Malaysia Federal Route 3 - bad drive?

[Voodooman]

Thanks for the update, will drive carefully. I have booked a resort hotel in Batu Ferringhi but hope that it will not rain cats and dogs next week. I thought Penang is not affected by the year-end moonsoon but I have checked the weather forecast recently, it is rain, thunderstorm, rain.... everyday. This year is wetter than last.

 

Heard Gua Musang is scenic, what is the most scenic part of your drive from Penang to East Coast and back to Singapore?

Edited December 9, 2007 by Voodooman

[Kb27]

Heard Gua Musang is scenic, what is the most scenic part of your drive from Penang to East Coast and back to Singapore?

 

That would be from Baling to Gerik (or Grik) on route 76, near the lake on route 4, and also Gua Musang.

Batu Ferringhi is raining on and off whole day and night.

[Namesworld]

Well, thanks for the info!

Edited December 9, 2007 by Namesworld

[Hjteo]

Hi Voodooman,

We are back from Cameron already. It was raining till the last day. We gone up and down via Tapah instead and the roads were fun. The drive into the Boh Tea plantation can be adventurous when there are cars coming from the other directions.

 

Personally I will give the water fall near Tanah Rata a miss but will go to the watch tower. The view there is worth the walk there and back.

 

Food wise, plenty in Brinchang. We like the Tea !

 

Enjoy your stay in Strawberry park as well as Penang as well. Aiming now to go Kuantan next June after the moonsoon

[Ew78]

hi Kb27,

 

can advise how is the road condition at route 8 and route 66? more like route 3 and 4 with wider road shoulder? which one with more up and downs and bends?

 

next trip will try from K. Terengganu to Cameron via Gua Musang. Tks

[Ew78]

hi, anyone back from route 3 (ie kuantan or rompin) this few days? any flood along the way? tks

[Kb27]

At this period of time, many road will have potholes due to the heavy rain.

Road repairs are a constantly on and off thing, so it's hard to say when is the road condition better or worse.

When I cross into Kelantan border from Perak on 4, the road was newly surfaced and it was a breeze to drive for 10 or 20km, then comes the potholes..

 

Route 8 and 66 are single lane road. If you come from K. Trengganu, take 8 is better. You should reach Machang, and then turn south towards K. Krai and then Gua Musang...but you would end up in Genting/KL. Then you would need to go north again towards Cameron.

 

3 and 4 are easier to drive most of the time, but you should not miss 8 giving a chance to drive into Gua Musang.

 

I would avoid 66, that was just bcoz, I was trying to short-cut towards Gua Musang from 4, but got blocked halfway and have to turn back up to 4 to get around back to 8.

 

Probably 4 and 8 has more bends and turns since many sections of the road goes through the hills.

3 is fairly flat most of the way.

Edited December 17, 2007 by Kb27

[Ew78]

Tks a lot Kb27

 

have drove from K. Trengganu to Penang via route 4 few times.

only route 8 and 66 not try yet, both route 8 and 66 will lead to Gua Musang,

and there is a new route from Gua Musang to Cameron.

next trip will be 3D2N from Sing - K Trengganu - Cameron will take your advice to try taking route 8 then.

[Voodooman]

Hi HJTEO,

 

Just got back from my northern run as well. Total distance covered was in excess of 1,500 km. Cameron was cool but wet, had the charcoal steamboat at Highland Restaurant, it was yummy with the rain, definitely the highlight of the Cameron trip. Stayed at Century Pines, very comfortable but we were awoke by the Muslim prayer in the morning i.e. 5-6 a.m. Otherwise a nice and clean hotel. It appears to be very popular with Singaporeans, judging from the numbers of SG plated cars in the parking lots. Overall, more cozy than EQ Hotel and a hell lot cheaper. Did not do much sightseeing, just the waterfall, scones at T-Cafe, trip to Boh Tea plantation and strawberry picking. We departed early for Ipoh. The drive up Cameron from Tapah was fun but spoilt somewhat by a slow driver. Managed to overtake him with my D3 maneuver. Came down via Simpang Palau, more opportunities to overtake. It was another fun drive but as the roads were wet, I did not dare push the car too hard.

