Hello everybody, many of us may opined that Kelantan
is a rural state in Peninsula Malaysia with least developed and mature
amenities and townships as compared to the other states in Peninsula Malaysia…
However, due to these underdevelopment factors, this makes Kelantan to be deemed
as an underrated state of Malaysia in terms of tourism. Therefore, today I
am here going to share some places for us to visit in northern part of Kelantan
(southern part mostly were covered with thick forest and lush greeneries, next
time if I have chance, I may cover the Kelantan southern part too). The
focus of this blog post is on Kota Bharu, Rantau Panjang and Bachok in Kelantan
and Sungai Kolok, Thailand as well as the Kelantanese foods.
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| Pantai Senok beach in Bachok district of Kelantan. |
Referring to the previous posts, there are about few
times I had explained about Kelantan states in the previous year, so if you
want to know more about the previous posts you may click here to read one of
it. As I had mentioned in previous post, Kota Bharu, Kelantan is my hometown,
thus every year my family and I will visit there during an occasion of Chinese
New Year celebration. So, this post will only touch briefly regarding Kota
Bharu.
Kota Bharu
Kota Bharu is a capital city for Kelantan state in
Malaysia, besides it is also being the largest city in the whole Kelantan
state. This is because of the rest of the towns in Kelantan aren’t that
developed on par with the rest of the main towns or cities in Peninsula
Malaysia. However, since it’s the capital and main city in Kelantan state,
therefore, there are numerous shopping malls in Kota Bharu even though there
still hasn’t have any cinema yet. For an example, there are shopping malls such
as KB Mall, Tesco, Billion, Parksons and recently opened Aeon, all of these are
to cater the people’s daily life needs such as groceries and leisure or pastime
activities. Furthermore, there are also having a few of franchises opened in
Kota Bharu. The popular ones are KFC, McDonalds, Tealive, Xing Fu Tang as well
as Starbucks. Both Xing Fu Tang and Starbucks which were just opened here
already drawn many local people flocked there to patronize their product. In
short, Kelantan isn’t that poor as what people deemed it stereotypically,
instead the state’s capital city – Kota Bharu, is basically just like a city
status in the other more developed states in Malaysia.
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| Kota Bharu city centre clock tower |
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| Prestigious kopitiam in Kota Bharu |
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| Xing Fu Tang boba tea franchise in Kota Bharu, Kelantan |
Rantau Panjang
Rantau Panjang is one of the border towns of Kelantan
state of Malaysia with Narathiwat province of Thailand. There has a duty-free
zone for us to purchase things free from tax. The border town is roughly 40km
away from the city centre of Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Besides, it is also being
separate from Golok town in Thailand by the Golok River as an international
border. Historically, the southern provinces of Thailand such as Narathiwat,
Pattani and Yala were once merged as one as Pattani Sultanate. Pattani
sultanate in the past was a state that identically and culturally as same as neighbouring
Kelantan state. However, the Pattani sultanate were separated from Kelantan and
drawn into Siam force after British and Siam signed Bangkok treaty in 1909.
Meanwhile, British obtained the northern states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Perlis
and Kedah in Malaya after the treaty signed in 1909 and formed an unfederated
Malay states together with Johor shortly after that. Then, Golok river will be
used as an international border to separate Kelantan state from Narathiwat
province of Pattani, Thailand at that time. The border drawn in 1909 was still
abide by both Malaysia and Thailand till this date. Thus, when we cross border
from Rantau Panjang to Sungai Kolok will find that there were many Malay-Muslim
in Thailand, it was all the history.
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| Rantau Panjang small border town to Thailand |
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| Golok bridge crossing to Thailand |
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| Golok bridge |
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| Jubli Perak Sultan Ismail Petra Chinese-styled mosque |
Sungai Kolok, Thailand
As mentioned above, Golok river was used as an
international border of Malaysia and Thailand. So, there is a small town
developed on the other side of Golok river in Thailand side known as Sungai
Kolok (Thai pronounce: Su-Ngai-Ko-Lok). Sungai Kolok is a favourite place for
the Kelantanese to visit as their cultures there were almost the same as in
Kelantan, being nearby to Kelantan state and some goods there were cheaper in
Malaysia. Indeed, that part of Southern Thailand was the least integrated to
Thai culture as compared to Hatyai, Songkhla and Satun. Many people used to
visit there to seek for happiness as those “happiness” couldn’t anywhere in
Kelantan state. However, since the last few year bombing and insurgency in
Southern Thai’s Muslim majority provinces and economic recession, many people
opted not go enter Thailand via Sungai Kolok, instead all of them diverted to
the alternative border town such as Padang Besar and Dannok. Therefore, the
streets and roads are in tranquil without many vehicles on the road.
