Day 3 (Monday 4th May 2009) – The blues

Monday mornings are associated with Monday blues. But no blues for us that early Monday morning. We had no problem peeling ourselves from the comfort and warmth of our bed. We quickly took turns to shower and got ready. We would begin our road trip that day. Joining us on the road trip was D.

Aunt agreed to give us a lift to the car rental collection point. She said the area was near to her office. Unfortunately she was not really sure the exact location. No problem. I switched on the GPS and punched in the address: 150 Khyber Pass Road. No such address registered. Oddly, 149 Khyber Pass Road was! Thinking that it was most probably next to the 150, we agreed to set it as the destination point.

Off we went, driving and navigating the morning traffic as dictated by the GPS program. We did get to Khyber Pass Road. But to our horror, the building numbers were not in any logical sequence. 150 was not next to 149 Khyber Pass Road! So there we were, driving in the morning traffic, squinting our eyes to spot the building number.

We turned into a small lane, which according to the map would take us back to the main road. Unfortunately, almost at the end of the road, it was gated – the kind that use RF card. We had to turn back. While trying to get into the busy main road, we finally spotted the building! We had probably drove around the area for half an hour or so.

Ma Hen and AD had previously arranged for an auto-transmission 1.3 car. Even though I can’t really drive an auto-transmission, having two drivers compared to only one if we take the manual-transmission out weighted everything. For fuel efficiency, we decided on a 1.3. Imagine our surprise when they gave us a Daihatsu Sirion 1.3 – which looks everyway like Malaysian MyVi.

Aunt was skeptical. Could the little car fit the four of us, our bags and our rations? (Aunt and Gram found time over the weekend to prepare food for us to take along our road trip). Aunt wondered if we could fit our bags into the trunk. We tried to get a bigger 1.3 car. The car rental guy tried his best; unfortunately none were ready at that time.

We assured Aunt that we could fit every thing and everyone just fine. Having traveled together before, Ma Hen and AD knew I could fit seemingly ‘unfitable’ amount of things into a small bag. When all the bags fit just nicely in the trunk, and the food in the middle of the back seat, Aunt, and even the car rental guy, looked in amazement.

We hooked my Samseng on the dashboard. Bided adieu to Aunt, and we were off on our much anticipated road trip!

Distance traveled: 20km