Kelate: More than Meets the Eye. (Part 2)

Alt tiitle: Two Inexperienced Tourists on a Four hours of Excursion Around Kota Bharu and Environs!

Continuation from previous post! Friday (10 August 2012) is the day I am heading back to Penang but since my return flight is on late afternoon, I still have around a few hours in the morning for a quick get around Kota Bharu and its environ before heading to the airport. Together with Syahmi on the wheel (who just settled back in Kota Bharu with his family a couple of months ago hence never really explored Kota Bharu much) and a vague sense of direction (from my own research using Google Map), we set on a journey to visit quite a couple of must visits sight around Kota Bharu plus excursion to the environs!

Rise and shine, Kota Bharu. Oh did you noticed the lowrise with a dome like thing in the middle?  That's actually a Hindu temple. I also noticed a quaint Sikh Gurdwara tuck somewhere while I was on my way over to Tune Hotel from USM KK while there's a church (not a church building itself but just rented space in a building/shoplot so no cross) not far from here as well. Despite common impression of Kelantan being mostly green (or red, depending how Kelantanese prefer to view themselves as which colour), there are actually smidgens of rainbow diversity painted here and there around the tapestry. Not too obvious but will come into itself when observed carefully.

My first B&O outside of Penang: Hayaki Cafe at Tune Hotel KB, with nasi kerabu and a jug of teh ais. I know that hotel food will never be a proper representative on how local cuisine should be but at least I can claim that I had nasi kerabu at its origin. Nevertheless, I could always go for a proper, local authentic Kelantanese fare if there's another opportunity that would bring me to Kelantan again in the future, with a proper list of must try food!

Tune Hotel KB was officiated by Crown Prince of Kelantan.

...and of we go from Tune Hotel going through the main thoroughfare of Kota Bharu heading towards the heritage core. Meanwhile, police at work towards errant parking.

Here we are, the most photographed icon of Kota Bharu, the imposing, majestic Pinta Gerbang Kota Sultan Ismail Petra. It's intricately adorned with traditional Malay (Jawi) calligraphy and floral pattern in gold and an open al-Quran perched on top of the highest pillar symbolising Islam as the central pillar of Kelantanese.

Immediately behind the the arch are basically Royal ground such as Istana Jahar (top left) which houses Royal Museum, Istana Balai Besar (top center, right, center row) with it's imporsing wooden wall and gateway was the former Royal residence but currently functions as a ceremonial palace for Royal function hence not open for public, Bank Pitis (lower left) located outside the wall of Istana Balai Besar is basically a tiny building serving as gold repository. Right across the road from the arch was Masjid Muhammadi, a colonial style (Moorish) mosque serving as the state and royal mosque of Kelantan and Padang Merdeka, an enclosed strip of green with a cenotaph commemorating the fallen soldiers. The ground is also notorious for being the place Tok Janggut, Kelantan's own anti-colonist folk hero was hanged and exhibited after he was killed in a battle against the Brits.

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Another must visit place when one visits Kota Bharu is of course Pasar Siti Khadijah, an octagonal building serving as central market of Kota Bharu, famous for the horde of female sellers at the central atrium and with pictures always taken from above. (In fact on my visit, there's a troupe of professional photographers with their gadget just done with their photoshooting!). The ground floor hosted wet and poultry market, the 1st floor hosted dried foodstuff and herbs while the 2nd floor hosted clothes and steel ware. The last picture is interesting: Kelantan (PAS led) State Government has introduced Dinar (basically their own gold and silver standard) a few years ago as co-official trading currency hence a board marking the exchange rate between Dinar and Malaysian ringgit (I've heard some saying/news report/opinion that trading in Dinar is "more Islamic". Trading in gold standard is one economic argument but "Islamic" business?) I wonder do people actually uses Dinar in their daily purchase anyway?

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Know your ADUNs: a poster depicting all the current sitting Kelantan ADUNs spotted pasted on some wall as I was observing the surrounding within the market. I love how their black overall provide a solemn contrast with the red and yellow.

Next destination requires us to pass the mighty (but teh ais brown) Sungai Kelantan heading towards the direction of Pengkalan Kubor near border of Thailand-Malaysia, passing through the rural hinterland. At one point as we are approaching Pengkalan Kubor, there's a border police checkpoint in which Syahmi asked: "Did you have your Pas Kelantan?" which thrown me off balanced. I know that people living around the border can apply for a border pass to facilitate movement around the area but I didn't know it will be checked at this point. After a short moment of "wha?" that Syahmi revealed that it's just a joke. Dammit Syahmi I don't want to run in to the law enforcement officer for no apparent reason so don't make that joke. Anyway back to the story, we are not heading to the border (though originally we do mentioned about it) but we are heading...

...to the beach. To be precised, Pantai Sri Tujoh. Miles of untouched beach lined with thick rows of casuarina/pokok rhu (including the dead one near the water line.) facing South China Sea with fresh water lagoon/estuary immediately behind it.

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With about 20 minutes to spare before I have to head to the airport and nothing else to do, we decided to camwhore, posing and pretending to look thoughtfully towards yonder.