 

It was a gastronomical trip as we moved north to Ipoh and Penang. Ipoh

[Hjteo]

Hi Voodooman,

Welcome back. I went into Century Pines for a look see and it may be the next place to stay the next time. Do you makan at Tanah Rata since the hotel is next to it or drive up to Brinchang?

 

Your brief write up on Ipoh and Penang makes me want to take another road trip again. Like you, I am waiting for the moonsoon to be over go to Kuantan

 

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

[Voodooman]

We had scones and tea at T-cafe at Tanah Rata, other than that, all meals were taken care of at Brinchang. Merry Christmas!

[Siewss]

hi, anyone back from route 3 (ie kuantan or rompin) this few days? any flood along the way? tks

 

Just got back from Cherating - we were blessed with 3 days of sunshine, though a tad cloudy at times, but that suits us just fine. Ginormous crashing surfs, shallow tides, powdery sand, and no sun burn.

 

On the way back, we soon got a taste of the flood situation. Route 3 was disrupted at Pekan at many points - Thinking we already enjoyed 3 days of sunshine, the floodwater should have subsided somewhat. Despite the many "AWAS" signs and barriers put up blocking one lane of the road, and with the commonly understood "MAS", I got past the barrier and drove forward. We saw huts, houses, mosque and most kampong roads still submerged in murky water. The main road remained dry in most parts till I come to a point where there was a gathering of many cars. The driver of a kancil at the front told me he called up the IPE (or something like that, but I suppose he was refering to the transport department), and the road, though not completely closed, was passable to bigger vehicles like SUVs and army trucks. On top of the pandemonium, there was a "shaky" bridge to contend with. I made my 10 odd km back to Route 2 and alternate to Route 14, and cut in at Route 82 to join back Route 3 at a more southern part of Pekan. That, turned out to be a bad choice. Along the way we should have been warned by the many stationary and vacated vehicles (probably victim of the flood) left stranded by the roadside, villages commuting using small boats, and carcasses of their domestic livestock lying along the muddy banks. Along certain stretches, there were streams that burst the banks and flowed from one side of the road to the other, and the villagers were making the best of the situation by fishing with net in the middle of the road! There were 4 major waterlogged stretches and each of them at rim depth level. My lowered suspension didn't inspire confidence, and I maintained at least 20kmh at low gear in case my exhaust pipe goes below the water level. Finally I came across the mother of all flooded stretches. About 50m long, and no inkling of the depth, I stopped just before the water edge, where a family of old man and 3 kids were frolicking. In my broken sign language, I managed to find out from him that the water is about knee level deep. To prove it, I waited for the Landcruiser that I overtook earlier to come forward to attempt the forge. The landcruiser crossed the stretch with aplomb, but not before I noticed that the water level reached up beyond its doorsill and to quite some way up the door. That spells certain doom for my car. Though in their foolishness, my kids kept egging me to attempt crossing the flood, I made that tight U-turn and headed back the way I came, crossing the 4 mini-streams, and finally hitting Route 14 again after 20km of slow arduous driving. After 2 deadends, I decided to take the safe way via Segamat via Route 1, which was clogged heavy traffic and super-delayed traffic lights. Total time taken to hit Woodlands checkpoint was 7 hours from Cherating against my normal 4 hours

[Siewss]

Glad you enjoyed the tauge chicken. When I was there on 16 Dec, Cowan Street was closed, and according to the neighbouring shop, Cowan Street is a little whimsical. They open as they please, and close more frequently when business had been especially good. Queer....

 

Anyway, in the end, I also ended up in Old Wong for my tauge chicken fix, and though it was great, I found the horfun gravy at Cowan Street greater - thicker, more fragrant, and ultimately out-of-this-world. Too bad. Maybe the next time.

[Voodooman]

We arrived at Ipoh late and were too hungry to find our way to Cowan, Old Wong was on my GSP, so it was a convenient choice. Our grouchy stomachs won. The Ipoh horfun is really superb. Ipoh looks like a regular stop-over in the future, will try Cowan next time now that we know where it is. ie. near Excelsior. Cowan behaves like my favourite Hokkien Mee stall at Old Airport Road, happy happy take day off! A sign of financial freedom?

