Drove the Giant to Ipoh

Over the weekend I took my giant out for a long distance drive for the very first time. The last trip was really a short stop and go type of driving so this trip gave me a real feels for the drive of this car on the highway.

The journey to Ipoh took about slightly more than 2 hours as I was sticking to the speed limits of the highway. Also there were plenty of cars on the highway even though it was the first day of the Hari Raya festival holiday. The drive was very smooth as there was not a single start and stop situation which is very good considering that the day before there were reports of congestions on most of the highways.

Overall the power of the 2.4L engine of my giant is adequate for the journey on most stretch of the road except when going uphill. Once the car slow down due to slower traffic in front it takes a bit more revving to push the car up the hill and to maintain the speeds so not to slow down those behind me. Since I have two elder passengers in my car I don't want to push it too fast and scare them off as this is the first time they rode in my car!

I was also very happy with the performance of the Toyo Proxes C1S tyres that I recently changed. They are really quiet and have plenty of grips.

My last trip to Ipoh was almost 10 years ago so I was kind of lost my direction trying to get to my destination once I was in Ipoh city center. I have to call my sister who is staying to Ipoh to guide me to get to my destination. Once I get my orientation I find that it was really easy to drive around Ipoh.

During my two days stay I didn't really get much chance to explore the town as I was there to attend a dinner. I was hoping to try the famous Lo Wong Ngar Choi Kai (chicken with bean sprout) on the 2nd day but it was so packed that people are waiting under the hot sun to get their seats. I guess I forgot that it was the 1st day of Hari Raya and every Ipoh-born folks are probably comes back in town to sample their famous local delicacies. Since we didn't have much times so we opted for the wan tan noodle and the salted chicken at the coffee shop opposite Lo Wong.

The return trip to KL was also very smooth. I actually checked the advisory from the Plus Highway website and took their advice to start the journey at 3:00pm. Surprisingly the whole journey coming back was very smooth even though the traffic was pretty heavy and I was able to keep to the speed limit most of the time. With only a short stop in the Tapah rest area I reached KL just slightly after 5:30pm.