An Eye-opening Trip to Kota Bharu, Kelantan

Date: April 30, 2011 (Sat) – May 2, 2011 (Mon)
Traveling Companions: Me, my wife Soh Ai and her friend Ng Kooi Hua (黄桂花)
Purpose of Visit: To rekindle old friendship. Soh Ai and Kooi Hua are to visit their hometown (Selama, Perak) friend Ng Yoke Lan (黄玉兰, married to Kelantan goldsmith Sie Kheng Chwan and lived there since 1988), while I look forward to visiting my TARC Pre-U Studies (1974-1975) classmate Wong Tun Kan (黄循干, hailed from Teluk Intan, Perak, a veteran big-time timber trader/contractor in Kelantan, resided there since 1978) whom I haven’t met since leaving college for 35 years. It is also my first visit to Kota Bharu.
Transport: By Air Asia
To: AK 5282 KUL-KBR 11:00 - 11:55
Return: AK 5293 KBR-KUL 19:35 - 20:35
Per pax: Base Airfare RM 263.00 + Airport Tax RM 15.00 + Convenience Fee RM 16.00 = RM 294.00

Overview of the city (from Wikipedia): Kota Bharu is the state capital and Royal City of Kelantan. The name means 'new city' or 'new castle/fort' in Malay. This northeastern Malaysian city is close to the Thai border, and is home to many mosques. Also of interest are various museums and the unique architecture of the old royal palace and former royal buildings in the center of town.

Day 1 -- April 30, 2011 (Saturday)
8.30 am Kooi Hua came with taxi to pick us up and go together to LCCT airport.
10.00 am Arrived at LCCT. We initially wanted to take our breakfast at Old Town Cafe, but as the boarding time was imminent (we have already checked in online a few days ago and got our boarding passes with us beforehand), we changed our mind and proceeded to the waiting room for boarding.
11.00 am Flight took off as scheduled.
12.00 pm Arrived at Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, Kota Bharu. Both Tun Kan and Yoke Lan were waiting for us at the arrival hall.
12.30 pm We had lunch in town before going to Yoke Lan’s residence to unload our luggages. Immediately after that, Yoke Lan followed us in Tun Kan’s car (Toyota Camry) to go sight-seeing.
As a token of gifts to our Kelantan friends, I bought them each person 3 tins of different types of Chinese tea (bought from Purple Cane shop). In addition to that, I bought (RM 48.00) from Ir. Chin Mee Poon his latest autographed Chinese travel story book entitled “Europe-Asia Travel by Trains in 102 Days (欧亚列车102天)” for Tun Kan who was from the same secondary school with Mee Poon, and also classmate to his younger sister in Teluk Intan.
In return, Tun Kan gave me 2 self-packed 320g dietary fibre "Psyllium Husk" (洋车前子) to be taken with water for relieving constipation, maintaing health bowel and etc. He further gave each of us 1-litre bottle of mineral water for quenching thirt as soon as we boarded his car. How considerate he was!

PLACES VISITED:
1. Thai buddhist temples including Wat Mai Suwankiri (main attraction being a wax statue of Tharn Di or Monk Di who had since passed on. Tharn Di was a charismatic abbot, revered by the community. The figure was so life like, even up close to the texture, colour, pores, hair and tattoo);
2. Four faced Buddha (Brahma);
3. Dragon boat temple (Wat Mai Suwan Khiri);
4. Thean-hou temple;
5. Bachok beach;
6. Tumpat railway station (eastern terminus of KTM's East Coast Line);
7. The only mosque in Malaysia with distinct Chinese architecture (pagoda roof) in Rantau Panjang. The roof was designed and constructed by Tun Kan.

Wax statue of deceased monk Tharn Di

Pic from left: Kooi Hua, Soh Ai & Yoke Lan

At about 5.00pm, Tun Kan took us to a Hainanese coffee shop back in Kota Bharu town and let us taste the famous Hainanese coffee and steamed/baked bread with kaya. (Tun Kan himself is a Hainanese and speaks various Chinese dialects and fluent in Kelantanese Malay). I managed to foot the bill at RM 17.00 only.

Later, we returned to Yoke Lan’s house for shower and rest. Her husband Sie Kheng Chwan and his eldest sister (after returning from work) joined us for dinner given by Tun Kan in a nearby Chinese restaurant where beer was freely consumed. Who says beer and liquor are banned in this PAS-ruled state?

The food for lunch and dinner ordered by Tun Kan was sumptuous including big prawns, siakap fish, chicken and vegetarian food for Yoke Lan and husband. We told him before coming that we would like to try the seafood in Kota Bharu, and he did fulfill our wish.

Day 2 – May 1, 2011 (Sunday)
9.00 am Tun Kan punctually turned up and brought us for breakfast. Again, he gave each of us a small bottle of 100-Plus water as we boarded his car. He packaged from a road-side Hainanese hawker stall the famous nasi dagang and dried curry beef/chicken for each of us to the Hainanese coffee shop we went the day before. The nasi dagang was not only delicious but also very filling so much so we all skipped our lunch later. We only drank coffee at the shop but the owner (I supposed they know Tun Kan well) allowed us to consume outside food.

