The boat ride was much better on the way back to Kota Besut and we did not feel nearly so happy to be off it when we arrived in the port. We were assaulted by the usual "Teksi, Sir!"s all the way down the pier. We said no thank you a number of times. The bus stop was not far away and we asked some one at an express bus terminal when the next bus to Kota Bharu was. It was in an hour apparently so we decided to have breakfast in the meantime (well second breakfast as we had gotten so little of our first). Of course roti was on sale somewhere and so was coffee and we ended up having a much cheaper breakfast (6RM) than we had had in the previous 5 days. Unfortunately when we returned we found out that the bus had just left (an hour my foot!). When we had found this out we were greeted by fresh waves of "Teksi sir?"s or "Where you go?"s. To answer this last question I said, "bas 96". They left at that and left us alone for the hour and half that we ended up waiting for the local bus to Kota Bharu. Fortunately it was in the shade. When the bus arrived and the fair turned out to be 4RM a person (compared to the 50RM offered by the teksis), we decided it was worth the wait.
Kota Bharu is the capital of the most conservatively Muslim state of Malaysia. The Lonely Planet informed us that it more stringently enforced sharia'a law and couples had been fined for holding hands (this being publicly indecent), or women for wearing somewhat revealing clothing (also publicly indecent). This law of course only applies to Muslims so travellers were not to be bothered, unless they too were Muslim. Still it did seem to be a good place to be more conservative in our own dress and actions. It also turned out to be one of the least English speaking states.
When we arrived we found ourselves immediately lost and the Lonely Planet map was of little use. After asking about for what was probably an hour we found the guesthouse we were looking for. Unfortunately no one was there and we did not want to wait around. We found our second option much quicker and in a much quieter area. This one was run by two Chinese men, one older, one younger they were possibly father and son. It was called The Ideal Travellers House and it actually was ideal. The price was 30RM for a double and it had a balcony. We've found that the places in Malaysia that were the cleanest and cheapest were usually run by Chinese people. This was certainly the case here. After settling in we decided to explore town and get some food. Food was the first order of business and we found it at a place called Mohammed Lee's Chicken rice. The food was great and the owner (presumably Mohammed Lee) came over and greeted everyone who came in warmly, including us. I unfortunately ordered chicken with Thai spice and while I enjoyed it immensely my mouth was numb with spice for the next hour and my face was hot from it. I still say it was great though.
Kota Bharu was very hot that day and we tried to find some indoor sort of activities. Unfortunately all of the museums were closed that day and the only one that was somewhat open was closing by the time we got to it. This was a place called the Kraftigan and was an exhibition of the local art styles. We came upon a small shop, inside the Kraftigan compound, that we saw some other tourists leaving and went in. It was an art stall for a batik painter named Zecsman, who also did batik classes. We looked at the art and Nancy struck up a conversation with Zecsman about batik. We decided that we would come back the next day and perhaps buy some painting. In the meantime we were chase back to the guest house by the continual heat and a new threat of rain. I picked up 1000 Splendid Suns by the Kite Runner guy and Nancy started on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I got 117 pages into 1000 Splendid Suns before we left Kota Bharu (I'm borrowing it from you when I get home mom), but we couldn't trade as Nancy hadn't finished the Dog in the Night-Time.
Kota Bharu purportedly has the best night market in Malaysia, but when we arrived later that night it did not seem very big or great. We did have some tasty treats but overall we were a little disappointed in the whole affair.
The next morning we had a cheap breakfast from the guest house, prepared by the older man and went off to the laundry mat. It was a Chinese run "laundrette" and they said they would have it done by 9 that night. I think we hadn't walked 20 minutes before losing the laundry slip.
The Istana Raja was our first destination and it was in a traditional old building of wood. It chronicled the wedding ceremonies and other ceremonies done by the nobility in Kelantan (the state KB is the capital of). The exhibits we neat and enlightening, though on reflection I cannot remember very much of the content. I do remember that after a child was born the princess has be massaged and take hot baths everyday for the next two months to help her "regain her fitness". We next went to the Istana Batu, which was a more personal museum to the father of the current sultan of Kelantan. It was actually in the house that the previous sultan had lived when he was the prince. There were a lot of personal effects and great deal of information about the sultan's (and sultana's) education, background and interests. Also, left as though they hadn't been gone too long, their bedrooms, studies, wardrobes, the sultan's hat collection etc.
