It is a well known fact among the people who knows me that I have never driven on a non expressway farther than 30km radius (or so) of the house. There really have been no need for it either. Throughout my life, Ayah have been the only one to drive when it comes to long distances and off beaten paths^[1].

So, when I was asked to be one of the group leaders to lead a group of young data collectors for red light runners (beating the red lights), there was little to do but go along with the plan. It was an emergency contingency anyways. And despite the fact that we were only asked to collect data throughout Selangor, I still knew I was heading into unknown territory. Things I was sure would look foreign to me.

My locations were like the points on a isosceles triangle, with the base being way way far apart, and all at the very edge of Selangor. Imagine my kalutness. I went off looking for maps at the bookshop (only to find that they didn't have any stock of maps for Selangor, just my luck eh?), I scrutinized google maps, and diligently browsed through google earth. It really made me feel like I was some kind of perfectionist. Which was not what I was trying to be.

I kept on finding locations and pouring myself over maps and routes till late night the day before we were scheduled to go. As far as I can remember, I have never been so well prepared, even when I was going to visit another country altogether. It was a bit exhausting to say the least. But I was confident that I would get to the said location in a jiffy without any trouble.

Oh was I in for a shock.

Part 1
There were five of us. Alang wanted to tag along. A good thing my Waja had problems, so Ibu let us use her car, so there was no problems with space. In fact, because we had too much space, everyone seemed to bring more things than they actually need. A bad case of overpacking (even when I told them to pack light). We headed out to our first location, Jalan Ampang.

We got there fine. Not so on time because we had trouble finding a place to park. Our first trouble was the traffic light. It was a nightmare of a junction, with what seemed like a holding place in the middle, but isn't, due to the yellow box painted there. It was also a staggered junction, which was a nightmare to do traffic count as well as keep in view those who beat the red light.

I was anxious for the girls (my enumerators were all girls) to actually cross the road as each of them had to man one leg of the junction. I kept on telling them to be careful and be aware of the vehicles when crossing. Still I didn't feel safe to breathe before I knew they were safely located on their respective locations.

It was a hot day (didn't stop us from taking pictures)



Hundreds beat the red light there. So basically it was uneventful. We had lunch there, food was good, but service was a tad bland, and it took ages for our food to get ready. Felt sorry for the girls when we did our next shift from 12 to 3pm. It was blazing hot and hazy (I ended up getting a major migraine). Had them drink litres of water. We ended just in time when rain poured down hard.

My next concern was getting to our next location from Ampang.

That proved to be a lot harder than I thought when I took a wrong exit and ended up being in the middle of Kuala Lumpur instead. KL is a no-driving-territory for me. Some motorcyclists even crashed into my side mirror while navigating through a roundabout. Thank goodness nothing bad happened. I ended up being semi lost inside KL, and ended up calling Ibu. No answer. Called L. She got me out of the mess, and onto the E1.

Smooth driving. Too smooth that I felt a tad sleepy. The girls were already fast asleep at the back. My co driver (tagalong sister) I'll bet was trying very hard to keep awake and keep me company.

We managed to find our next location, Simpang Sungai Choh to collect data for the next day. Happy that we found our location, we went ahead to find our lodging for the night. Stopped by some restaurant to buy dinner. Dapat lah beli nasi ayam cekik darah, RM5.00 sebungkus! Mahal sungguh. We continued our journey to find the Commonwealth Park and Forest Resort in high spirits. Mostly because we knew we would be able to drench ourself in cool showers, and then sink ourselves into sweet beds.

We got lost again. I was sure we followed the map right. But it seemed that I had missed a cross junction because I hadn't realised it was a separate gradient cross junction. Bleh. I ended up going out back onto the E1, having to make double back, onto the right track.

I had no idea what this resort was like. Even though I knew not to take the internet at face value, I was not prepared for the trails and scenes that greeted me.

It was amidst Hutan Lipur Kanching. Even the entrance was a bit shady (and this does not refer to tree shades either). It turned out that the only way to get there was via this one small inclined road that went up in a skewered sort of way, with the edge looking down into a ravine of some sort. I may have imagined it, but it really did look like I was heading straight for some haunted house.

When we actually got to the top, I exhaled loudly after seemingly holding my breath driving up. Dead afraid that some car or truck might be coming down the opposite way I was. Nobody was at the reception counter. It turned out the calls I had made to the 'office' was in fact the head office somewhere in KL. They were the one who had directed me there, and there was nobody to greet me at the door. I was more pissed rather than scared. Managed to find the person in charge though. We got our keys. There was no breakfast. Just lodging.

We rode up further. This was what it looked like, and we were the only ones there.



Surprisingly, the rooms were very clean. And very comfortable. The water was good and fast. There were no water boilers facilities, nor iron, but that was ok. I was fine with it, scariness and all. Heh.

cont. Part 2
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[1] Off beaten - this does not refer to dirt road or anything as uncultured (), it is in fact a reference of mine to minor roads that looks a bit old and have no visible road names on them....they make me go round in circles most of the time.