"1st Trip to Terengganu via Second East-West Road" Kuala Berang by amlapura

In early December 2007, two friends separately told me that the long awaited road linking Ipoh and Kuala Terengganu has been ready for use. So I decided to try it in my trip to the family's favorite destination, Terengganu.

We started from Batu Gajah, headed to Simpang Pulai and climbed the new road to Cameron Highlands. Then when straight through Blue Valley towrads Gua Musang. Everything was pretty smooth except when we reached Gua Musang, in which there was no signage to guide us of where to go next. We had to as the locals. As it was new, the answer was not assuring but we decided to go ahead. It was on the road to Kota Bharu, where we had to turn right just after Perasu, some over 20 km from Gua Musang. No road signage, but the signage of the road project was a good clue. It's a good and nice road, of quality similar to that of he Simpang Pulai - Cameron Highlands. The road was almost empty and it was drizzling throughout the journey. It's monsoon time in the East Coast. Suddenly we reached what I'd consider as a dangerous end. We were quite lucky to notice a car which suddenly appeared in front of us. It was climbing up from a steep terrain. Down there was a gravel road and it was like a big bowl where one has to drive down some 10 meters down and then climb again on the opposite bank. That's tricky. If not because of that car, we could have think twice and probably turn back. Just imagine what will happen if we reached that point at night on such an empty road. The gravel road continues for about 500 meters. And then the road was fine, but of a different quality - I think it's an old road but not bad. Some 30-45 minutes later we met a newer road and the after some time, start seeing a big lake, which was the Tasik Kenyir or Lake Kenyir. The rest of the journey was fine. I think, excluding all the stops the journey from Simpang Pulai to Kuala Terengganu was about 5 hours. And that was with cautious driving given that the road was new and also the rainy day. I think thi sis would be a good option in the future for us to travel to Terenganu. Probably a saving by 2 hours?