Here's a sign that we passed as we drove by the outskirts of Kota Bharu with all the kampungs.
Translated: Avoid tiger attacks, make sure that your plantation is clean. =O Tigers! In KL we have warnings against snatch thieves but here they rough it with tigers. Cool.
When we got closer to the town, a stronger Muslim vibe was present, as evident from the photo above: which translates into "Thank you for covering your aurat." From what I understand, aurat is parts of the body that would seduce the other sex. For Muslim women, aurat is everything other than the hands and the face. For men, it is from the navel to the knees. Would be grateful for any Muslim readers to clarify.I was wearing a t-shirt and knee-length shorts, and soon found comfort that there were other Chinese females wearing the same. Actually I don't know what I was expecting of KB, being the most Islamic state in Malaysia as it is PAS (the Islamic Party)'s stronghold. But from the surface of what I could see, it is not that different from other states, except the Jawi letters (even on their advertisements!! Like Digi, TMNet, even Tesco.)
TESCO. And below, the undecipherable Streamyx ad.
Also, the infamous queues in the supermarkets which separate men and women into different lines. As luck had it, our guesthouse (Ideal Traveller's House) did not provide toilet paper, so I found myself in one of the supermarkets, I can't remember if it was Mydin or something, to buy some TP. There I did see the queues, labeled men and women. The funny thing was, when I was making my way towards the ladies' queue, I saw this tudung (headscarf)-ed girl nonchalantly using the men's queue, even when the ladies' queue right beside was empty! What a blatant disregard of the rules! Then a guy holding a carton of mineral water plopped his heavy load on one of the counters, and of course it had to be a ladies' counter.
Disillusioned and just for the heck of it, I chose a men's queue and paid up.
Random biscuit tins by a shop house where we had dinner.
Rojak, with pomelo and keropok lekor and cucumbers and various other indistinguishable fruits. We had wanted to go to the night market to sample local food, but there was no food sold at the night market! Later we found out that it was the wrong night market that we went to, but when we wanted to go to the night market again the following night, it was raining so no stalls were open. That was too bad.The second morning, we decided to wake up early and go to Pantai Cahaya Bulan to capture the sunrise. According to Lonely Planet, Pantai Cahaya Bulan (Beach of Moonlight) is formerly Pantai Cinta Berahi (Beach of Passionate Love), but the name was changed because, well, it was unIslamic. I like Pantai Cinta Berahi better. Both acronyms are PCB, so we refer to the beach as PCB instead.
The following four pictures are filtered from the ten thousand that I captured. Somehow I keep taking virtually identical pictures of the same sunrise/sunset no matter where I go.
Dawn.
Me touching the dawn.
Uncle fishing at dawn.
Finally, the sun!After the sunrise, we went back to Kota Bharu (like 10kms away from PCB) and started doing the touristy things like going to the Siti Khatijah Market's third floor and capturing pictures like the following. Seen this before? Virtually every tourist to KB would take this photo I think.
Turtle eggs at RM10 for three. Do not buy.
Then we went walking around the Cultural Village and the cluster of museums. The museums were just alright, most weren't airconditioned and the artefacts were displayed in a rather dry and boring manner. The Kelantan museum was the worst, as the ventilation within the museum was bad and they only had like two airconds cooling the whole two-storeyed building. The lights weren't even turned on properly, so part of the museum where they kept the wayang kulit was actually quite creepy.Out of the four that we went, Bank Kerapu, a museum commemorating Kelantan's suffering in the WW2 was the best. Bank Kerapu was used as the Japanese's secret police base in the WW2. The Japanese's first landing place was at Sabak, and they proceeded to conquer Kota Bharu in a day. Article from Wikipedia on the Japanese invasion can be read here. I liked the Bank Kerapu exhibits because they displayed some stories of survivors of the war, like how they were treated when they were sent to build the Death Railway, and how they managed to escape and etc. One smart guy even rubbed some herbs on his body, triggering some allergic reaction and convinced the Japanese that he had a contagious disease, therefore he was thrown out or sent back.
Picture of the second floor of Istana Jahar from its balcony. It's yet another museum where the customs of the Royal Family is depicted in different rooms. There's a room for circumcision.
I bought a watercolour painting from an artisan at the Cultural Village. He was a very friendly guy and I like this painting very much, especially the tree. This, at RM10. Support local arts!
After all the museum nonsense, we went to the outskirts of KB in search of its Thai-influenced buddhist temples. According to Wikipedia, there are 25 temples in Tumpat (North of KB), and the most popular is Wat Photivihan, which has this 40 metre sleeping buddha. This.
We couldn't find it at first and had to get lost for a while, almost give up and then stumble upon it. Such is life.I actually prefer the Wat Machimaram, which had this huge sitting Buddha instead.
A pondok at Wat Machimaram:
A kampung scene outside Wat Photivihan. As you can see, it was almost raining.
After the temples, we thought what the heck, we're so north already, might as well go to the northest point where Malaysia borders with Thailand, and visit the enticingly named Pengkalan Kubor Duty Free Zone. Brings to your mind cheap liquor, chocolates, branded stuff aye?
Sadly, the Pengkalan Kubor Duty Free Zone was like a market, selling fake Spongebob toys and inexpensive clothes. So it's not really worth your trouble going all the way up if you're going just for the duty free stuff. I don't even think that the stuff they sell are heavily taxed anyway.
The Duty Free Zone.
The back seat of our car, with my Lonely Planet Malaysia Singapore and Brunei, plus my trusty Malaysia map.After the temples, it was almost dinner time and we decided to go to PCB again to have dinner by the sea. We were also really curious what sup gearbox was, and wanted to order that. So we went to Restoran Cinta Selera.
It was not cheap, at RM45 for 3 people, but I guess the food was alright. By that time, it was already raining buckets outside the shelter. The state of hygiene of that place was quite appalling, as the below picture will show:
Flies that hovered on our food whenever they were given the chance! Halfway through I opened up my coconut and let them feast on it, thus leaving our food alone. Oh well, if they didn't kill us, nothing else would. None of us got diarrhea at the end. We are strong people! BTW sup gearbox was beef soup with a huge beef bone sticking out of the bowl. Didn't take any pictures of that.
Thus ends Kota Bharu, next comes Kuala Terengganu.
