It was a rough start…. We were supposed to pre-pack our luggage 2 weeks ago, nothing was done until 2 days of our flight. We managed to pack it just before our long drive from Pingtung. We drove out at 3pm, stopped at the famous Ching Shui R & R for dinner and reached Tao Yuan at 3 8:20pm. Parked our car at the car park and reach the airport at 8:40pm. The queue at the airasia counter was long. I did not web check-in as I did not pre-book our seat. I thought the flight would be quite empty and we could get there early and ask the counter crew for some seat arrangement. We waited for 20 min and managed to get seat on the same row. I save RM120 for 4 of us by waiting the 20min...could have web-check in but our seats might be scatter all over the flight....
We wandered around the airport and got onto the flight on time.
We opted for night flight for 2 reasons, first – it was darn cheap less than rm250 per person for the single trip. Second, we could go straight and pick up my dad's car early in the morning, saving the money for 1 night hotel.
The flight was however not suitable for sleeping(the seat is definitely very un-ergonomic and not suitable even for sitting). The light in the cabin was not turn off until 1:30am; the crew served the food and sold the duty free stuff before everything went to peace. I had a bad sleep indeed, but still it is considered enough for a guy like me who did night shift. The flight hit the ground 20 mins earlier than expected.
The imigration crossing was simple and fast ...
We took a very easy time getting past the immigration and picking our luggage.
We had a good breakfast at Old town Coffee, RM 40+ for a breakfast…well, money well spent, we had nasi lemak, dry kueh teow, lum mee, kaya toast, butter puff and drinks. After the luxurious breakfast, I went to pick up my Tunetalk prepaid card. I found the booth just outside the departure entrance. I told her my booking number and she told me that I had to show her my flight itinerary which I didn’t have. The webpage of airasia did mention that I had to present to the check in counter with the booking number but never mention about the printout. She directed me to the sales counter at the departure hall and I got a stamped paper. I got my hand phone working minutes later….
At 6am, we took a taxi…Why 6, because, a surcharge of 50% is imposed for taxi called before 6am. From LCCT to Port Dickson, the fare is 90+RM…saving almost 50 RM….
We managed to reach my uncle’s house to pick up my dad’s Sirion at 7+am…
There was one act the made me uneasy but I did not pay enough attention to it – my uncle opened up the water tank and added some water into it before he handed over the car to me… I did not ask anything as I presumed the car should be in good shape as my dad had called my uncle 2 weeks ago to prepare the car….
The car was 15+ years old and I don’t expect much. My brother had warned me about the drive as the car was equiped with drum brake only and the braking ability was very poor.
The drive was smooth as I did not sprint …. Before I pass one of the toll house picking up a ticket, one number caught my sight – the number of PLUS line rescue, bad bad sign but still I was not aware of it.
The drive beame rougher as we reached the notorious Karak Highway. I was trying very hard to negotiate the curve and suddenly the air con become warmer than it should be….I take a glimpse at the temperature meter and spotted the pointer pointing at the peak of the meter…. Darn “tanki” and water problem, I cried in my heart… I was lucky as no steam was steaming out from the bonnet yet…the car was at the tunnel now and I slide the car slowly through the tunnel and drove into the R & R of Genting Sempah….
I parked the car at the parking zone and open the bonnet, and I sighed. I was lucky as there is some steam coming out from the water tank hose and the radiator looked intact. But the tank was empty and I knew that I had a leaked radiator. Same event occurred twice…. I told myself this is faith of a twins, I usually got same event twice; radius fracture in 1 shift (1 left, 1 right), 2 CPR in 1 shift, 2 snake bite in one shift and so on…..My last radiator leakage was about 10 years ago with my Kembara. It ended up with a radiator change and some engine part replacement costing almost 1k….
The next step was to call up my uncle, and I got the number of the AAM(Association of Automobile Malaysia). However my hand phone could not reach the toll free number ( it is usual as most toll free line barred hand phone from calling.) as expected.
With the help of God, I opened the front storing case and found an envelop of AAM. There was this KL number and I called up. The lady on the line told me that I am out of the AAM coverage and they would sent a panel tow truck to me….
It was another wait of 30 minutes before the tow truck driver called me. By this time, I knew that I was unable to reach Jerantut in time to meet T and his families. T is my senior in College, a gastroenterologist, former colleague of mine. We had met up for dinner months ago and after knowing my plan of going to Taman Negara, he had decided to join me. Later he had persuaded his mother and sister to join the trip and the group had expanded to 11 person in total.
I told him that I am unable to meet him for lunch in Jerantut and asked him to proceed to the jetty of Kuala Tahan; I would try to catch the last boat at 6:20pm. It was 11:30 am when I made the call.
I had come up with several plan by that time.
Plan A: tow to nearest Perodua Service center(Perodua =loca assembled Daihatsu), and left the car there until next week(it was Saturday and I doubt they are working).
