jb adventure

jb adventure

It feels really, really weird to drive up to J.B without anyone who actually knows their way around there. What a gamble.

What? Don't look at me! I'm hopeless with directions!

If not for the fact that ONLY my family was invited to this wedding reception, we would have gladly followed my uncle (who regularly drive up) or brought my aunt (who has great memory and recalls directions well).

The even weirder thing is that I wasn't even scared. Amused, yes. Not scared.

The only lifeline we got? This simple instruction given by my father's friend: "Just go straight. JUST STRAIGHT. And you'll see Taman Tun Aminah."

Almost 1/2hour of going straight, my mum was freaking out, seeing that we're BEYOND the areas that we usually frequent. My dad continue to hold on to his friend's words. Oh and I had 2 other makciks (aunties, some old-time family friends) on board. They seem nervous.

All the while, I was thinking, it's funny that we have to drive so far when I had expected the location to be close to the customs, seeing there's a Sultanah Aminah Hospital nearby that area.

How was I to know that SULTANAH Aminah and TUN Aminah are 2 different persons, hence locations named after them are far-flung from each other?

Anyway, when we DID come upon Taman Tun Aminah, all heave a sigh of relief and those with the wedding invites fished them out (the map given is only for within that very area).

How are we to know that the map given was VERY BASIC?

They only show landmarks and roads/lanes that are deemed necessary to get us there. And that the road signs there are positioned at a low waist-level? And most of them had flyers stuck on them? Oh, and the main road had a totally different name from the one on the map!

And that 'Jalan Tenang 1/2' is different from 'Jalan Tenang 2/1'??? The best part? The numbers (which makes all the difference) are mostly covered by flyers. Grrr...

And I just discovered that my dad had trouble reading maps.

Have u any idea how many wrong turns I made? Or u-turns, even? Bless the locals there for being helpful in giving directions. And BLESS MY DAD, for willingly getting out to ask for directions as it is SO NOT HIS NATURE to ask around.

When we got to the right housing area, we almost went to the WRONG wedding reception. Turns out, 2 wedding receptions were held simultaneously on 2 different lanes.... *sigh..*

Going back, I had expected my dad to refer to the map again. He chose to confidently instruct me the directions BASED ON MEMORY.

It only took ONE wrong turn at a certain junction to have us driving to the OTHER side of J.B.

And the best part? My dad didn't even know we're in the wrong way.

I had told him, "Dad, we didn't drive here just now. This place is different."

"No, just go straight. Straight."

Almost 1/2 hr later. "Dad, we SERIOUSLY did not drive in this direction just now."

"Just go straight"

Up to a point where the road got really small and no other vehicles are passing by us, I made up my mind to make a u-turn there and then and turn into an area I'm familiar with. TAMAN PERLING.

Those familiar with the roads in J.B knows that Perling is damn close to the Gelang Patah-Tuas checkpoint. The thing is, we meant to head for the J.B-Woodlands checkpoint (we're sooo wayyy off)!

Our plans to head for Kip Mart or Angsana even were already dashed. We shopped at the pathetic Taman Perling Mall instead. Luckily there's a Giant supermarket there.

And yes, we went thru the Tuas checkpoint instead.

Can you imagine if I hadn't made that turn into Perling?? We could have ended up in Malacca!