As the road trip will be long today, all of us got up early to get ready for the day. Morning in Gerik is still cooling with nice fresh air, its good to just get up early and enjoy the weather. Reminds me how KL used to be when I was young, when the morning are foggy and cold.
Without much delay, Edwin whom just had a crash course on Gerik from his local friend took us to a local food court in town where we had breakfast. Its the usual Chinese fare but they are slightly different from those we used to have in KL. We got ourselves some dim sum, wantan mee, prawn noodles, curry noodles, chee cheong fun and nasi lemak! Since its going to be a long drive, we want to make sure everyone had a good heavy breakfast. The curry noodles are worth mentioning here, order the thick gravy one, its nice and rich. Before leaving town, we stock up on mineral water and some kueh at the wet market.
It didn’t took too long to travel from Gerik to Temenggor Lake which is our next stop, on On the way we saw interesting signs of wild elephant crossing warning. Can’t help but keep wondering if we will bump into one and I am sure the gang will go crazy with their cameras! Soon we arrived at Temenggor Lake, first sight of it when we are crossing the bridge was beautiful, immediately all the cars slowed down to enjoy the view. Once we crossed into Banding Island, then I realised Banding Island Resort is under renovation, no wonder no one is picking when I called them to try to do booking. After the resort, there’s a Petronas there which is packed with cars resting and taking a break, unfortunately there are no nice view there. We moved further up the island and found a scenic spot for some photo shoot, this is partly a photography trip after all?
Before departing from Banding Island, we checked out the boat jetty and found out that its actually flooded! Water level raised to just below the marine police base there, 1/3 of shops and jetty are covered with water from the lake, not sure if this is a norm. Again, the shutterbugs snapped their cameras away here.
We then hurried everyone to move on, leaving Banding Island going further on the East West highway to Kelantan. The drive is really scenic with nice view of hills and mountains and of course again, the shutterbugs are screaming to stop for pictures. Daniel then advised us that there is a stop with nice view, this way we can park safely and snap away. So we arrived at a rest stop known as Titi Wangsa, as the name suggest, it over looks the whole Banjaran Titi Wangsa which is basically a long stretch of hills and mountains that protects the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia from the monsoon.
Everyone is getting hungry at this point, with the little kueh we have, we continued and rushed heading to Gua Musang through Jeli. First sight of Jeli is a relief as there are no floods here and the road are good but as we got halfway through, about 50km more to Gua Musang, we got stucked! A signboard saying that the road to Gua Musang is closed!!! OMG! We asked around and found out that landslide have covered up the road. At this point, we have to decide to go all the way back to Gerik or take the risk and see if we can pass since so many vehicles turned into the road anyway.
At this tension point, we send scout Daniel and Jason to ask further while the rest look for the loo at the Jeli bus station. The bus station is technically closed, with only 1 bus in sight and non of the counter or shops are opened. As the girls tried to be polite and covered up while seeking for the loo, I managed to flagged down a 4WD which told me that its safe to go as there is an old small road to detour. To be sure of this, Jason and Daniel managed to flagged down a motorbike… ya a motorbike! I saw a car and a motorbike, but they choose to ask the motorbike (hehe… what if the road is only passable by the bike?). Anyway, Jason is convinced that the road is passable and so our little adventure begins :D.
With slightly below half tank of fuel, we took the risk and headed on. There is seriously, no fuel station on the way down this road! Mainly small villages along the way, very little shops and mainly motorbikes. The only fuel station I saw are those cheap fuel they sell for motorcycles to use, which is basically a hut with a small little pump.
Soon, we came to the part of the road where a small signboard points us to a detour, in the beginning, the roads are still ok, looks like old and not maintained trunk road, then soon we came to small village road meant for 1 way traffic with lalang along both sides. At one point, we hit muddy dirt road below a railway bridge but lucky we managed to get passed. Then we hit smaller road and Jason had to be our ambassador to go down and ask the locals if we are on the right direction. After some assurance, we moved on deeper and came to small junction. We took the left turn with some kampung houses next to it and the moment Paullie asked, “the road so small, what if another vehicle comes the other direction?”, a Pajero shows up the other direction! This really reminds me of the drive the wildgeeks have to Lata Kijang, hehe…
Anyhow, the driver of the Pajero told us that we took the wrong turn, Gua Musang is through the right side of the junction. At this point we had to u-turn in the narrow kampungs and lucky the locals are friendly and gladly let us use their driveway to u-turn. At the right turning, we go pass the railway bridge (just inches above my truck) and move on. Soon, we came to a downhill and saw a long queue of cars, guess what, another landslide! A policeman on motorbike directed us to queue on one side. The queue is about 1km plus and we had to wait like 45mins here for the tractor to clear the road for us to cross. With hot weather, 1/4 fuel left, you can imagine how tense we are then! Finally, we got to cross, but through muddy roads again through the side, the 2 other cars are definitely complaining at this point.
Without thinking much, we move on, along the way, there are numerous mini landslides, part of road collapsed and muddy roads after flood. I think this whole part of Kelantan is really been hit bad by the flood. As we arrived in Gua Musang, everyone is screaming of hunger, so fueled up and look for the chinese place to eat fish head Micol mentioned. It was really an adventure getting to Gua Musang! I can just imagine how bad it can be if we are really stucked in flooded area, more reasons for Ed to consider a 4WD now? Muhahaha :P.
GPS – Gerik Food Court – N5 25.799 E101 07.822
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Time sure flies, very soon we are on the last day of the trip and everyone is already feeling the end of the trip, time to go back to work, life, bills… well, at least we had a good break and a wonderful experience won’t you think so?
As we got down to Simpang Pulai, the gang are already screaming for food, so we hurried to Tapah to look for more food to eat. Tapah is our last stop before heading home and we were rounding Tapah town in rain to try to find a decent place to eat. Somehow most of the places are closed on Christmas eve and we found Little House Cafe which serve Hainanese cuisines. We got the recommended talapia fish butter fried, sambal petai, butter fried sotong and the usual vegetables and tofu. The best would have to be the fish, which are sliced and fried and also the sotong. Total bill is RM100.00, all round up, hmmm… based on estimation or a standard charge for KL folks? :P. Anyway, the food here are still good and decent.
Food and Road Trips Guide for Malaysia 