I arrived in Kota Bharu from the Perhentian Islands in just a couple of hours.
A speedboat took me and several other people from the islands to the main land where a local bus took us to Kota Bharu. Me and a German guy were both heading to the same place so between us we found the local bus terminal after a trip through the countryside for an hour arrived in the small town.
The town has several museums, while being on the east coast is more Muslim than cities on the western coast. The Chinese community was smaller here an the city was pretty dry apart from at the Chinese restaurants. Meanwhile twice a day at prayer times everything closed down. The town is famous for its night time food market which I visited as well as it's traditional crafts centre.
There were few tourists in the town though some people do stop by when coming out of Thailand which is not far away. Kota Bharu is also home to Kelantan FA - the team I saw win the Malaysian FA Cup when i arrived. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelantan_FA
On this first day here I learnt traditional Malaysian painting - Batik Painting, which is something popular throughout SE Asia. It was a good experience to sit down and learn to do something like that and engage with the local culture. In the end I skipped the museums and concentrated on my masterpiece.
There was a very heavy storm in the evening and I had to hide from the rain for a while was able to raid the night food market, by the time I got back to the hotel my art work had been framed and delivered.
The people in the town were very friendly. Not just at the tourist information office, but the Muslim tourists there, of which there seemed to be quite a few, were very approachable.
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| Downtown Kota Bharu |
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| An advert at the main Mosque advertising the Hajj, which is the pilgrimage Muslims make to Mecca. |
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| Should get a good reception staying next to this... |
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| The master with his masterpiece |
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| Durian with rice - evil smell, evil taste |
Batik Painting
Start with a pencil sketch. When finished place fabric on top of it and trace the sketch on to the
fabric using an oil.
When the tracing is finished add the colours you want to finish the painting.
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| Warm melted wax is used to draw the lines on the fabric |
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| The local craft centre |
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| The Grand Palace - a nice sign to tell you about it, it is used for important government occasions. However no one is ever allowed in and there is a high wall, so no pictures here! |
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| Night food market |
 Delivered to my hotel |
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| Non-alcoholic beer for Muslims |
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| Chicken intestines on a stick |
The call to prayer...I love the sound
