Almost come to an end to my outstation stock audit marathon, Kota Bahru (KB) was my 2nd last place and that was the only trip I took flight instead of driving. Frankly speaking, I never been to Kelantan, not to mention Kota Bahru. A bit nervous because language barrier is my biggest worries. I do not speak very fluent Bahasa and in Kelantan, they have special slang in their Bahasa too.
I took the earliest flight (7.45am) of AirAsia to KB this time. You know what? I got to get up at 4am, airport limo came at 5am and I reached LCCT at 6.00am. Don't ask me why I want to check in so early, it's totally not what I want, just that, I understand the driver drives extremely "save" and that day he took the new KL-Putrajaya Highway, so, I reached there earlier. I even fell asleep while waiting to be on board.
The flight depart on time, according to the itinerary, I should be reaching KB at 8.40am but, don't know due to what, the flight landed earlier too. My operator asked me to called her when I arrived. So, I thought she might took some time to pick me, but after clearing my lugage, her car was right in front of the entrance. She was telling me, her house is only 10 minutes from the airport.
That was really really early and all the shopping mall, of course including her centre in Pantai Timur Hypermarket are still not open yet. So, she brought me eat breakfast first. FYI, I do not has a Malay friend, and besides than nasi lemak, roti chanai, I know nothing about Malay food. She introduced nasi dagang to me. The rice is actually brown rice, which is healthier (just an excuse to make myself feel less guity because that was my 2nd breakfast). And I found out that, the food isn't cheap there.
For lunch, I ate pizza because I wasn't hungry until 4pm and during that hour, nothing except fast food is available. At night, I ate pretty late too, my operator brought me to eat those local food like ginger chicken, fried eel with dried chilli padi, tomyam (KB is very near to Thailand, so you can tell, the tomyam is real delicious) and some other vege. Yum... a bit hot, for most of the food, but really delicious.
My dad called me and asked me to get 2 pieces of Batik from KB (places like KB which majority of the population is Malay has more variety of Batik), so, my operator purposely drove me to this local market which sell Batik at a more reasonable price.
The market is next to the King's Palace, and in front of the palace, there's this little building:
Guess what? It's the first bank in KB. The local people called it Bank Pitis. It is very very tiny, I think the building can only fit in 2 person, the most.
(Pitis = in ancient time, they called money as Pitis)
A musuem on the other side of the Palace
The gate of the King's Palace
The gate is very tall, so, can't really see how's the palace look like.
Actually the Batik that they sell in the market is different from what my mom wants. My mom wants the Batik which she can made top that she usually wears at home. The Batiks selling in the market there are very good in quality and very classy. A piece of Batik (400metre) can costs up to few hundreds.
Because I didn't want to waste my operator's effort for driving me there, end up, I bought 2 smaller pieces and both of them cost RM250. When I come back, although my parents were saying I bought the wrong thing, wasting money this and that, but I know, deep from their heart, they are happy too, especially my mom.
Although KB is not a city as well developed as KL, but look at their airport... it's even prettier and more organize than LCCT. Don't you think so?
Oh, before I forget, when I was sitting in the flight going to KB, the sun has just risen and when I looked down, some of the areas, which were filled with water (I think they are either paddy field or the land was covered with water due to flood) reflet the sunlight and they seems like a lot of mirrors on the floor, so pretty. But I was too blur at that hour, I didn't take any picture of that scene.
So, when I was flying back, I had my camera with me, but the mirror mirror on the floor can't be seen, too bad.
But the cloud is very nice...
After visiting to KB, it has changed my view to this place, I thought people living in KB are quite conservative, but after spending time with them, I think they are quite open and friendly too, when I first heard them speaking Malay with their slang, I thought they were speaking Korean, hahaha, and I think in KB is a safer place compare to some other big cities like KL, JB.
Those are my impressions to KB and of course I wish I can stay there longer to experience their simple life.