After breakfast, Tun Kan took us to the market place to look at the peaceful co-existence of Malay-Chinese hawkers selling halal and non-halal food (i.e. pork) side by side under one roof. This kind of scene cannot be seen in the other states like K.L./Selangor. We also visited the Central Market or Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah which is a very colourful dry and wet market.

11.00 am Visited Rantau Panjang/Thai Border town. Traffic was unusually heavy, with a lot of vehicles/tourists holidaying at this place on the eve of the Labour's Day. We were shown the narrow river of Sg. Golok separating the two countries and people can easily cross to the other side by a boat ride, although there are soldiers loosely on the guard. We just strolled along the streel under the scorching sun and tried the local Malay's "colek" (one kind of "rojak" or mixed fruits) on the recommendation of Tun Kan.

1.00 pm Visited the most famous Buddhist temple in Kelantan, the Wat Photovihan housing the biggest statue of the “Reclining Buddha” in Southeast Asia (measuring 40 m long, 11 m high and 9 m wide) and later the Wat Matchimmaram housing the “Sitting Buddha" also renowned to be the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, estimated to be 30-metre-high and 47-metre-wide.

3.00 pm Visited Pantai Cahaya Bulan (Moonlight) beach resort where we had some refreshment. The view of South-China Sea was in sight. Tun Kan not only knows a lot of sight-seeing places in Kelantan, but also knows a lot of people (including members of the royal family, political leaders, developers and the like through his timber business over many years) like the manager of this resort who was an acquaintance for 10 over years. The manager on seeing Tun Kan came out from his office to say hello and chat.



I am convinced that Kelantanese people are courteous, warm and friendly. I never heard any honking on the road even though it was jammed with cars. I was told honking is rude in the eyes of Kota Bharu road-users.

4.00 pm Tun Kan purposely stopped over at the fruit market and bought 6 kg of mangoes to be given to us to bring back to K.L. He then took us to the Hainanese coffee shop (3rd time visit) and cut the mangoes for us to taste. What a hospitable and considerate friend he is indeed!

We returned to Yoke Lan’s house for a rest. I told Tun Kan not to accompany us anymore until we met again for lunch the following day when I had to buy him a meal in return. He has shown utmost patience and magnanimity OR done everything humanly possible (仁至义尽) to a friend.
7.00 pm We walked from Yoke Lan’s house to the nearby KB Mall for window-shopping. Kota Bharu is a prosperous town to the contrary of political propaganda. The only things missing are gambling outlets and cinemas. Later we went for dinner at a hawker’s center (I took fried oysters) followed by city tour at night in Sie’s car (a 23 year-old Nissan Bluebird carrying a total of 6 passengers, pity the 4 ladies squeezing at the back seat).
I was actually not feeling well a few days before coming to Kota Bharu, down with a severe flu with constantly blocked nose. The hot weather in Kota Bharu made things worse. I couldn’t sleep well at all for the past 2 nights and even though I was very tired this day after traveling to so many places, I still didn’t sleep well because of breathing difficulty with my blocked nose even though I retired to bed early, when Soh Ai and friends chit-chatted until mid-night.

Day 3 – May 2, 2011 (Monday)
8.00 am After having breakfast at a coffee shop, we went to the Bazzar or Batik Centre for a view without making any purchase.

10.30 am We were contacted by Tun Kan to meet him somewhere, before following him to his house and met his wife. The large collection of books in his living room amazed me. He demonstrated how he analyses shares with his laptop computer and software. He is now almost full-time in stock market and the biggest player in the local Maybank Securities.

We also visited Sie and Yoke Lan’s new double-story terrace house now under renovation and refurbishment in a new housing estate and they would most likely move in next month.

1.00 pm We joined Tun Kan for lunch with his stock-trading buddy, En. Wan Azuan Awang (Group Agency Manager of Alliance Investment Management Bhd) and bade farewell to him after this. We simply had no chance of buying back Tun Kan a single meal as he always paid first at the time of ordering the dishes.
This lunch was another feast with plenty delicious food. Thanks to Tun Kan for being such a generous host buying us 4 meals in 3 days.

2.00 pm On my insistence, we drove and had a look at the Toh Guru (Niz Aziz, Menteri Besar of Kelantan)’s humble official residence where there are no sentry box, security guards or fencing and it is freely accessible to the public. His driver was waiting for him (probably doing prayer after lunch) and Sie knowing him personally went down to chat with him. Sie asked me if I would like to pay Toh Guru a courtesy call. He assured me that Toh Guru would surely greet me and perhaps we could pose for a photo. I declined but was really impressed by this leader who must be revered as a “saint” by all walks of life in Kelantan.

6.00 pm We left Yoke Lan’s house for the airport and reached there at about 6.30 pm, just nice for checking in and getting our boarding passes.

7.35pm Flight took off as scheduled and we returned to LCCT at 8.30pm. We took a budget taxi (RM 73.10) back to Bandar Sg Long and concluded our memorable 3D2N trip to Kota Bharu.

A special message to my great friend Wong Tun Kan:
循干吾友, 您在接载我们的车上引述孔子的名言: “学而时习之，不亦说乎？有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？”纵观您家中藏书的丰厚，待友的热诚与周到，可见您乃言行一致的真君子也! 有朋如君者，实不枉此生啊! 他乡一别，容后图报.