On 12th
September I began my journey to backpacking around Peninsular Malaysia. At
first I was planning on travelling on train to my first destination, Kelantan.
The idea of sleeping inside the double decker coach, in a 12-hour train ride
excites the hell out of me. But since the plan was ad-hoc, there were no more
tickets available and I have no choice but to travel by bus to Kelantan. I
specifically chose a right time so that I can save time in term of travelling
and money in term of accommodation. So I picked up a trusted Transnasional bus
estimated to depart from Hentian Putra at 1045 pm Friday night. Since it was
the weekend where school holiday begin, the bus station were very crowded with
people, wanted to go back to their hometown. Here I notice something new, how Kelantanese
people can talk to each other like they are colleague and family. Sure the
first few hours in the bus is a bit noisy but it’s a good experience to have.
Along the way, there
were some traffic along the way to Kelantan and the vehicle does crawl from
times to time. I arrived at the Kota Bharu Bus station about 0800 am in the
morning with a cloudy but promising sunny day. Once arrived, I immediately
contact Faiz, a long lost primary school and childhood friend of mine who’s
studying Accounting in UiTM Kota Bharu. The natural thing to do in the morning
was to get ourselves a good breakfast and knowing im in Kelantan, I know for
sure my favourite East-coast breakfast, Nasi Dagang can be obtained easily.
People of Kelantan unlike any other state, love to have heavy breakfast. Their
breakfast consist of large portion of rice, mutton or fish and their gravy.
Much similar to what normal Malaysian had during lunch. Sure, for those trying
to follow their habit will end up feeling all tired and sleepy after a heavy
breakfast. After some quick
session of Nasi dagang and tea tarik, we head back to Faiz Rent house just few
minute drives from the city centre.
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| On our way. |
The tentative for the day was to attend a
wedding of my early-UTP friends whom have left UTP after we completed Foundation.
The wedding is set at Pasir Mas, about 1 hour (I think) journey from Kota
Bharu. After bidding farewell to the newlyweds, we continue our journey to
Rantau Panjang. Since we are already close there compared to the city centre.
Before that we made a stop at the famous Jubli Perak Al Sultan Ismail Petra Mosque. The architecture
resembles of that those old China buidlings. The mosque was well taken care of
and they even have a small bazaar selling muslim clothing and medicine outside
the premise. The inside was not that big since the mosque was initially built
only for small numbers.
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| Nice touches in the architecture. They even provide robe for non muslim to cover themself when visiting here. |
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| Gateway to Thailand. |
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| The Baba Ice cream. |
Then while
chilling out after sweating from the hot
weather and strolling around the mosque taking pictures, Faiz introduce me to
this special ice cream, I believe only available here in the area of Rantau
Panjang. The ice cream consists of about 6 scoops of ice cream, small bread
cubicles, jelly, corn syrup, pulut and some cincau. The ice cream is best eaten
while the ice cream not yet melt because once it started to melt, the bread
will become soft and I personally prefer it to be crunchy and cold at the same
time ;p
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| KB burger. Yums! |
Then we continue
to Rantau Panjang. Me being just a lalang-football fans and currently
travelling, did not buy anything to conserve my budget and since my backpacks
were already at their maximum capacity. There you can find many jersey as well
as wedding nicks and knacks at very cheap price. Lets just say I can get a
Player-issued jersey of World cup team at a price of just rm15. But since im on
a budget, I refrain myself from spending any money on cloths. As the sun set,
we head back to Kota Bharu and had Burger Bakar KB as dinner. The price was OK
and the burger was served fast enough although some food from the menu has
already finished even though it was only 0900 pm. Having the chance to be in
Kelantan, I hook up with this friend of mine, last seen on 2012 in one of event
that I joined. We went straight to Wakaf Che Yeh after the Burger Bakar session
ended and stroll around there for some times. If you can’t get to Rantau
Panjang in the day, just head here as it offers much similar items like in
Rantau Panjang, although with some price hike (consider the transportation cost
and logistics etc.) After that the plan was to go to Pantai Irama but bad
weather makes us head back to the city and just have a chat session over some
drinks until midnight.
Next morning, we
have to leave the house early as faiz have his class early in the morning.
