ALTHOUGH blessed with superb highways and roads, peninsular Malaysia remains relatively undiscovered by many foreign tourists simply because there are no daily intercity bus tours.

Until a tour company decides to tap the huge potential of this service and put peninsular Malaysia on the world map for great road journeys, tourists would have to hire and drive a car, which makes greater sense now because social distancing is the new normal.

There are eight major cities or destinations spread across the peninsula that are worth a stay of one or more nights. Each is unique like a living pearl. They are Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Ipoh, Penang, Kota Baru, Kuantan, Johor Baru, and Malacca.

As there is much to see and enjoy in these eight wondrous destinations that can be covered clockwise or anticlockwise, the ideal arrangement for the more affluent tourists is to rent a car for two to three weeks and stay two or three days in each city.

Those who have done this have had the time of their lives in their most relaxing and fulfilling holiday ever. They have met the most hospitable staff as the hotels were carefully chosen for them by car rental companies offering car and room packages.

I should know, having offered such tourist services myself to foreign visitors in the 1980s. Many of the tourists on fly-drive holidays then were Australians. I learnt that a man and woman travelling together were not necessarily husband and wife. And it was common for two women to rent a car for two to three weeks and drive all over the peninsula.

Tourists on motoring holidays certainly deserve the red-carpet welcome as they spread tourist dollars wherever they go. In contrast, tourists on zero tour fare packages spend most of their money on shopping, benefitting only the shops, tour leader, tourist guide and tour agency.

To promote tours of peninsular Malaysia by bus or car, Tourism Malaysia could perhaps organise a contest for a necklace design using polished hard stones from these eight destinations, with smaller stones in between to form a stylish necklace.

The necklace can be given away as a prize by the tour or car rental company to tourists who have completed the full circuit of eight destinations.

In 1982, my brother and I drove from Perth to Sydney and earned bragging rights for having driven across the Nullarbor Plain. Until the Pan-Borneo Highway is ready, the greatest epic road journey in Malaysia will be to complete the 1,850km circuit on the peninsula.

But it will be a breeze as the price of fuel in Malaysia is among of the lowest in the world. Petrol stations are easily within reach and prices are not higher in more remote areas. Moreover, the peninsula is relative safe and free of the threat of volcanoes, earthquakes and typhoons.

Apart from Japan, Australia and United Kingdom, other major right-hand driving countries such as India, Indonesia and Thailand are huge potential markets full of tourists looking for safer and more leisurely holidays in Malaysia. – June 17, 2020.

* Y.S. Chan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.