A quick note on the sultans. Most Malaysian states have sultans (as most Malaysian states were sultanates at one point). The sultans of these states take turns being the sultan of Malaysia, they switch every 5 years. I think this give them a bit of veto power, but I'm not really sure. I think their main power is to declare national parks and marine parks. Which is nice.
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| The Istana Raja (no cameras allowed inside). |
We got need up back at Zecsman and while looking at painting we struck up a conversation with an older Italian couple who were also looking at the paintings. They were from Venice and had been travelling on and off for the past 20 years. They were big fans of Laos, Myanmar and India for potential destinations, but were less so of Malaysia thus far (they had arrived about a week before). After we parted company and picked out our paintings, we asked about some of the other cultural activities. Zecsman, who was closing up shop at the time, offered to show us to the cultural centre and introduce us to the guide there, his friend Roslan (a man). As we walked Zecsman told us a bit more about the area. His English wasn't that great but I think we caught the gist of what he was saying for the most part. Kelantan on the whole did not like to have immigrants in the state, if we understood him correctly, it is apparently illegal to move to Kelantan, even from other Malaysian states. Perhaps they were even thinking of forming their own country, though I'm not sure if this is what Zecsman meant. Also all the bird song that we were hearing throughout the city was largely recordings to attract birds to make nests in the area. These nests (made entirely of bird spit) could be harvested to make bird's nest soup. Largely they were sold to mainland Chinese people.
We arrived at the cultural centre and Zecsman pointed out his friend who waved us over. Zecsman departed back the way we came after pointing out an alternative route for us to use upon our exit.
Roslan had us sit down, we were apparently just in time, afternoon prayers had finished and the silat was about to begin. Silat is Mayasian martial arts and we were shown a long demonstration of it to music. Two men circle each other slowly back and forth and occasionally put each other in holds. It was a neat thing to watch and we even took a video that turned out alright.
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| Can't seem to add the video though. |
Next we were shown to the big drums and watched as 8 of them were played by two people per drum. They asked for volunteers to try them out:
We both had fun beating the drum but our hands hurt afterwards. Not for the uncalluosed hands they were.
The last part of the cultural show was the top spinning, which we could not get pictures of, because the action happened way too fast. Basically, a guy twisted a long rope around a 4kg "top" (which looked like a weight for bench pressing), the rope was attached to his wrist and he held the top in the same hand. Then he stood in front of another guy, who sat crouching not far away and hold a small wooded spoon like thing. The guy with the top then threw the top and pulled the rope in one fluid motion. The top flew at the guy with the spoon who caught it on the bottom (which was all flat) with the spoon. The top spun on top of the spoon until they could get a proper bottom on it. Then they placed the whole contraption in a horizontal slatted piece of wood. Roslan told us that the tops could spin for another 4 hours before it stopped. At one point the top spinner missed the catcher (who had to dive quickly out of the way) and the top crashed into and knocked over some chairs.
As we walked home we noticed that the stadium parking lot across the road was quite crowded. We wandered over to find out what was going on. Apparently the KB soccer team was in the semifinals of the nation league. We were seriously tempted to buy a ticket to the game as well, but we realized that if we went to it, we would not be able to get to the forest rail on time the next day and hence be unable to leave. Also we were getting a lot of funny looks from the soccer fans as we were inquiring about the tickets (this helped in the decision).
We had dinner at a vegetarian place that was quite good and we ran into the Italians again. We had another long chat with them. The woman worked for an engineering company and the man was a civil servant. When we asked what exactly he did as a civil servant he said not much. "Lots of reading done; some darts…" He also got 35 days of holiday time a year. Lucky guy. We talked also about books and they suggested that we read some books by an Italian travel author and journalist named Tiziano Terzani. The one they specifically mentioned was called "A Fortune Teller Told Me". We kept it in mind and when we returned to KL we found it in a book store in KL and bought it.
After we parted ways we realized that we had forgotten to pick up our laundry and dashed to the laundrette. They gave us our laundry despite not having our receipt, but took our names and passport number just in case. As we did not have our passports with us we took out our Taiwan ARC to get the number and the girl there asked how long we had lived in Taiwan. She had gone to university in Taiwan (Tainan to be precise). We got laundry and headed home to pack. As we had to wake for 6 we did not get much in the way of sleep, especially since we had nothing to wake ourselves up with.
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