That Day, I Went On A Road Trip With Strangers I Now Called Friends – East Coast Federal Route 3

Have you been on the road trip with people you barely know, or worse still, people you have never met?

Long before my Johor road trip (read it here), there was another road trip back in March 2016, when I travelled to the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Different from Johor road trip, this was with a bunch of total strangers. So how did this trip happen then?

To begin, back in March 2015, MJ and Richard (together with Arthur and SC) went on a trip to Sauk New Village, where they stayed in Kamo Home, a local homestay. I was supposed to join them for that trip but had to pull out due to work commitments. On the same weekend, the place also hosted three other group of travellers (CK and Mike from Ipoh, Amy and Anna from KL, and Charmaine and Pauline from PJ). What happened when four groups of like-minded travellers bumped into each other? They become bonded over some conversation during their stay and become friends since then. Fast forward to one year after, in March 2016, the same group of people, now we called “Sauk Gang” decided to do a road trip to East Coast together. After some planning, Mike, Pauline, Arthur and SC were not able to join due to conflicting schedule. And to make the trip extra fun, MJ decided to ask me to tag along while Richard invited his high school buddy, Nigel. At the very last minute, I invited Ken to join us as well, making the members for this trip 9 in total.

Remark: This post is a throwback to a trip done a year ago, in commemoration of our one-year friendversary. Hahahaha, pattern more than badminton huh?

Day 1 (26/3/2016) : Kuala Lumpur – Kemasik Beach – Teluk Bidara – Marang Waterfront – Kemaman – Kuantan

Watch my back while I take in the beautiful view in front of me

To fully utilise our weekend road trip, since it takes hours to reach Terengganu from KL, we decided to drive at midnight in order to reach there early in the morning. MJ, Ken, Nigel and I followed Richard’s car while Charmaine, Amy and Anna followed CK’s. We departed around 12.30am from different direction and agreed to meet up at Karak R&R. Since Ken, Nigel and I have not met the rest of the Sauk Gang, we had a short half an hour break there for a proper introduction, and for the driver to get their much needed coffee. We then continued our journey along Karak highway, towards our first destination --- Kemasik beach.

Driver number 1 (Richard) taking a much needed break

Understanding how hard it is for the driver to stay awake driving several hours on the highway while it’s sleeping hours, I decided to stay awake to talk to the driver, but got shooed back to sleep, well, because Richard complained that I’m too talkative. So I followed the driver’s order and fell asleep on the passenger seat (together with Ken and MJ), leaving only Nigel, “the co-pilot” to keep him company. After 5 hours, we reached Kemasik Beach around 5.30am in the morning, when the sky is still pitch dark. We parked our car at the designated car park and walked over to the beach.

Kemasik beach at dawn

Knowing to trust a photographer’s knowledge on where and how to get the best angle, I tailed CK when he walked towards a corner of the beach to set up his tripod and camera. I have left my gorilla pod in the car and was too lazy to go back and grab it, so I decided to just snap handheld. We waited until 7.15am for the sun to finally rise.

Sunrise

Fishing boats at Kemasik beach

We spent some time continued looking at the sea even after the sun has fully risen, solely because we were feeling heavy-hearted to leave this beautiful beach. However, Nigel, being the rational one, urged us to leave since we have got more places to be. And most importantly, we haven’t had our breakfast. We walked back to our cars only to gasp at the horror sight in front of us…

Crime scene (Photo credit: CK)

CK’s car window was smashed and upon checking the passenger seat, Anna’s handbag which was left there was nowhere to be found. Argh, this is why one should never ever leave your bag in the car - it’s basically an open invitation for burglary. MJ had also left her bag in Richard’s car but it was placed on the leg room and covered with a blanket. In the dark early morning, it wasn’t as obvious as Anna’s uncovered bag lying openly on the passenger seat. Unlucky for Anna, lucky for MJ.

Lesson learnt: Never ever leave your bag in the car while you are away

We tried looking for Anna’s bag and wallet in the nearby trash bin, hoping that the thief would at least only take her phone and money and dump what’s not valuable to him (like an empty wallet and bag) into nearby dumpster. Unfortunately, none was found. That means, we would need to lodge a police report on lost IC. The nearest police station is at Kerteh, about 15mins away, so we quickly drove over.

