Have Perut Will Travel...: KBR Day 2 │ ibis Styles to City One • Syed Bistro!

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Thursday, 4 September 2025

KBR Day 2 │ ibis Styles to City One • Syed Bistro!

Going Home!

Today is the 7th and final day of our road trip to the east coast of Malaysia. We woke up before dawn and checked out of the hotel at six in the morning.

We were not willing to drive all the way back to Kuala Lumpur via the usual route since it would have taken would have taken us across virtually the entire state of Kelantan to Gua Musang then across Kuala Lipis and Raub in the state of Pahang.

With this in mind we set course for the Kuala Terengganu Toll Plaza at Kampung Gemuruh some three hours away. From there it was a straight shoot all the way to Karak Highway which in our minds was a far more relaxing drive.

We made our way to BiBi, loaded our luggage into her boot and began our drive before sunrise. We eventually ended up along the Kota Bharu-Kuala Terengganu federal route and eventually made it past the Kuala Terengganu Toll Plaza at Kampung Gemuruh at a little past eight in the morning.

Here we stopped for a potty break. We were mighty relieved that the most arduous portion of our eight-hour plus drive was behind us.

Once the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is completed by the end of 2026 this long and arduous drives to and from the east coast states of Peninsula Malaysia will be a thing of the past. However Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd (MRL) raised concerns over cases of cable theft which it said could disrupt the planning and operational timeline of the ECRL, now at a critical phase ahead of its targeted completion in December 2026.

Twenty minutes later we made our 2nd stop at the Ajil rest area for breakfast where we had:

each the Roti Goyang (toast with half boiled eggs)
hot Nescafe
Iced Milk Tea

for a modest RM19.00 (approximately USD4/EUR5).

We resumed our drive at 9:00am and stopped at the Paka rest area forty five minutes later because I was feeling sleepy and needed a hot cup of strong black coffee.

We resumed our drive at ten past ten before stopping at the Gambang rest area an hour later to refuel at the Petronas station here.

We eventually arrived in Kuala Lumpur at a quarter past noon which meant that our drive was actually only a little over six hours. We navigated KL's and arrived at Syed Bistro at one. We ordered the:

Chicken Varuval with rice for the both of us
Iced Lemon Tea
Assam Boi Apple Juice
Chai Wala Tea

and since we weren't going out for dinner added the:

Regular Cheese Naan
Tarik Cheese Naan
2 regular Naan bread
a serving of Tandoori Chicken

which all in came to RM72.15 (approximately USD17/EUR15).

We then made the very short drive back to our condo, arriving at half past two. Stay tuned as we spend a laid back forty-eight hours in a “French” resort tomorrow, so please stay tuned!