IMAGINE being stuck in the Hari Raya balik kampung crawl for almost an entire day.
With a spike in the number of vehicles – reported to be 2.77 million making their way back to their occupants’ hometown for the 2025 Raya – such horror stories have become the norm not just during Raya but also Chinese New Year.
With buses and flights completely booked, the choice of making a road trip is a necessity especially for those travelling with families.
However, which destinations have the worst traffic snarls during the festive periods? According to a video by TikToker @haqverse, travel times to various destinations across the Peninsular could easily be extended by several hours.
5 negeri paling ramai orang balik ketika raya.. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/fnJuoNpcEY
— JalalMisai (@jllmisai) April 6, 2025
He went on to name the top five worst destinations affected by vehicular overloads with millions pouring onto roads at the same time.
In fifth place, is Johor which usually takes four to six hours from Kuala Lumpur. But during the festive season, this could almost double with the trip taking up to 11 hours.
Next is, surprisingly, Ipoh. The usually sedate two-hour commute to the capital of the Silver State from Kuala Lumpur (KL) via the North South Expressway could stretch up to nine hours with congestion especially bad in Tapah.
In third place, a sojourn to the East Coast is fraught with difficulty with a trek to Kuala Terengganu from KL already taking between six and eight hours on normal days. This can stretch to 13 hours during Raya.
Claiming silver was Alor Star where a six- to eight-hour trip could be elongated to 13 hours, no thanks to the balik kampung exodus.
Taking gold was Kota Bahru with the usual travel time already taking between eight and 12 hours. But according to the video, that time could be extended to a mind-numbing 20 hours during Raya.
Shared on X by digital creator JalalMisai (@jllmisai), the clip which has garnered 567.5K views at the time of publication elicited its fair share of traffic related horror stories.
One commenter lamented that the highway leading towards Johor is limited to two lanes, thus “allowing plenty of time for day-dreaming in the ensuing jam”.
Another shared that a trek from Kuala Pilah (in Negri Sembilan) to Shah Alam which is approximately 112km apart took him eight hours.
One netizen had sympathy for folk travelling to Perlis as they had to battle the jam leading to Perak, Kedah and Penang before arriving at their destination.
One netizen just thanked his lucky stars that his hometown was just behind his house!
Also echoing that sentiment is a netizen who is grateful that his parents are from Selangor, thus avoiding the headache of outstation travel. After all, his bladder and bowels could not withstand the torturous journeys out of state.
While some did dispute the travel times stated, it cannot be denied such horror stories are the norm every Raya.
FocusM wishes those travelling back from their hometowns safe travels and hopefully it won’t take 20 hours! – April 8, 2025
Images credit: Bernama
