School Holidays 2

23 August 2005

Drove along the East-West Highway today on route to Kota Bahru. Stopped by the Banding Resort for lunch and found out that the restaurant is closed! How can they do that when it is now the school holidays and more people would stop by than usual? Apparently the restaurant's staff is busy catering for a group of big bikers on a Merdeka run celebrating the coming Independent Day. I turned to the stalls at the bottom of the hill where the car park was and there was nothing worth mentioning. So off to Jeli. To go to Jeli town one need to go off the highway. The 'Restoran Terapung' serves 'sup tulang' and that was about the best ‘sup tulang’ I have ever had. Recommended, but one should not be too fussy about what the place looks like.

In the 80's and 90's, the main feature of this E-W highway was the slope stabilising works along the highway in many places. All the works have been done or looks like it and there was no lane closure anywhere, so as far road stability things have improved. But something have deteriorated - the road surface. Cracks have appeared on the road surface in many stretches and the road resurfacing works have not caught up. More investment is needed here before the condition gets worse. All in all it has been a pleasant ride, not many traffic, and the scenery was pleasing too - green trees all around.

The last time we were here in KB we had dinner in this restaurant called 'Restoran Sham'. Tried to find where this restaurant was but couldn't find it and we ended up at 'Restoran Sri Pekeliling' on the road to Pengkalan Chepa. The restaurant caught our attention because of its bright lights. The menu is the usual Thai food fare and also western food menu. The food was good, we had our stomachs full and satisfied. The coconut jelly was really good and tasty you won't be satisfied with just one. The Kelantan slang is joy to hear, more joyful if you can speak them. Mangga is pauh, ringgit is rial over here, and tuak is non-alcoholic; not difficult and one can really adapt quickly.

We are staying at he Perdana Hotel. This 180-room hotel has aged a bit, the fittings looked old and worn, the room I stayed in a bit small and there was no satellite channel on TV. Over the years a few big hotels have been constructed around Kota Bahru. I've heard only of The Renaissance, but there are at least 2 more big hotels: The Riverside and The New Pacific. We have just been to the KB mall. Seemed this shopping complex has just been opened recently. Some shop lots are not open and a few were being renovated before they open for business.

24 August 2005.

We have this one full day in KB and our plan is to do just 2 things: shop and eat. First stop is the bazaar near the main market, we were looking for some batik shirts and clothes. While doing our bargaining, we received a call from a friend living here saying they're coming to fetch and take us around town. That's an offer we could not refuse and rushed back to our hotel to meet them. Its almost 12 noon so we were taken to a restaurant called New Horizon Garden, not a name one can recall easily I must say. It's a new place apparently, just opened for business slightly more than a year ago. Very nice decor, bright and the food good. Parking space is rather limited though.

After a cup of hot chocolate in the friend's house we were taken to Nordin's Batik, a well-known factory outlet nearby. The collection of batik shirt and linen here is really beautiful and there was a wide array of designs to choose from. A few pieces costs us about RM1,000 and our plastic friend did come in handy! The workshop is behind the showroom should anyone like to look at how batik is made. Surprisingly there was also a 13-room inn located on the basement of the showroom. We had a peek into one of the rooms, it was a big air-conditioned room with 3 single beds and a queen-size bed in it. The rent? RM100.00 a night. Good value indeed.

Dinner was at 'Four Seasons Restaurant', a halal chinese restaurant. Nice clean place but the helpings were not so generous. This restaurant was very well patronised and at about 9pm, there was hardly any empty table. On the wall was a plaque of TV3's Jalan-jalan Cari Makan, pictures of VIPs including a group photo of state leaders with the Menteri Besar. That's supposed to erase any doubt among Muslim patrons regarding the halal status of the food served here.

25 August 2005.

Checked out of the hotel at 9.00am and off to Cameron Highlands we went. Kota Bharu-Machang-Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands, Just follow the signboards. Arrived at our hotel at Tanah Rata at about 3pm. Stopped for lunch at Gua Musang R&R, and we did went round Gua Musang town to see what it is like. Didn’t try hard to find anything extraordinary and didn’t find any – just tto satisfy our own desire that ‘we have been here’. The drive up the road to CH from Gua Musang was a breeze. Good road and no traffic, well almost none! Very lonely drive but the road was good and the sun bright so who's complaining? But what is glaring though was that in the early part of the journey the hills on the right side of the road have been cut 'botak' ready for some kind of plantation, further up the road there were a lot of signs and activities related to timber logging. Seems like apart from making the journey up to CH an uneventful one, this road have made opening up of forests that much easier.

Evening on Cameron Highlands was really cool. It's like the air-conditioning on at full blast or maybe late spring in temperate climates. My guess the temperature was not more than 20 degrees. Teh tarik outdoor in this weather is a must experience up here.