IF the goings-on around are choking the life out of you, fill up the tank and take a slow drive, get off the expressways and onto the backroads.
There are still plenty of things to see, lovely people to meet and good stories to listen to around Malaysia. I did just that recently, getting off the East Coast highway in Karak, Pahang, and into the Karak-Kuala Pilah trunk road and one of the best drives I have ever had.
An old lady manning her coffeeshop outside the town of Manchis in central Pahang spoke of her life journey as she sat there looking at the world over the rim of her teacup that afternoon. I stopped by after a gruelling drive through the snaking road from Karak.
She related how she and her husband started off as settlers at nearby Felda Chemomoi, and when their bodies could no longer take the strain of having to work the oil palm plantation, they opened up the roadside coffeeshop. Timber truck drivers used to stop here in the early years but she said their numbers have decreased significantly in recent times.
Her husband passed on a decade ago to old age and her four children have all left for the bright lights and better lives in the capital. Only her orange cat accompanies her as she walks with the help of a cane around the shop these days.
Behind her wooden shop was a chair facing a pond. I could almost imagine her sitting there by herself at times, perhaps reminiscing about the days gone by.
Her eyes teared when she spoke of her children but she knew that after getting through college, they, like other youths, will chart the course of their own destiny. She has no regrets but only good wishes for them.
I said goodbye to her, wished her well and continued driving eastwards towards a small town called Simpang Pertang in eastern Negri Sembilan.
It was a notorious town during the Emergency for being infested with communist terrorists. Once, the terrorists even had the audacity to throw a grenade into a police station which still stands today at the junction of the Kuala Pilah-Kuala Klawang road.
Turning left from the trunk road to Kuala Pilah, I drove further east towards southern Pahang. Oil palm plantations spread across the landscape, interspersed with secondary forests on certain stretches of the largely empty but good road.
Many of the plantations were once owned by foreign companies, such as Harrisons & Crossfield and Dunlop. They were later bought over by local entities, such as IOI Group and even the state-owned Felda, which, apart from the estates, also later opened up other successful land schemes which dotted the road all the way from Bandar Seri Serting in Negri Sembilan to Bandar Muadzam Shah in Pahang.
Bandar Seri Jempol reminded me of a small frontier town on the American Prairie I passed through on a train some years ago. In the middle of nowhere, the town was built more than a decade ago as the administrative centre for the Jempol district in Negri Sembilan.
I stopped there to stretch my aching body that afternoon. An old Indian man manning a restaurant said business has been booming in the past decade as more people had resettled there, given the town’s now administrative centre status.
Further east of Seri Jempol and into Pahang is Bandar Muadzam Shah, a quiet but well-planned town built in 1979. Planned as an educational centre, its development was first mooted by the late Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia’s second prime minister.
Today, several high-quality schools, including at least one offering full boarding, and university and college campuses have been built there.
Located in the district of Rompin, Bandar Muadzam has also emerged as a modern administrative centre relative to other towns in the district of Rompin.
It has a fully-equipped hospital and almost all other public service facilities. Outside Bandar Muadzam Shah is also the point where one will have to decide whether to push on north towards Pekan or south, towards Rompin and then Mersing in Johor and, ultimately, Johor Baru in the south.
Having driven from Pekan to the town before, I turned south into Mersing. About five kilometres later, I came across green and beautiful rolling hills with cattle grazing. For a while I thought I was driving through the farms in Wales, United Kingdom. It was a research station for dairy farms operated by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi).
A newly-married couple were there with a group of friends that day. The couple was in their wedding outfit and were there for their photography session with the scenic rolling hills as a perfect background.
I left the research station and drove on southwards, and with Bob Seger’s Against The Wind blaring through the speakers, passed by Rompin, Tanjung Gemok and Mersing in Johor. Following the coastal road and driving within the legal speed, I arrived in Johor Baru about two hours later, just as the sun was about to set.
So go on, take a short break from the nauseating goings-on around us and, like they say, hit the road. It will give you the sense of openness and freedom. Plus, you may learn a few things more about this beautiful nation of ours.