Oh What A Journey...

Being a typical Malaysian, Hootie and I took the opportunity to "balik kampung" over the long weekend. Thinking that most KLians would have fled KL, I decided to take my own sweet time to wake up and start our journey.

I was wrong. A trip to JB usually takes 3 hours but yesterday it took us 6 hours!!!!

We started at 10.30am from Teh's house. When we got to Bukit Jalil, the queue for PLUS highway already started there (damn! are you people crazy or what!). So we decided to take "Jalan Lama". We passed by Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Nilai, Mantin, Seremban, Pedas, Simpang Ampat and all the other small villages... all the way to Segamat. By the time we got to Segamat, it was 3pm and Hootie was hungry. So we stopped for lunch at KFC (talking about being adventureous! D'oh!). My dad is from Segamat and my family used to stay here for a while. The town has changed quite a bit (the last time I was there was 10 years ago, mind you) but some things are still there, like my primary school, my dad's favourite barber and tailor, the makcik stall where I used to walk with my brother to buy breakfast and my mom's old school (she's a teacher and SMK Paduka Tuan was her first posting after coming back from UK in 1984).

We continued our little excurtion all the way to Yong Peng and finally hit the Plus Highway from there. During part two of our trip, we passed by a small town called Desa Temu Jodoh. I find the name rather interesting.

We finally got to JB around 5.30pm. I told dad about Desa Temu Jodoh. He said that the place is called as such because once, the Govt of Johor did a mass marriage ceremony (40 odd couples if I'm not mistaken) and gave them a piece of land for these couples to develop and start a family (kiranye cam penempatan Felda la). The Govt of Johor provides all the necessity such as schools, Klinik Desa, community hall etc.

The trip was quite an eye opener. We passed by places that Hootie didn't know exist and I had a trip down memory lane (my own dad likes to take us travelling via trunk roads when I was a kid). Would do it again, if time permits. But as for Hootie, I think he'll stick to PLUS Highway. Luckily, I've taken leave on Monday and we've decided to drive back to KL then. Hopefully, traffic is not going to be as crazy as yesterday.