North-South Highway to KL

11 September 2005.
Pride of the nation, this North South Highway. Reputedly one of the longest, if not the longest, stretch of privatised toll highway in the world, 800+km long from Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah at the Thailand Border to Johor Bahru at the southernmost part of the peninsular. So today I travel part of this highway 550 km of it, from AS to KL. My impression? Bone shaking! Its the car one might say, but if the road is nice and smooth why would the car shakes so much, mind you I just put in a new set of tyres about 3 months ago. Really, many parts of the highway need resurfacing, which they are doing in places but does look like maintenance work on the road surface is lagging behind. Also saw people patching the road surface plugging potholes. What kind of maintenance is that? This is not some road going to rural Baling or Sik. The standard of road surface maintenance practised by the highway operator is a shame, they do a better job maintaining the toilets and grass on the verge. And as a result users like me travelling on rattling cars suffer - until I could get myself an S-Class :-)

Upon reaching KL, somehow I always get this excitement feeling and tend to drive like crazy like way locals do. Crazy means like accelerating and braking hard and overtaking left and right through traffic to get to my destination faster. It’s all these cars around you and you don’t want to be left behind, I think that is crazy.

Passing through Bukit Tunku, the short cut from Jalan Duta to The Mall, one can see construction being carried out for what looks like luxury condominiums. The place is fast losing its greenery.