Jam near Kuantan. etc etc. By the time we got to the state of Terengganu, the sun had already set.

This was at Chukai, probably about 150km from Kuala Terengganu. It wasn't my first time at Chukai and the previous time when I drove around there at night, it was horrible. Dark roads with no lights. Dim Camry headlights. Blinding lights from incoming traffic. It was horrid. So I was really worried at this point. Doing 50km in such condition is really about as tiring as driving for 3-4 hours in daylight.



However, my worries proved to be unfound. The road to Kuala Terengganu got wider and better. On many sections of the roads, we were actually driving on dual lane carriageway with centre-divider and street lamps. Pleasant surprise.

Just when everything was going well, it rained again. Rain was massively heavy. The poor condition of the rental car wiper meant that I lose almost all visibility to light reflection each time the wiper swept. It got so bad that I had to slow down to a crawl at 30-40km/hr. By then, it was already 10pm and I still had not had dinner!

Da Bao Mcdonald's and settle dinner while driving.

The night view along the oil refinery stretch at Dungun or Peka area was absolutely astonishing.

Another hour or so and we finally reached Kuala Terengganu.



Reached hotel at 11.30pm. About 4 hours later than I had planned.



Day 1: 12 hours on the road. Travelled 553.5km. Averaged 11.8km/L. The fuel consumption is really no different from the 2.0L camry AND the 5 speed gearbox is really quick as compared to the 4 speed on the 2.0L.



Zzzzz at 12mn.

Day 1: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-from-to-rantua-panjang.html
Day 2: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-to-rantau-panjang-thai-border.html
Day 3: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/06/road-trip-to-rantau-panjang-border-day3.html
Day 4: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/07/road-trip-to-rantua-panjang-border-day-4.html
Day 5: http://shoestringbudgetrc.blogspot.sg/2015/08/road-trip-to-rantua-panjang-border-day-5.html