Kampung Baru Kerteh (Photo credit: CK)

It was a small police station in a new village and while Anna explained everything to the helpful Malay officer who wrote down every single detail, the two drivers took some nap in the car. It took us about half an hour to process the written report, and once we were done, we went to fix CK’s car window at Kerteh town. Luckily for us, there’s a Malay warong just a few blocks away, so we left his car to the mechanics and drove over for some brunch, and I had one of the best nasi kerabu and nasi dagang I've ever tried.

Nasi Kerabu (top), Nasi Dagang (bottom left) and  Nasi Minyak (bottom right) 

Once we are done savouring our delicious brunch, the guys went to check on CK’s car. It was ready by then and so they came back to pick us up, ready to resume our adventure. With our tummy filled with great food, we hopped onto the cars, and droved along the scenic East Coast Federal Route 3, towards our next destination --- Teluk Bidara.

Teluk Bidara

We reached Teluk Bidara at around 11 in the morning, when the sun is shining brightly on us, which means, great lighting for landscape photos, but my skin was screaming “SUNBURNT!!!”. Nothing is ever prefect. *sigh*

A mysterious hole I didn't go in

One of the highlight at this beach is the above hole we saw at the far right side of the beach. Since I was wearing my Jelly Bunnies which are slippery when in contact with water, I refrained from entering that area, fearing that I might fell and damage my camera in the process. MJ, being as fearless as ever was the only one who ventured in. It was beautiful on the other said, according to her.

Photo credit: CK

Leaving the beautiful beach behind, we drove further up north along the East Coast Federal Route 3 again, towards Marang Wave Breaker. Along the way, we passed by villages after villages, and beaches after beaches. We don’t have enough time to explore all the beaches, so we could only pick what seems interesting to us, and skip what’s too commercialised (Rantau Abang for example) or less interesting. At about 2pm, we finally reach Marang Wave Breaker.

Marang wave breaker

It’s not easy to find this place on Waze, but if you just key in “Marang Waterfront”, you will reach your destination. There’s a huge car park and a toilet just right in front of the wave breaker, so take note.

Fishing boats

CK had previously visited this place and he was feeling extremely tired from all the driving, hence he decided to sleep in the car while we roamed around. So we left him at the car and walked towards the wave breaker. We spent a good half an hour to one hour there taking in the beautiful sea and snapping photos.

Jump shot 

By the time we finished, it was around 3pm and everyone was starving since we had early brunch, so we drove southbound towards Kemaman for dinner, before continuing our journey towards Kuantan. We reached Kemaman town around 5pm. We decided to try out Restoran Tong Juan which is famous for its stuffed crab (a popular local cuisine) since it is just opened for dinner.

Dinner at Restaurant Tong Juan (Photo credit: MJ)

Famous stuffed crab

Google what to do in Kemaman and I’m pretty sure “Kedai Kopi Hai Peng” is in the list there somewhere. Having a few coffee enthusiasts among us, we just had to go try it out since we were in town after all. The place is actually not far away from our dinner place and we decided to head there right after our early dinner. We went round and round Kemaman town, trying to find this place and after several wrong turns, we finally found it.

Kedai Kopi Hai Peng (Photo credit: gourmetsharing.com)

This place is definitely very Instagram-worthy. Old school kopitiam-style with old school items being displayed at every corner of the shop, I can visualise youngsters to come here, grab a spot and take photos of them seated against the backdrop of antiques. But too bad for us, the shop was closing by the time we reached. It’s open early in the morning for breakfast till evening and hence we were too late. Oh-no!!!!  Having no other choice (not like we can force them to extend their operating hours), we left the shop in search for other coffee place.

Coffee break at Kemaman Station Kopitiam

After some googling, we came to a place called “Kemaman Station Kopitiam”. The place reminded me of Old Town White Coffee and PappaRich, if you know what I mean. We ordered some coffee and light bites, while continued chatting over random topics and getting to know each other even more. Around 7pm, we left to head towards our last destination --- the homestay at Kuantan.

