November 2009: Since I first ventured in Johor Bahru, I have always wanted to do a complete round trip of Malaysia. At that time, my geographical knowledge of Malaysia was poor, but I could tell that it was really a big place and I haven't been to most parts. From the map, the distance looked daunting and seemed quite challenging as it runs across many unknown areas.

When the New Year four-day long weekend coming up, I thought there was no better time to fulfill this long time wish. I charted a route up via the East Coast, cut across from the right side of Malaysia to the left side, and then down via the West Coast down back to Singapore via the North South Expressway.

I drove hurriedly up to Mersing via the familiar Sibu Kelong road as we started off late. We reached there about 8am for breakfast. While buying food at a roadside store, I stepped on an ant hill and got bitten by Mersing fire ants. The itch bothered me throughout the journey. Something to remember the trip by I suppose.

By the time we arrived at Kota Bahru, it was already evening and the sun was setting. After dinner, the next important thing was to find accommodation. To my surprise and horror, all the hotels that we enquired about was fully booked. So we drove around checking out hotels listed on the GPS. Some looked downright expensive (marble floor and chandelier) so we didn't bother to ask. We finally came across a hotel with a spare room and we took it. However the hotel looked very "motel-like" and the facilities were not well maintained and clean. But at RM100, it was fine for just one night (see picture below).

Day Two

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and got on the way at 8.15am. I wanted to get out of Kota Bahru before the traffic got bad again. Driving around in Kota Bahru wasn't pleasant as the traffic was heavy and the road congested. From there, I plotted a route to Jeli, starting off our cross-country drive to the other side.

The road took a quick change to more village roads and from the GPS, I found myself very close to the Thailand border. At some places, Thailand was like a stone's throw away. The atmosphere of the drive here was a bit different as there were presence of police customs and soldiers along the road. We had to pass by a few road checks, and some custom post. I wasn't sure as to why I had to go through custom as I was still in Malaysia.

We were getting hungry as we have not had our breakfast since our hurried departure from Kota Bahru. I was hoping to find somewhere clean to have a good meal. However, the roads seemed mostly deserted and the food stalls at the villages were not too clean by our city standards. But as I was driving along a long straight stretch of straight road, I saw a shop house selling prata that looked decent (see picture below).

The food was pleasant and served by a nice traditional Malay family. Here, roti prata is known as roti chanai and they took awhile to understand us. I told the lady in my smattering of Malay that we were heading towards Jeli, and then to Sg Petani. She sounded shocked and replied "Tamat" which means "the end". I learned a new word that day.

I next continued the drive down to Jeli. From there, we found ourselves going higher up the mountain. Not unlike the drive at Cameron. After lunch, we started the drive towards Baling and then to Sg Petani. The place I was heading for was the Carnival theme park that I had found on the internet. This was like the furthest north theme park.

The park was rather nice, and the standard here was comparable to those in Sunway Lagoon. Though it is quite small, it sufficient for an afternoon fun. Furthermore, it wasn't crowded at all and the time there was very pleasant. After my daughter had her fill of the fun at the theme park, we started driving from Sg Petani to Kampar and stayed at a hotel there.

Day Three

We woke up and had a standard breakfast before leaving the hotel at about 10am. From there, I plotted the drive towards Bagan Lagan. The drive was mainly expressway on the E1.

We reached Bagan Lalang at about 3.15pm and took our lunch at a small Malay eatery just along the beach. We then headed to the jetty to make our way to the kelong. There, I fished and stayed till the evening. I instructed the boatman to pick us at 7pm as I wanted to leave for Singapore while there was still light. This was more for safety reasons as going up and down the boat would be more dangerous in the night. Furthermore, our car was parked at a dimly lit village and driving out wouldn't be safe.

But the boatman came very late, much to my unhappiness. He only arrived at about 8.00pm, and the whole area was in darkness. By the time we left the place, it was already 8.30pm.

From there, we made our way back to Singapore. It was mostly expressway driving and that gets tiring. We stopped at the Ayer Keroh rest point where the big KFC could be seen across the expressway and ate at A&W.

At the end of the trip, the distance shown on the car odometer was 1800km, for the entire round trip. I was expecting 2000km actually, and so it seemed that Malaysia wasn't that big after all.

Readers would also be interested to know that the total amount of petrol that I spent was around RM$210 for the entire trip. That would come to about S$90 dollars, just about two full tanks of petrol in Singapore. That should be a surprise to many that at the cost of two petrol filling, one could go round Malaysia.

The other expense for this trip was from the toll fare. Toll was only needed from the west coast trip, going via the well maintained North and South bound expressway. But the drive was easier on the west coast and the fare was worth it. However, I found the last stretch of about 300km the most demanding of all as it was done at night and through very mind numbing scenery.