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Long National Day Weekend

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Post  Ikon Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:52 am

Another 3 days weekend, another weekend to just relax and I guess another excuse to spend more money in keeping yourself occupied.

In my case I decided to go up North to shop and feast before the start of the fasting month. This time around I got good rates at One World Hotel in Bandar Utama, Damansara, PJ. Went up on Saturday, initially decided to leave at 5 am and as usual started off at 5.20 am due to the usual hassle getting the family ready. Start off the journey and realise I left my passport at home, fortunately I decide to take PIE to Tuas and when I realise that my passport was still at home I had just pass the Tampines turn off, so took the next turn off at Bedok North and make my way home. We finally and formally start the journey at 6.10 am. Reached Tuas checkpoint at 6. 50 am, already a queue started to form all the way before the tunnel and we cleared the checkpoint at 7.20 am. Damn, now gotta pay for my Day licence.

The Malaysian side also jam, we were stuck there till 9 am, so after we cleared that we decide to have breakfast at Bukit Indah, as luck would have it they are not open yet, all the diversion for nothing. BTW it now cost RM7++ in toll at Gelang Patah, a reduction of 30%. Made a turn back to the NSH and traffic was heavy. Stopped at Machap for breakfast, another surprise, they upgraded the R & R, the food stall are not enclosed and airconditioned. This is their effort to manage the flies in that area. It was drizzling, and the stopover is so crowded we cannot find a place to seat and have breakfast, so we ordered takeaway and ate toasted and stream bread by the roadside before continuing the journey. Made another stopover at Air Keroh Overhead Bridge R & R, not as crowded as Machap as this place is bigger, but service at A & W sucks big time, waited nearly 15 minutes to order our food. Best part, the crowd is so thick and they have a trainee attending to the counter. Nearly drove my wife up the wall when the trainee keep on repeating the order!

Finally reach Sungei Besi toll at 2.30 pm, finding our way to Bandar Utama using the GPS without a single detour! Learn something as well, the KL/PJ highway consists lots of flypover and interchange, so have to be careful when the GPS says to keep right or left, that would mean there's a branch in the road and you should either keep to the left or the right branch. We finally reach our destination at 3 pm, and checking in was fast and smooth. Drop off our barang-barang in the room and we proceed to One Utama Shopping Centre which adjoining to the hotel....will continue my narration later
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Post  Captivian_Major Tue Aug 10, 2010 11:43 am

Wahahaha.....As for me, after received sms from Bro Ikon regardsing the jam at Tuas. My family and I started off around 930am. When reached Tuas check point, the flow was very smooth!!!!!!! even reached Malaysia custom, it wait for 15mins....and we cleared the custom!!!!!! Starting from Malaysia side, it was about 1045am when we cleared the custom.

As usual, R&R station are packed, so decided to stopover for two stop, also dunno what stop name...hahaha.....the GPS lead me through KL to Bukit Tinggi. At around 3pm, we reached Colmar Tropicale Hotel, dropped off our barang barang and headed to play. But, it rain on the 1st day....Hahaha, and we went for buffet dinner for 4 adults and 2 kids. Guess what? the bill was RM$260++ which the food were so so...worst then other hotels in KL!!!!!!! After that, we decided to order room service for our lunch and dinner...which cost us around RM$90++++

Well, these place is good for R&R mean do nothing, dun use brain to think, hahaha....the activities not too much especially for kids over there....the next day, we went to rabbit park, japanese tea house, organic farm...the kids were having fun.....

Third and last day, we headed back to singapore. Along the way, Air Keroh Overhead Bridge R & R stop over and found out there are no electricity!!!!!......as usual, almost all the R&R were fully packed.....it was flow smoothly to back to singapore...and there was road block near Tuas chekpoint....and back home at around 7pm.....


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Post  Ikon Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:58 pm

Ya bro Major, you so lucky no jam at the checkpoints.

Anyway to continue with my narration.. One Utama is one enormous shopping centre, it took us 3 sessions to really "go shopping" there. Went back there again for dinner and more walk about and the next day we went back again after checking out from the hotel. As far as food is concern, One Utama has got more food joints then the number of meals you can have in 1 month! All in all we spend more then RM 700 on food alone for this trip! tongue

We left Damasara nearly 4 pm and did quite well on the trip back with lesser traffic, that is we encounter some slow traffic about 100km from JB, traffic was almost a standstill for about a kilometer. Just 19 km from Machap R & R, we came across a Singapore registered car, flatten at the road side, will talk about this in the next posting.
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Post  pussy_lover Wed Aug 11, 2010 11:12 pm

Ikon wrote:Ya bro Major, you so lucky no jam at the checkpoints.

