Recouping from island life

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Where I stayed
Zeck's Guest House
(Kota Bharu hotels)

Flag of Malaysia  , Kelantan,
Monday, June 30, 2008

Olivia and I arrived in Kota Bharu in the evening after waiting almost 3 hours at the ferry terminal bus station.  Fun times.  That evening we explored the night market.  There wasn't much there for me other than the delicious banana murtabak.  Murtabak is a thin, crepe-like pancake that's typically filled with beef, chicken, vegetables, or bananas.  You can have dinner and dessert just eating murtabak.  It's really just another version of the ubiquitous banana pancakes that you see on menus in tourist restaurants throughout South-east Asia, only this one is actually eaten by locals more often than tourists.

My plan for Kota Bharu was to spend a day just hanging out, doing laundry, and catching up on internet things.  All went as planned until shortly after Olivia left that morning I received an email from Esther saying that she decided to leave the island earlier than planned and would be in Kota Bharu to meet me that afternoon.  I decided to stay an extra day to hang out with her and go to the free music and dance performance at the Malaysian cultural center.  It was well worth seeing.  My favorite part was the group of 12 drummers playing on 6 drums.  We were even given a chance to try (it was not so easy, but I think I managed to keep up fairly well).  Of course we visited the night market each evening, as it is the major attraction of Kota Bharu.

Kota Bharu is known for being the most devoutly Muslim city in Malaysia.  Malaysia has a very large Muslim population, but those on the east coast, particularly in the northeast are much more conservative than those in Kuala Lumpur or along the west coast.  In Kota Bharu, at least 95% of the women I saw wore a head scarf.  There were even a number of women walking around in full burkas.  Every restaurant is halal and the guide books all warn women not to walk around in tank tops or short shorts unless they want to be harassed.  It definitely has a very different feel than the hectic motorbike craziness that I've encountered in many other parts of South-east Asia.

After a fun couple of days and about 5 hours total of internet time, I had clean clothes and was ready to head south into the jungle.
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