 

We stayed at Excelsior, quite okay hotel but the furnishing and decors are really obiang! But at RM188 for the deluxe room, really cannot complain too much.

 

Your gung-ho route 3 drive is admirable, I would have taken the Karak Highway or Segamat right away but it must be quite an experience.

[Siewss]

In the end, it turned out that a 10 days driving trip was simply too long for my family. Everyone suffered holiday fatigue halfway through, and the incessant moans and groans from the kids were real holiday spirit dampener. Tiara was, in everybodies' opinion, the pits - 1.5 hrs long check in, poorly furnished room, toilet that's reminiscent of an era 30 yrs back, cricket chirping the whole night long from within the toilet ceiling board, mysteriously padlocked room right opposite ours, and the hoards of wrongly attired holiday makers in the water made Tiara a nightmare in the real sense of the word - 1st and last time for us. Ipoh was a real relief - life came to a standstill - just glorious food, shopping and visiting Temburung Cave. Langkawi also turned out to be a worthwhile holiday venue, not least helped by the luxurious trappings of Pelangi. But pricey though in terms of both accommodation and food. The route 4 drive was not as enjoyable as I expected, largely because of the constant grumbling emanating from the rear bench, but also the many potholed and roadworked stretches that slowed down the journey greatly, not helped by the sheets of curtained rain. We reached Lake Kenyir at 9.30pm, after 7 hours of torturous driving, famished and tired. Didn't do much the next 2 days, especially with the kids glued to Disney Channel. Cherating was a great temporal reprieve - the sunshine managed to cheer us up. The drive back - you know already from my earlier writeup.

[Voodooman]

"Life came to a standstill", quite appropriate description for Ipoh as well. We enjoyed our stay there. So Txxxx did not improve! Not likely for me to return, both to Txxxx or PD. If I do, I will probably pay more for better accommodation, knowing PD is more for locals. ie. not exactly international standard (just my personal opinion).

 

Besides the luxurious trapping of Pelangi, how would you characterise Langkawi as a family holiday destination? Worth a visit? How does it compare to Perhentian? Penang did not leave much of an impression on me except for the excellent hawker food at Kimberly Street, the beach is so-so, traffic is horrible, shopping is 2nd rated (as compared to KL), coupled with the pricey hotel (Parkroyal's 2 small and crowded pools did not help) and the long journey, I doubt I am going back there in a hurry.

 

Between the famous islands of Trengganu and Penang, about same distance from our causeway, I now have a very strong bias towards the former.

 

I don't know about your kids, but mine will sound like "broken recorders" once the journey exceeds a certain numbers of hours. I countered my long drive to Cameron with a portable DVD player and a Nintendo DS, they help to keep the peace but make the journey less a part of the family holiday, if you know what I mean.

Edited December 30, 2007 by Voodooman

[Siewss]

In fact, I think Tiara may have degraded from the last time you visited - Far as I can see, there were no visible refurbishment effort and no new construction. I give it the honour of the worst accommodations I've ever patronised. The grumbling started the moment I open the door that led to the suite.

 

Langkawi's trying very hard to emulate Bali or Phuket, and I must say they have achieved measured success. There's plenty to do if are not a frequent visitor. The beach at Pantai Cenang is quite prickly because the adjacent islands effectively blocked and eliminated the strong waves, resulting in lots of uncrushed shells and corals. We took things easy and only visited the night market, cable car ride and went mangrove/island hopping. I'd say it's a great place to chill out for the family, and if snokelling's part of your agenda, you can take a boat to the other islands, but still can't beat Perhentian for pure snorkelling. A car is very useful to get around the island, but be prepared to haggle big time. My advice is: Plan the places you want to visit and eat at Langkawi, book a decent hotel, and go for it!

[Voodooman]

My mistrust of Malaysia's **** system(star rating) started with Tixxx. Excelsior was much better. So, far, only those in big cities lives up to their ratings with slight discount perhaps.

 

 

Thanks for the write-up on Langkawi, may try it next year if I run out of places to visit during the Monsoon season. We are more likely to fly next time.

 

Happy New Year to all!

Edited January 1, 2008 by Voodooman