Anyway to continue with my narration.. One Utama is one enormous shopping centre, it took us 3 sessions to really "go shopping" there. Went back there again for dinner and more walk about and the next day we went back again after checking out from the hotel. As far as food is concern, One Utama has got more food joints then the number of meals you can have in 1 month! All in all we spend more then RM 700 on food alone for this trip! tongue

We left Damasara nearly 4 pm and did quite well on the trip back with lesser traffic, that is we encounter some slow traffic about 100km from JB, traffic was almost a standstill for about a kilometer. Just 19 km from Machap R & R, we came across a Singapore registered car, flatten at the road side, will talk about this in the next posting.

That flattened S'pore car cost the life of 1 young girl. Read about it in the New Paper, think it's the same accident that you saw. RIP...

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Post  Ikon Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:49 am

pussy_lover wrote:
Ikon wrote:Ya bro Major, you so lucky no jam at the checkpoints.

Anyway to continue with my narration.. One Utama is one enormous shopping centre, it took us 3 sessions to really "go shopping" there. Went back there again for dinner and more walk about and the next day we went back again after checking out from the hotel. As far as food is concern, One Utama has got more food joints then the number of meals you can have in 1 month! All in all we spend more then RM 700 on food alone for this trip! tongue

We left Damasara nearly 4 pm and did quite well on the trip back with lesser traffic, that is we encounter some slow traffic about 100km from JB, traffic was almost a standstill for about a kilometer. Just 19 km from Machap R & R, we came across a Singapore registered car, flatten at the road side, will talk about this in the next posting.

That flattened S'pore car cost the life of 1 young girl. Read about it in the New Paper, think it's the same accident that you saw. RIP...

Bro which day New Paper did the news appear in? Anyway it was quite an eye opener when I came across the accident scene. Looking at the wreck car, it must have been going at a fast speed and the state of the wreck indicate that at least the car must have roll over a few times.

My experience driving back on that day, which was much more better then my previous trip where I was complaining about Singapore driver not giving way to another SG car. That could be due to lesser number of SG car on the way home, anyway I still notice that some SG drivers are still very silly, even when they still see me coming fast, they still cut into my lane to overtake slower car, that means I would have to apply my brakes more then required to give way to them otherwise I would have just slammed into their rear.

This could be what happen to the flattened SG car, I notice or rather my kids notice there was another Picanto with a dented rear at the accident scene. There are also more young drivers or inexperience drivers on the NSH nowadays, so I think we need to observe caution when driving up there during holidays. The sad part, when traffic comes to a standstill on NSH, you know there's something happening and 99% would be an accident. The stretch between Pagoh and Machap is a two lane dual carriage way, I don't know for sure how long the traffic back up but I kept to my lane and move slowly forward and then I notice cars making use of the road shoulder so that they can mover "faster" and the same time the start to congest the road shoulder as well and as usual it's not surprising that majority of the cars using the road shoulder are SG cars.

We do not know what lies ahead, as fate would have it, we heard the wailing of the Ambulance. The road shoulder purpose if off course for emergency vehicle to reach the scene faster, they will be delay because some idiots thought they are smarter then others by using the road shoulder to gain a few minutes of travelling time. Maybe that young girl live could have been save, maybe not but kudos to those that make use of the road shoulder because they could have or have not contribute to the death.
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Post  pussy_lover Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:28 pm

It's yesterday's (11/8/10) issue of The New Paper.
With regards to those silly SG drivers, they'll never learn. road hogging here is a way of life. This bad habit they bring with them across and think they are doing the right thing by staying within speed limits but hogging on the outer lane. What you do is flash them till they move. Drive safe bro...

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Post  Captivian_Major Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:36 pm

i did encounter several time when SG cars overtake slower vehicle in front of them when i was at the most outer lane with high travelling speed and need to brake my car to slow down in order not to bend their rear when heading back to SG at NSH.... Evil or Very Mad

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Post  Ikon Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:03 pm

Saw the summary of the accident on the electronic version of the New Paper, yup 20 year old driver, wonder how many years of experience he got ? He was with his parents, they should be responsible as well for allowing him to drive! According to my kids, it was a Toyota Vios, silver color, I kept my eyes on the road so did not catch much details.
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Post  Ikon Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:13 pm

Let's move on from the depressing topic, here is where I stayed during my short trip:-

One World Hotel
Long National Day Weekend Imgp3310

The lift lobby
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One Utama Shopping Centre Rainforest
Long National Day Weekend Imgp3411

Long National Day Weekend Imgp3410

Last but not least

Long National Day Weekend Imgp3412

Best part we did not even go outdoor for this trip, so lack of pictures taken Surprised From the moment we check into the hotel till we check out, we did not see the sun at all. Laughing Cool
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