This post is a sequel to my previous post on my last road trip in the Malaysian Peninsula before I moved to KK back in October last year. I started off from KL and made a stop at Kuala Lipis before continuing on to Gua Musang where I had stayed overnight.
I wish I could explore more of Gua Musang, which is known for its beautiful limestone hills, and even asked the receptionist if there was any chance that I could do a little bit of hiking to any of those hills, but she did not seem so sure if hiking to those hills was already permittable by the ever-changing movement control orders. Considering that I needed to reach Jeli by noon, I had to spare the plan for another time – if ever. So off to Jeli I went.
After doing what my job had required me to do in Jeli, I took a little bit of time to explore what there was to explore around town. It was my first time in that particular corner of the country so just as it is when I come to any place for the first time, the excitement was quite there.
Jeli was quite a small town, and it was always considered to be one of the remotest districts in the state of Kelantan and even Malaysia, which is not quite the case to me considering its easy access from other parts of the state and beyond. It seems to be fast-developing too, and it must be since it is here where the state’s only public university is located.
By then it was past lunch time so I went to have lunch at a food court in the centre of town, which was an easy choice since there weren’t many (open) restaurants around anyway. The tables seemed to be left to clean up by themselves, which might be a thing of normalcy because nobody seemed to bother so I didn’t bother to complain too. I didn’t want to spoil the atmosphere with my big city attitude.
It even took so long for the food to arrive so I had to keep reminding myself over and over again that I was in some sleepy and slow-paced town where everything tends to be going in a slow motion. Luckily, the food was not that bad so I wouldn’t say the long wait was as futile as I had almost expected it to be. Urghh.
So seeing that there was nothing much to explore in the town of Jeli, not when most of the shops were still closed due to the movement control orders, I set out and wheeled off towards the East, or rather towards Kota Bharu where I’d be spending my night in.
The journey took longer than I had expected. Leaving my fate to the Google Map to lead the way for me, passing through villages and farms along the way and I absolutely had no idea where I was going until I reached Rantau Panjang, the gateway to the neighbouring country Thailand!
For a moment I wished I did bring my passport with me, but then again, the current movement control orders would not permit me to go anywhere beyond the borders anyway so it had to be spared for another time – if ever. By the time I reached near the entrance to the international border gate, it was raining like crazy. Slowly and cautiously, I continued on towards what I believed was Kota Bharu. The whole area was so unfamiliar to me so I couldn’t even pin my location on the Google Map.
I reached Kota Bharu at around 6pm, and parked my car in front of the massive LHDN building complex from where I could see the decorative gate of Al-Quran Rehal Park and the entrance to the Istana Jahar beyond it. I Googled around, looking for a place to stay for the night. I had been to Kota Bharu a few times and I’d usually stay around the royal palace area from where I could just walk to the famous Siti Khadijah Market and all the other places of interest around it. Since most of the places were still closed, I did not see the need to stay around there this time so a little bit of distance away from it would not really harm. In the end, I chose a budget hotel called W Hotel Cemerlang.
Letting the Google Map to lead the way for me, it led me to some quite area with a single row of shoplots surrounded by houses and (seemingly) privately-owned properties. Priced at RM45 per night, it really was value for money and I liked the room quite instantly. It was quite tiny, but it had just about everything that I needed – a study table and a chair and the most important of all is the access.
Just across the alley as seen from the window was what appeared to be the abandoned portion of a building. It reminded me of the places in movies where teenagers would go practicing and challenging among themselves to dance. The other portion seemed to be still occupied and since I’m the type who’d rather have the window curtains left wide-opened, every now and then I’d expect people to look down to me from their windows so I had to keep reminding myself to stay dressed at all time. Heh.
Now the dinner. Since it was quite late to drive around, and the weather wasn’t really at its best, I ordered dinner over FoodPanda (Grab food didn’t seem to be operational in Kota Bharu, or may be I didn’t try hard enough). Browsing around, I decided to order something quite unique to the city of Kota Bharu itself – Eel soup. I remember how I had to drive all over Kota Bharu with my then colleagues before we found eel soup which was quite worthy of the effort in the end because it was so tasty.
I never had any eel soup ever since so I just thought it was time to have a go at it again. Ordering Nasi Goreng Kampung to come with it, a combination that had cost me some RM24, I was expecting better. Already spoiled by the long wait, they seemed to have put too much salt in both the meals so I had to stop eating half-way through it when my intestines started to give a kick of protest. Kelantan is certainly known for the mecca of Malay food so this came as quite a disappointment to me. Or perhaps, eel soul is not really a Malay food after all.
I was tied to an online meeting the next morning, but not before I went down to the only restaurant that I could find around without driving off. The restaurant had a bizzare list of foods on the menu – or at least for a restaurant that is located in the state capital city of Kelantan where local delicacies are heavily influenced by those in Thailand. Realizing that I didn’t have much of a choice, I went for Kolo Mee, which I know is more of a Sarawakian food than a Kelatanese. There was nothing to be wowed about, but I was glad that the coffee was at least a brewed one instead of a sachet. And it wasn’t bad at all.
After signing off from my online meeting, I packed up and drove around, trying to look for a restaurant that at least serves some authentic Kelantanse food. I actually had Nasi Kerabu in mind, but somehow I couldn’t find any. And it did not help that most restaurants or even food hawkers were still closed so Kota Bharu really wasn’t its usual self. In ended up parking my car and exporing Dataran Cheng Ho where I could see a number of Chinese restaurants were opened and even allowed dining-in. I tapau-ed fried Kuey Teow and asked the restaurant to fill up my Ford Coffee Mug with coffee which I later had for brunch back in the car.
Then it was time to wheel off South-bound, to a place that I had always wanted to go to for so long – Lake Kenyir!