Our stay for the night (Photo credit: MJ)

The journey to Kuantan took us another 2hours and it was a bless to be finally greeted with warm and cosy bed after driving around for more than 20hours. We booked two rooms, one for the 5 ladies and another for the 4 guys. After taking turn showering, we went to bed, finally calling it a day.

Day 2 (27/3/2016) : Kuantan – Kuala Lumpur - Singapore

Breakfast at Restoran New Hup Lek (Photo credit: MJ)

The next morning, we woke up at 8am in the morning, and after taking turn to shower and freshen up, we departed at around 9.00am for our morning breakfast. We went to Restoran New Hup Lek which was famous for their curry noodles. Some of the guys ordered nasi lemak instead of curry noodles and I shall say the curry noodles are pretty much overrated. It’s okay, it’s edible, but it’s not the best curry noodles I have tasted. I can’t remember the taste of the nasi lemak, so perhaps it wasn’t that good either.

Possibly the only wefie we took for the entire trip (Photo credit: Amy)

After breakfast, we headed over to Ibrahim Cendol Air Putih, said to be the best cendol in town (according to the locals, that is). It was scorching hot and we needed something refreshing to beat the heat, hence this place selection, out of several other options on hand. They offer several cendol choices such as cendol pulut, cendol kacang and cendol campur pulut. Being a greedy glutton, of course I opted for cendol campur pulut. Overall, it was quite nice in my humble opinion, but the ais kacang ingredient doesn’t seem to go that very well with cendol pulut, so I guess going for the traditional cendol pulut is a safer bet. Don’t be greedy like me!

Sometimes, less is really more

Cendol Air Putih

It was close to 11am by the time we finished our cendol, and we figured we had better made our move and departed back to Kuala Lumpur, since CK would need to go back to Ipoh while Ken and I needed to catch our flight later around 7pm. We reached PJ around 3pm and after much contemplation (not knowing what to eat at that hour), we decided on Restaurant Ratha (Damansara Uptown branch, not the one at my hometown). Wanted to order my favourite nasi pulut and mutton rending but both were not available, so we settled for nasi lemak, fried chicken, curry chicken and another curry dish I don’t quite remember (possibly fish). I haven’t eaten Ratha for years (the Raub one) and honestly, I think the food quality had deteriorated. Sigh, how I miss the taste back then when I was still a school kid.

Lunch at Restoran Ratha (Photo credit: MJ)

After lunch, we went next door (Bingsu Café) for some bingsu, since it was freaking hot out there and well, I guess we were looking for an excuse to see each other longer.

Mango durian bingsu (Photo credit: MJ)

After we were done satisfying our tummy with dessert, it was already 5pm and Ken and I needed to catch a flight. We booked an uber ride to the airport, where we took a flight back to JB (Senai Airport), then rode the shuttle bus to JB Sentral and crossed over to Singapore. Long weekend means super long queue at the immigration office at both JB Sentral and Woodlands, and we finally reached home past midnight. Exhausted, but a pleasant trip, and such a pleasure making new friends. *grin*

Epilogue

Travelling to most people may mean flying away to foreign land, but to me, to travel is to leave the comfort of your home and explore an unfamiliar place, even if it is only a neighbouring states. Malaysia is a beautiful country and it is a pity that many of the beautiful places remained unknown to our very own fellow countrymen. But it is also because it was untouched that it managed to slip away from human pollution and preserve it beauty. There’s always pros and cons to everything I suppose.

Spend your life with people who make even going to the grocery store an adventure

It's a pleasure meeting you guys

I’m glad I tagged along and had an amazing micro-adventure with these bunch of wonderful people. It’s a short road trip this time around as we didn’t have enough days to spare. Hopefully, another road trip in the future to explore the rest of Peninsula’s East Coast, probably Kelantan? Till we meet again, Sauk Gang! *wink*

Cost breakdown:

Total distance travelled: approximately 902km

Petrol and toll: RM53 (rough estimate)

Lodging: RM22 (RM110 shared by 5 ladies, for guys RM80 shared by 4)

Meal: RM50 (rough estimate)

Total: RM125

**Remark: Cost does not include travelling costs from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, and vice versa.