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| Popular drinks available in Thailand |
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| Sungai Kolok Thailand checkpoint |
Bachok
Bachok is one of the districts that is close to Kota
Bharu city centre along with Pasir Mas and Tumpat districts. It is also
considered as the district that has the longest coastline as compared to the
other districts in Kelantan. Therefore, this blog post I am going to talk about
one of the splendid beaches in Bachok district of Kelantan. Pantai Senok is one
of the beautiful yet unpolluted beaches in the East coast of Peninsula
Malaysia. It has a lush green of tropical beach pine trees there and unbroken
sandy and crystal blue coastline. Thus, many of people go there to take a photo
and upload on social media because of the beautiful scenery there. The beach is
in Tawang, a rural town in Bachok district of Kelantan and being only 20 minutes
driving distance from Kota Bharu city centre. Therefore, it is also an option
for us to visit from Kota Bharu apart from going to Pantai Cahaya Bulan beach in
Kota Bharu district.
Kelantanese foods
Kelantanese foods are quite distinct from the rest of
the states in west coast of Peninsula Malaysia. Among the Kelantanese dishes,
this post will focus on Khao Jam and Lakso Kelate.
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| Khao Jam |
Video of Budu in processing
Khao Jam
Khao Jam is thai version of Nasi Kerabu in Kelantan,
unlike Nasi Kerabu Kelantan, it is made of green rice instead of blue rice as
well as the fish in the dish isn’t fried as compared to nasi kerabu. The rest
of the ingredients of Khao Jam are basically the same as Nasi Kerabu. The
obvious similarity among these two are both garnished with Budu sauce. For you
all information, Budu sauce is the prestigious product made in Kelantan state.
Budu sauce is made of fermented anchovies and minced with chillies. It has the
taste of a bit savoury and spicy, and not everyone can accept the taste of this
product. Therefore, perhaps there are still some people and even those from the
other states from Malaysia are not really into the Kelantan dishes when those
dishes had been garnished with Budu sauce.
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| Lakso Kelate |
Lakso Kelate
Laksa is a popular dish across all over the Malaysia.
However, it has too many varieties according to the different states in
Malaysia. Amongst the varieties, Laksa Penang and Laksa Sarawak are the popular
ones, then followed by Laksa Johor aka the southern laksa in Malaysia which its
texture and taste quite differ from the north and east coast of Peninsula
Malaysia as well as from Sarawak. In fact, Kelantan has also its own of laksa
variety, it is called as Lakso Kelate. The noodle itself is basically the same
as the other types of Laksa, however, the garnishment is obviously different
from the rest of the varieties of Laksa. Instead of putting on the curry alike
or prawn sauce, it is garnished with white Santan sauce in which Santan sauce
is made of coconut milk. Besides, occasionally, you add some more Ulam which is
also known as raw vegetables such as corianders and bean sprouts in your Kelantanese
laksa in order to consume it. Therefore, the Kelantanese laksa isn’t that spicy
to consume, however, if you want a bit spicier then you can add chilli additionally.
In the end of this blog, I would like to reiterate
that there are still many places to be explore in Kelantan. Perhaps, in the
future I may do some more posts regarding of different places for tourism in
Kelantan. In my opinion, there is still an improvement space for the Kelantan
to boost the state’s tourism sector. The state could increase or enhance the
public transport system across the state, especially in Kota Bharu city centre
so that the tourists whom they don’t own a vehicle being able to travel around
the city of Kota Bharu at least followed by travelling to other districts within
Kelantan state. The public transport system in Kota Bharu city centre maybe could
emulate like what are being did in Klang Valley or Greater Penang area. These
both metropolitan areas are having a complete public transport system in which
you can travel within the area without any problem. Those were just my 2 cents
thoughts in improving tourism sector as the main concern for the tourists are
usually about the transportation problem.
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