7th JUNE - KOTA BHARU LAST DAY

On our last day in Kota Bharu, my old friend, Miss Zalina Ismail, was kind enough to voluntarily take us around to places outside the town. Or else, we wouldn't be so sure of what to do while waiting for the bus at 8:00 p.m. The first place we went to was Kuala Besar, a small fishing village located by the Kelantan River.

We stopped at a small factory producing and selling "keropok" [fish crackers] and we could observe how the workers were busy cleaning and processing the fish in the open work place.

Then, we went to Cahaya Bulan Beach, which is actually a famous tourist spot. However, the beach was badly eroded and the were large rocks arranged by the sea side to at least slow down the damage done by the waves. But I wonder, how long will this last?










And once we were there, we had to sample its well-known delicacy (from what I had read from other people's blog), fried squid and prawns coated in flour. But the one that got the highest rating from us would be the refreshing and cooling coconut water.

Miss Zalina then took us to a graveyard which was different as the length of the graves was longer and narrow in size. The plot of land was large but then it was divided into smaller lots and the smaller lands were fenced which was already booked, I suppose, by certain family members. By looking at some peculiarities of the tombstone as well as the structure of the graves, this could be the burying ground for royalties.

Lastly, we went to a significant spot in the local history, the first place where the Japanese Army landed in Malaya during World War ll, that was Sabak Beach. It was another fishing village by the sea and not much remnant of the past could be found here though.

Pengkalan Chepa Mosque

We managed to see a real Japanese Fort that was situated by the roadside in Pengkalan Chepa. Just imagine the number of people who had been killed here during the bloody war about 60 years ago.

So that was all, a 4-day visit to Kota Bharu. Even though I had been here before, this time round I must say I have covered many parts of the town. Thank you to Mr. Shamsul Nahar for the company throughout the stay, and to Miss Zalina for taking us around to some interesting places, as well as to Mr. Hisham for his help to ferry us back to the hotel during the first two days. The next school holiday will only be next November. Forget the break in August as we would be celebrating Eid at that time so there will be no expedition whatsoever.