Kelantan Trip - Day 1 (140809)

Kelantan is located at the north-east coast of peninsular Malaysia, 95% of population of this state are Malay Muslim. I sat the Cepat Express bus from Muar to Kelantan at 9pm on Thursday night (130809). The bus fare is Rm52, judged from the fare you can know that it is a long distance gap between this state, and it took me 12 hours to reach the capital of Kelantan, Kota Bahru.

Out of my expectation, Kota Bahru is a happenning city whereas there is always traffic jam on the road. Majority of the buildings are designed followed the culture of Islam, and the name of companies inprinted with jawa words. I think it is due to the place was ruled by PAS (Pasti Islam Semalaysia).

Came to an unfamiliar city, I took a taxi with no meter to USM campus. I met a friendly and helpful taxi driver. Even though he did not know the exact way, he did not giving up to bring me to a right location. Hence, I tasted the friendliness of the people there.

The border of Kelantan is Thailand, hence Kelantan somehow also influenced by Thai culture. Therefore, Kelantan is famous of Buddish Temple. At the area of Tumpat, there are numerous temples situated next to each other. However, there are 4 temples, a Must for you to visit. In Thailand language, they called temple as Wat.

First of all, we went to Wat Machimmaram. It has the largest sitting buddha in Southeast Asia. There is brown Buddha with pure gold lips was sitting cross-legged in a meditation pose atop Wat Machimmaram. It is gigantic, and the gold lips are shinning under the hot sun.


One thing I disliked about Kelantan is its hot weather. I cant stop sweating from the moment I arrived there. The sun is just so gigantic, and no where for you to feel cold unless you are under a fan or aircond.

In order to ease our thirst, we had our coconut drink in Wat Phothivihan. According to the Kelantan website, coconut drink is very famous, and is a need to try. I got a bit disappointed because the drink is not cold. I wish there is ais inside the drink.

Below the coconut drink's photo, it is a giant dumpling. A chinese local food there. I like this dumpling, because they even put yam inside. This dumpling is best served with 2 people. How we get to eat chinese food? There is a only chinese place called Kebun Sultan. You can taste different chinese food in this street. We can't really recognize if the person is chinese, because their skin tone is quite dark. Most of them are speaking the dialect of Hokkien.


Talking about Wat Phothivihan, it has one of the largest sleeping buddha in the world. I was not really amazed by this temple, because the status wasn't in a a good care. The buddha was full of spider web or dust, and i wondered if they got clean it regularly.

Wat Phikulthong's Standing Buddha, is our next destination. Actually, frankly nothing much to do in temple except praying or photoshoting. It is best to visit during their festival. As we went, the place was quite empty and quiet, there isnt much people visited there, in fact it was Friday. It was fun to take photo while the buddha is standing on our hands. Haha.

Finally, we came to the most amazed temple in Kelantan. The temple architecture and design is complicated yet detailed. It is like a golden building. It is not easy to find this place, because we have to turn in a small road. But, I guess local people is the best tour guide for you. It is called as Wat Mai Suvankhiri or Dragon Boat Temple. Inside the temple, there is an awet real monk sitting inside a covered glass peacefully. The awet was so real, till I can't believe that the monk is already passed away. Additionally, it called as Dragon Boat Temple because there is another temple surrounded by a dragon boat. Too bad it was closed, we didnt manage to enter it.

My favourite place is beaches. We planned to see sunset in Pantai Irama, situated at Bachok. Too bad, all the beaches are facing south China Sea so we cant see the sunset. But, I truly in love with the beach. The beach is called as Beach of Melody. I don't know why but I guess is the combination of sound of the wind and waves. The wind blew on our face, and the standing on top of the sea waves, and let the waves hit on your feet - I love this feeling. It ease my heart.

In Pantai Irama, there got provided parachute sitting and horse riding. Looking at people flying to the sky has excited us, but we are scared because life jacket is not provided. It costed RM36. A great spot for family outing, lots of people were there playing with the sands, catching the crabs and fishes, swimming in the sea and etc.

After a whole day tiring trip from west to south in Kelantan, we went to Kampung Kulim, Wakaf Bahru to have Thai seafood. This restaurant is called as Chiang Mai restaurant recommanded by my brother. I wondered why the restaurant is located in such a remoted place, it is so hard to find it if you never been there or you are not a local there. But, lots of people dining there. The food was indeed awesome especially tom yam soup and spicy fish. It was so spicy, but you just cant stop eating them. After spicy food, it is recommanded to choose sugar cane, it is best to drink. Overall, the food is very satisfying. Total we spent Rm77 for this meal.

The end of 1st day trip. If you google Kelantan's place of attaction, even Kelantan Tourism Information, they did not provided the information of temples and Thai seafood there. I am blessed because my friend is studying in Kelantan, and we rented a car to roam around. I managed to experience something different which wasn't in my agenda.