Remember when we enjoyed long drives in the 1970s?

WITH the festive season looming large, many of us would recall how we drove to our home town back in the day.

For me, the experience of long distance driving began in 1977 when we used to live in Gelugor, Penang. My father had just graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which he enrolled in after serving a few years as a teacher.

My father is from Johor and the drive to Kluang was usually the highlight of the year for me because I loved the journey, and also because I get to meet my cousins and have a great time there.

The vehicle of choice at that time was a bright orange Volkswagen Beetle. I don’t exactly remember the variant, but I can recall clearly that it did not come equipped with a cabin fan.

Air-conditioning was such a luxury at that time that I remember exactly when I first experienced air-conditioning in a car; it was when my father brought back a Ford Cortina, which belonged to USM for work trips.

I accompanied him during a work trip once, and can barely recall any other detail other than the vivid sensation of cold air on my skin as I sat in the car, admiring the scenery. I probably fell asleep a lot during that journey, which explains why I cannot recall much of it.

Without air-conditioning, those who wanted some thermal relief would install an oscillating fan on the dashboard. But, our orange Beetle had none.

A journey down south would begin with packing up the car the night before and feeling absolutely giddy about the prospect and being woken up at 5am to start the journey with a short drive to the ferry terminal.

The plan was always to catch the first ferry at 6am. And, to guarantee that we would get on the first departure of the day from Penang island, we had to arrive some half an hour before the ferry service started for the day. The first few hours was usually fine because it was still cool outside, and within 40 minutes we would be passing Nibong Tebal and Sungai Krian. That was one of the first landmarks for me.

Two hours or so after getting off the ferry, we would come up to Bukit Berapit, and this stretch of road was a torturous section, especially if you are there when the sun was high.

During the festive season, traffic would slow down to a crawl for at least an hour here, thanks to a very special feature of this short-hill pass. Bukit Berapit was also the site of the longest train tunnel in the country and due to the less than flat geography, road works or any kind of civil engineering efforts is expensive. And, as a new nation, the country probably didn’t have enough money to build anything other than a very short train bridge, one that allowed only one lane of traffic to pass under.

Traffic was regulated by a man with a green and red lollipop and then it went high-tech and got traffic light.

In a traffic congestion, the flat four began talking very loudly to the rear passenger and despite filling that small space under the rear parcel shelf with soft bags, the sound of the engine was robust enough to be a haranguing.

Additional pleasure would quickly pile on as the sun rises and warms the cabin to oven temperature, which reduced the 7-year old me to the consistency of melting chocolate, quite unable to enjoy myself and yet still feeling excited about the journey.

Passing under the bridge is such an occasion that I still get excited about it when I pass on that road today and feel unexplained satisfaction from seeing the bridge already torn down for a two lane road.

During the festive seasons, Kuala Kangsar was another important sauna as cars inched their way onto the bridge to cross the mighty Perak River.

At around 10am we would arrive in Ipoh, suitably flustered to enjoy another sweat session as traffic inched through town.

There used to be a 50-sen toll on Route 1 in Slim River and this can sometimes slow the proceedings and provide a nice lapse in breezy conditions.

The new Rawang bypass, which was completed last year is the final solution to the problem baking in traffic while passing this town and in the 1970s, this was one of the worst places for me because the sun was already cranked to maximum when we arrive to enjoy the slow procession through this sleepy enclave.

The only reason I cannot remember the town in detail despite staring at it for an hour at a stretch was that my brain was usually on the verge of giving up due to the overly generous amount of Celsius that it was forced to endure.

Selayang and Salak Selatan were the twin evil sisters who set up blockades in and out of Kuala Lumpur and they were followed in quick succession by Seremban and Melaka, Muar and lastly Ayer Hitam.

Once we have passed the pottery and produce gridlock of Ayer Hitam, so called by me because out of town traffic always thinks it’s a good idea to stop in Ayer Hitam to buy small decorative pots and root vegetables or smoked banana, regardless of the time of day, season or year.

During non-festive season the drive from Gelugor to Kluang would end at around 5pm the earliest but more likely we would get there just past dusk.

During the fasting month, our travel time would be shaved by as much as two hours as we skip breakfast, lunch, teatime and me whingeing for a drink. The fasting month would also help us cut back on toilet stops, which deserves an episode all of its own.

In conclusion, I want to thank God for giving us air-conditioning and Proton for setting such a beautifully high bar when it comes to air-conditioning performance. I would also like to take this opportunity to appeal to the Government to do everything in its powers to make sure that all the rest stops along the North-South Expressway be maintained at exactly the same high level of today so we can always be proud to have the world’s best highway stops.

At least when we are stuck on the highway during this festive season, the toilets are clean and refreshments are always available