I was bored earlier today....and look what happened because of it.

Today I was a little bored. I was bored so when I arrived at Jalan Pahang from Kelana Jaya in Petaling Jaya I decided to take the long route to my office near Wangsa Maju; Jalan Pahang – Jalan Gombak – The Old KL-Bentong road – Genting Sempah/Karak Tunnel – Karak Toll – Middle Ring Road – Wangsa Maju. It took 45 minutes. Half an hour of hairpins and bends, albeit a little slippery since it rained heavily the day before.

I love this stretch of road. It is narrow and extremely challenging if you're wringing it. I wasn't. It was wet so I took it easy. Pushing it when its slightly damp and when you're alone on a road that does not have barriers and ravines on one side you tend to take it easy. But this is MY level of easy. So it still is a little fun with the little Impreza TS  about to lose grip on the more slippery corners. A slight understeer informs me that I'm overcooking it. Slight understeer is good when there's a ravine right beside you. So being sensible I slowed down.

Anyway. 45 minutes was all it took. About 30 minutes to Genting Sempah, and about 15 minutes back to Wangsa Maju. Which was decently fast, owing to very little lorries and traffic. I only encountered three going up to Genting Sempah.

When I was 19 and first started driving, I used to drive along the old KL-Bentong road on quite a regular basis. It was way quieter then, no houses past the twelfth mile (Batu 12) Jalan Gombak. There was even a steel Bailey bridge somewhere after that. The bridge doesn't exist anymore due to development. The same with the Ulu-Yam stretch. But I never actually finished either stretch, both led to Genting. It was usually a 15 to 20 minute slow drive in the evenings for me during those days where I'll hang out with a friend or two somewhere in between Gombak and Genting Sempah and just pass time. In those days, the early 1990s,I used to live in Gombak and then in Ampang. So these roads were like a short 'makan angin' drive for me. It was my playground. As was all the roads around Selayang-Gombak-Ampang-Cheras.

In those days the Middle Ring Road 2 was just a dual carriageway. It was actually a proper B-road if you wanted to put it mildly. After Taman Melawati there were no development till Ukay Heights. So this road was basically a river to the right (If you came from Melawati) and the jungle to the left. The road had some sweeping corners but nothing drastic. But people still had accidents there. As with most dual carriageways but that's beside the point. So traveling from a friend's house in Gombak to my house in Ampang in the early 1990s was a somewhat serious B-road jaunt. Many impromptu car races were fought by me and my little 2nd Generation Honda Civic there. Some I won, some I lost. So when I basically grew up and started work I couldn't see the relevance for me to keep hitting these roads for the sake of driving as they were my playground before it became a motoring pastime. It was only in the last five or six years or so I've actually took up driving purely for the pleasure and returned to these roads. It is a back to basics thing for me. And it has culminated into this latest trip and into this article. A Mastercard moment. Ergo, extremely priceless.

I met with only three lorries going my way...

pretty tight and slippery...you can't tell from the pics.

Karak Highway somewhere down below

...Genting Sempah....and NO I did not stop for a burger

..back through the Karak Tunnel...

A white Mazda 3 taking the downhill sweeping corners at around 120km/h. I was doing a relaxing 90km/h.