Since I don’t want to be a hassle to them, I decided to hop in and start my
journey early. It was a bit rainy that morning, and naturally the first thing to
do is to find some good spot for breakfast. Me being me, don’t have much issue
in the food department. So I decided to walk-by and see the city itself and
stop by and restaurant that has many people in it. That is, the best indicator for a good place
to eat. I had my breakfast in a local Mamak just beside the roundabout infront
of Limkokwing Branch College in KB.
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| Among other museum you can visit in KB! |
As expected, mamak here are very fluent
with kelantanese dialect, even I got a bit lost when they ask what kind of
curry do I want with my roti kosong. Some breakfast and after googling my
location, I decided to get into the Kelantan Museum, also just near the
roundabout. Nothing much can be seen here because the main exhibition still not
open since it quite early (about 0900 am). So I was left to view their largest
collection according to Guinness Book of Malaysia for coins and paper money exhibited
in one place. Sure, there are many interesting money dated way back before we
reach our independence, even way back until the first Kesultanan Melayu Melaka
timeframe. Although to many this seems rather boring and lame, but I do
recommend a visit here, for this coin and paper money exhibition. You can feel
a bit more appreciated of our own history, although not being able to remember
everything, at least some of it will stay as a memory.
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| Spiraling staircase. |
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| Three very rare rm50 notes before they were cut into individual part. |
After that
straight away decided to go to the Siti Khadijah Market, a place where only
women do their business like selling everything you need to prepare dishes. But
it was unfortunate that I did not managed to walk around much here. The walk
took a little bit over 45 minutes since I was a little lost (LOL) and a bit
distracted by the girls from nearby college. LOL. As I reach the market, I straightaway
look for something to quench my thirst and while doing so, looking at the
normal routine of KB people. Next stop was the Jahar Palace. An old palace just
behind the Siti Khadijah Market. Here, there are more info on Kelantan custom
and me being me, I did not pay much attention on the history, although there
are some that spike interest in me like the showering place located outside the
palace, specially made and used for male/female
bride before their wedding ceremony.
By the time I finished
walk around, it was already noon and Faiz came and fetch me to have Lunch with
his colleague. I can’t remember the shop name, but the concept was to take food
for group, rather than personal and they will charge everything in large sum.
So you need to kawtim with friends on what menu to have on the table. Because
in the end, you’ll be paying the same rate. I don’t think I ever did this kind
of thing at UTP, or anywhere in Perak. We were having Patin sambal tempoyak
with ulam, belacan and budu, also ikan keli goreng and ayam goreng including a
jug of sirap bandung to share among us. All that for rm7. Yums. After that
since its almost Zohor, I decided to
join them and head back to their house for some rest. End up I slept all the
way that evening. LOL. Maybe I was too tired from all the walking, or maybe
because of the food.
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| A good place to hang out. Drinks and cakes are normally priced though. |
That evening I wanted to look for some Akok, a speciality
dessert from Kelantan which im in love with. Sadly it was to late in the
evening and the weather is not that forgiving. It was raining heavily and after
some though we decided to just go to the only Mall in KB, which is none other
than KB Mall. Fun fact, utp also has a kb mall, well not really mall, but a
mart. KB Mart. Haha.
Me and faiz
stroll around the mall for some time and I guess the mall is quite okay since
it have variety in shops for clothing, food and electronic stuff. We have some
chit chat over some Caramel Machiato and an Orea Cheesecake at the Arnold Cycling
Café. The environment was nice, given the small place and what more enjoying
than exchanging stories of the past with people who you rarely meet up.
That night my
bus to Butterworth were scheduled at 10 pm and after some round of KueyTiow
Tsunami(because there are generous amount of sauce/ soup in the kueytiow), I left
Kelantan for another journey that took about 7 hours to my next stop,
Butterworth.
Look it up when youre in KB. They even have fruit juices that comes in all sizes of cup.
p/s: Oh and
about the head title, I forgot to mention, Kelantanese girls, or preferably
women, are very beautiful in general, even the ones that selling Nasi lemak
near the bus stand is pretty by my standard. Haha. Even from survey of my
friends, many agreed that Kelantanese are very beautiful. Haha. But hey, that
should not be the criteria that we should be focused on right? Only an added
benefit ;)
Total cost spend here is about RM100. That is including bus ticket to Butterworth, which alone cost rm37. The rest were mainly on food. Yep :)
Next stop?
