I guess there's more to it than that, but if I had to describe the time I spent there in one phrase, that's what it would be.
My brother, Jesse, was working in Singapore on a one year contract at Ngee
Ann Polytechnic. In May we took the 12 hour bus ride from Singapore to
Kota Bahru. The Transnasional bus line is actually quite luxurious. The
seats have foot rests, and they even gave us free french fries and water (what
could be a better meal?). We arrived in Kota Bahru at about 7 in the morning.
Starving, we began our search for the closes roti prata stand. If you've never
been to Malaysia, there are two choices for breakfast: Roti prata, which is
sort of like a really greasy fried doughy pancake, and nasi goreng, which is
extremely spicy fried rice. Roti prata, pictured at left, was my choice. Kota
Bahru was the home of the best roti prata I had on my trip.
Kota Bahru's colorful three-story market was great fun. On the ground floor was the produce and fish, as well as about an inch of standing fish water (don't wear sandals in there!). There was also a huge stack of chickens. One never knows what they'll find in these markets. On the second story are the food stalls, and on the third story are the endless booths of textiles. It's really easy to get lost in the endless mass of batik, songket, and silk.
There are food stalls all over Kota Bahru. In the late afternoon you can
watch them migrate to the area where the night market is. I liked the
Nasional Burger Corner. I liked the way it looked--I didn't try the food (I'm
a veg).
When you get off the main roads you'll find sheep, goats, chickens, and
cows wandering aimlessly all over the roads. It's fun to walk down the
street sharing the road with a herd of sheep. It's almost as waiting for the
trails in Nepal to clear when a herd of yaks are blocking the way. These
sheep were crossing the street in front of the cybercafe we found as we walked
in the sweltering heat. Is that steam coming from the pavement?
As we were wandering down streets looking for someone who made kites, we came across a cute cybercafe. Well, it was called a cybercafe. It was someone's house and they had a few computers with internet connections, as well as a refrigerator with a few bottles of coke. When we walked in the kicked the kids off the computers so we could use one. Those kids were pretty focused on the games.
This was the awesome taxi
that we took from Kota Bahru to Kuala Besut. After a few minutes of haggling
and showing off our Malay number skills, RM16 finally got us the cab. It
was a nice drive to Kuala Besut. Lots of ducks, goats, chickens, pigs,
sheep, cows etc. to look at along the way, as well as a few villages.
Pulau Perhention Kecil is the smaller of the two Perhentian Islands ("pulau"
means "island" and "kecil" means "small" in Malay). It's a beautiful island
off the northwest coast of Malaysia. You can get there by way of fishing
boat from Kuala Besut, as seen on the right. It's a three hour long journey to a rugged
paradise.
My friend Katie hanging out
on the rocks...
Ooops! Looks like I forgot to edit the size on this photo...The white, sandy beach
is really nice. It's a good thing that the beach is nice because that's pretty much all there is to do on the island: relax
on the beach, swim in the warm ocean, and, if you're feeling energetic,
go snorkeling or scuba diving. An excellent dive shop is Turtle Bay Divers,
located on Long Beach (ask anyone and they'll show you where it is--it's
a small island..). Whether you're an experienced diver or you've never
seen an air tank before, I highly recommend Turtle Bay Divers.
A giant clam. These clams are
really colorful. It's hard to see the colors because this photo was taken with
a cheap little disposable camera. You've got to see them with your own eyes!
On our fourth and last dive
we finally saw a turtle. This Hawksbill Turtle was quite diver-friendly. It
let us follow it around for quite some time. Watching a turtle swim is an amazing sight. They
are wonderfully graceful. Unfortunately, it's really hard to see it in this
picture because the photo was taken from so far away so everything looks
the same color.
My brother took this cool-looking picture with half the camera underwater
and the other half at the surface.
Another photo I forgot to resize. The rainforest area is bright green, but
it looks black in this picture.