Plan B, towed to the nearest workshop and left the car there. the workshop would sent the radiator to someone for mending and it would take a day to mend and another to get it back and installed it.
Plan C, towed back to Klang, (no difference as I had to pay up the tow truck anyway) and find a workshop and get another transport to Taman negara or forfeit the trip...
With both plan A and B, I had to hired a cab to sent me to Kuala Tahan Jetty. The main problem is that I had a big luggage which I intended to leave it in my car booth while enjoying the 4D3N trip initially. It would be a big in-convenient bringing the baggage. However it seems to be the only solution at that time as we would not be able to reach the jetty in time – the distance was about 200km and with the rough condition of the road, it would take about 3 hrs to reach the jetty. So the dead line for us to move on is 3pm. With plan C, it would be a different story as we would have to get a car to drive to the jetty(which is very unlikely to happen) or we would catch the midnight train and reach Jerantut at 3am the next day.
The tow truck called me again before he came and told me that I had 2 options.
Option 1: he sent his foreman over and sees what he can do, he said, no matter how big is the tanki, they can fixed it
Option 2: tow to whatever destination I wish…
I opted for option 1 as I wanted to give it a shot before forfeiting the trip, came a long way and waited for a long time for this trip….
The foreman came with 2 of his colleague. He had a look at the engine and told me that the radiator had leaked and he would need to take it out to see if they could mend it…as I had expected and I knew it would not be cheap as these rover rogue foreman would cost a hand and a leg if I let them laid their hand on my car… but I had no choice – 7 peoples are waiting me to join their tour… I had to beg on it….
I let them took out the radiator and rested at the R&R. We were lucky as the weather was cool; I had a reading of 22°C from my Mudman, we took a nap and I called up the foreman at 1:30pm and asked him about the progress. As expected, he told me that the radiator is in very bad shape and couldn’t be fixed. I concurred and asked him to replace the staff with a new one. I told me that he would try to find one. I told him that if he can’t put the thing back into my car he would have to call me back by 2pm. I would have to go for plan C. By 1:50pm, he told me that he had gotten an expert to mend the thing back and he is on his way to the R&R. By this time, both my dad and Ving had given me another choice – if the things is barely fixed then we should drive back to Klang and tried to get to the jetty by tomorrow….I crossed my finger and decided to see how was the condition of the radiator when it was returned.
The foreman and his “budak-budak” came and I saw the radiator is in good shape, cleaned and painted….they put the thing back and started their “Show”. They kept telling me that very difficult to get a replacement and it took a great effort for them to mend it, one of the fan’s carbon had worn off and needed to be replaced…After a 5 min bull shitting, I told them to get down to the point – how much. The foreman sit aside and let one of his “budak” performed the show. The “budak” was in a trance, raising his voice and waving his arm into the air and mumbling the price while writing it down. The fan cost 480RM, the rest of the radiator mending cost 870RM, summing up to RM1350. RM 500 more than I had expected…. I told him frankly that I am doctor working overseas and I could only pay him RM1000. I told me that I could get cash from the ATM at the R&R and I told him that I am not residing in Malaysia and I don’t own a ATM card. I took up RM500 and NT5000… and passed over to the foreman. I told him I would wired the money into the account by Wednesday when I came back from Taman Negara. He had no choice and written down his name at the back of the receipt… I left those blood suckers behind by 2:45pm….
It was a very rush drive as I had to complete 70km of highway, 130 km of kampong road (70 of it is very rough…) within 3 hours. I had no confident at all even though I was satisfied with the appearance of the radiator after the repair. I carefully monitored the thermometer while cruising at 90km/h on the highway. I dare not push the car to its limit…
When I get off the highway, I was sure that the car would make it to the Jetty as the temperature did not rise more than half of the meter. I had another thing to worry by then, will I make it to the Jetty on time.
I had 2+ hrs to complete the rest of the 130km. The drive from the highway exit to Jerantut was still ok as I could make 70-80km/h most of the time. But I knew the challenge was the last 60km. I had seen some photo taken from the internet and knew that the road was narrow and it goes up and down like roller coaster rail. The next thing that worried me was my fatigue, I had been going on for more than 30+ hrs, thanks to my usual routine as a night shift attending physician – I could still hang on to it….
I parked my car at the parking of Jetty at 5:50pm(30 mins before the last boat), paid up RM20 for 4 days…. I reached the nusa station floating restaurant by 6:10pm and catch my breath while watching the beautiful view of the riverside…We managed to hop on the boat on time. The ride was longer than expected, 15 mins from the Kuala tahan Jetty.
T was at the jetty of Nusa Holiday Village waiting for our arrival...
Finally we make it to destination after a long journey. This was the longest duration for me for not changing my cloth outside my job- almost 27 hrs ( the working suit I wore during my weekend lasted for 30 hrs…)
While enjoying my dinner with the group, I stared at the river while enjoying the water flowing sound – finally I am at my dreamland, after all those year of dreaming since my high school, I am finally at the beginning of my adventure….