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While we are heading back towards Kota Bharu, we made a quick stop at Phra Buddha Bharameedharm Chamruslok which boasted one of the largest sitting buddha status in SEA just to make a quick memorable snap!

We've to enter Kota Bharu city centre again before heading northward to Pangkalan Chepa where the airport is and here's a quick snap of the SKMK city bus terminal proudly dorned in dashes of red from the Cityliner (one of the largest private bus company in peninsula) and sponsored by Hotlink! I think Citylink brand is of the most easily recognized brand of public transport in peninsula. Bus today need to have a solid, recognizable design as part of the effort to get rid of its dull, rickety, poor man transport image.

About 15 minutes drive later, we are approaching the airport where I will board the 1.25pm Firefly FY1001 back to Penang. The gilded Welcome/Bon Voyage (depending which direction you're from) marks the start and the end of my two day rendezvous in Kota Bharu. *sniffle*

Being a civil aviation fan, I will never miss out the opportunity of exploring and learning other city's aviation gateway looks like and I think KBR is quite a reasonably sized and relatively busy airport with numerous connections to Kuala Lumpur comparable to KCH-KUL airbridge route especially when compared with other airport in Peninsula. It has three boarding gates with aerobridge (center row 1st and 2nd from left) and few more ungated apron. Another interesting thing one can observe from an airport tour is how the local culture manifest itself and for KBR's case, it can be observed from the intricate mural and stained glass at their central atrium (top row 4th and 5th/right corner). Because it only has three gates, all departures shared the same waiting lounge (lower row, left corner) but interesting enough, there's one small cordoned off area with (unattended) immigration counter designed for international departure. Does KBR have international flight? Lower row 3rd and 4th: while I was waiting for my departure, an AirAsia A320 arrived from KL. Not too long after, it was my flight and we have to exit through a side staircase at Gate 3 to reach the regional turboprop apron.

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Talking about departure, did I mentioned about my flight being delayed? As my original scheduled departure time (1.25pm) approaches, the departure counter remained awkwardly silent and it started to get on my nerve. Only when I approached the FID that I realized that it has been delayed to 1.40pm...with no announcement what so ever. More annoyingly is that cover the flight status with a black strip of paper for no apparent reason! Ok, fine it's only 20 minute late so I could wait. 1.40pm approaches again and the departure counter still remain awkwardly silent. Me and my fellow passenger (judging from their faces) became more agitated wondering what happened to our plane. Only a while later a staff finally appeared and made the inevitable announcement: FY1001 KBR-PEN has been delayed to 3pm, making it delay of one and a half hour in total! I was on the edge because I wish to submit my expenditure claim on the same day itself before PPIK closes at 5pm and reaching USM late certainly doesn't help! Anyway, the delay does have some good silverlining: at least I finish up that small editing work I received earlier in the morning.

Finally it's time to depart and we have to make a long walk under scorching sun to our plane. Is this my first Firefly tarmac picture. This is also the point in which my peeling sole at the bottom of my shoe finally detached and I have to stuff the sole in my laptop bag to get it mended once I am home.

The weather's so hot that people are taking shade under the wing as they wait for their turn to board the aircraft. As soon as all passengers boarded, we are ready to depart and bid farewell to Kota Bharu. The flight pattern to me is interesting because we actually headed seaward fast to reach cruising altitude before making U-turn to reach back to the shore and head towards the west coast of Peninsula passing by the snaking Sungai Kelantan river on the plain before reaching pristine rainforest and mountain range. Meanwhile, complimentary Danish pastry and OJ from Firefly.

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Roughly 40 minutes later that we begun our descend to PEN, flying by sprawling industrial estate of Butterworth with the BORR Cable stayed bridge, railway swing bridge (including the double tracking project!) and the port visible. Today's descend is different as well as we will be landing through Bayan Lepas FTZ side and the iconic Penang Bridge is clearly visible as we fly across Penang strait towards the island. As we are approaching PEN (in a rather choppy descend), FTZ and Penang Second Link is visible before our plane's landing gear made a thud and we landed at PEN appoximately 3.50pm. The trip comes to a close as the plane came to a halt at the regional gate...or is it?

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Not quite finish yet however as I have to rush to PPIK office to submit my travel expenditures claim! Good thing for me that I already printed the form in advance and all I need to do is to prepare the documents and receipts ahead and fill in all the relevant information. Another great help would be definitely taking a ride on my supervisor's car because she has to drop by her office for a while as well. Got my supervisors, signature and handed in the paperwork by 4.45pm. OH YEAH!

Victory couldn't be sweeter especially when there's Kuih Akok (a type of sweet, flat kuih) from my supervisor's family in Kelantan as tea time and supper!

With kuih akok and Going Places August Edition, my two days escapade to Kelantan has finally draw to a close. A very big thanks to my supervisor for accompanying all the way there, a very big thanks to Captain KC Ho for my virgin cockpit/jumpseat ride and a very big thanks to Syahmi and his family for being a gracious host by inviting me for Berbuka/Iftar dinner as well as a guide for going around Kota Bharu. I wonder where will I be going next time for excursion?

Epilogue: Lazing even though I shouldn't be. The best and worst thing of being at home. Meanwhile my arm hurt for typing while lying on the bed.