Visiting to Kelantan - my hometown, this Chinese New Year.

Hello everybody! Every year my family and I will go back to hometown of Kota Bharu, the capital city of Kelantan State...

Kelantan State Flag

Therefore, I have had made use of this time to tour around the town of Kota Bharu as well as the neighbouring district of Tumpat (My family also wanted to do so lah...). This is because starting this year some of my relatives had been moving to the bigger city in Kuala Lumpur. So, less relatives to be visited this year and more time to travel in the Kelantan state.

Kelantan is located in the North East part of East Coast Peninsula Malaysia. It is still under-developed compared to the other states in Malaysia (even poorer than its neighbour state - Terengganu. However, this state is still retaining lots of the tradition malay herritage and kampung house which rarely found in the hustling and bustling cities such as KL and Penang.

To be begin with, let's start with Kota Bharu, Kota Bharu (my hometown) is the capital city of Kelantan. Kota Bharu recently has been developing in order to be on par with the city status... More shopping malls and international franchise opened in the town. For example, KB mall and Parkson were the pioneer shopping malls to be opened there, following by the Tesco shopping mall as well as Aeon mall...

Random picture of KB mall

Aeon Mall picture. Credited to Just Shea, So Shea Blogger

What is surprising is even Starbucks also opens their first ever franchise in the Kelantan state (Terengganu still doesn't have Starbucks yet). However, there is still no cinema opened in Kota Bharu as well as in the entire state.

Jalan Kebun Sultan, the Chinatown of Kota Bharu

On top of that, Kota Bharu has amazing place for us to get to experience the locals' life. My family and I had visited to the well-known Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah during this Chinese New Year too...

Pasar Siti Khadijah

There are many local malays as well as a few of chinese selling groceries and some keropok lekor snacks there (Keropok lekor is the local product of Kelantan and Terengganu states). I also did not forget to buy some souvenirs there for my friends too. There also offers lots of souvenirs for you to gift to your family and friends ranging from batik clothes to the little key chains.

Pantai Cahaya Bulan is one of the tourist attractions in Kelatan State of Malaysia. It is roughly 10km away from the town centre. The nearest village to the beach is Kampung Api Semut... In the village, there are several food stalls that offer you a variety of the local delicacies such as keropok lekor and fried sotong (Squid) and fishes with flour. Certainly, there do have 2 resort hotels provide to the tourist (but I no need it lah, since some of my relative still living there...)

After that, my family and I went to tour in Tumpat District. Tumpat District is located near to the Malaysia-Thailand border. Therefore, that district has a significant number of Siamese population in that state. We had our lunch at the Malaysian Siamese restaurant, namely Khao Jam Mea Thong which their most favourite and best selling dishes is Khao Jam and Som Jam.

Khao Jam and Coconut. I forgot to capture the photo of Som Jam...

For your information, Khao Jam and Som Jam are the cross cultural and mixture of Siamese and Kelantanese Malay dishes. Beisdes, you can order a coconut while in the meaning time of having Khao Jam and Som Jam.

There are 2 most outstanding Thai Buddhist temple in that district that we visited. The first one is Wat Pothivihan. Wat Pothivihan is considered as the largest Sleeping Buddha in the South-east Asia (with about 40 meters long of the Sleeping Buddha Statue). The next one is Wat Machimaram, that temple houses the Malaysian's largest Sitting Buddha Statue. Both of temple are just within 5-10 driving distance from each other respectively.

Me and Wat Pothivihan

Wat Machimaram

Kelantan is having a potential to be developed as tourist hotspot just like in Terengganu, if the state goverment and the people there working hand-in-hand to develop and boost the tourism sector in that state. As a Kelantanese who is being raised up in Kuala Lumpur, I hope Kelantan will be better than today in future. KELANTAN WILL BE GREAT AGAIN!!!

Ok, that's all I want to talk about. I hope you enjoy this article and please follow me on my Google + account, twitter (@JiaZhe1) and facebook (username: Jia Zhe Wong)... If you have any comments or suggestions about this blogger, please comment below this blog post. Thank you, bye! Have a nice day! 

Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐！ 身体健康！ 万事如意！ 心想事成！年年有余！