After returning from
Malaysia Islands Escapade, we had about 8-9 hours before we headed back to Batu Pahat. Hence, we signed up a local sight-seeing tour to Kelantan. Along the journey to Kelantan, we faced few problems such as the driver who wasn't familiar with Kelantan route and tyre of the van flattened. Huh!
Anyway, regardless of the misfortune moments, we had great food and it was an exciting sight-seeing tour at Kota Bahru. We had keropok lekor and keropok losong (steamed) on the way to Kelantan. Keropok lekor is atraditional fish snack for the Malay people in Terengganu and now widely accepted by other races. This fish snack in Terengganu is different compared to the ones I eat in west coast of Malaysia with more intense fish taste.
1) Kak Yah Keropok Losong; Terengganu
Source: foodpoi.com
I still prefer the crispy keropok lekor which they had fried.
We reached this shop around 2pm and our stomach had started to growl. Keropok lekor was not enough to fill our stomach. Our tour guide brought us to Restoran Haiqal which famous of its spicy fried chicken which located at Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan.
2) Restoran Haiqal; Pengkalan Chepa @ Kelantan
Nasi Kukus Ayam Panggang Haiqal
You may opt for the spicy one however we followed the choice of tour guide who led us to crispy chicken chop as he told us that the sauce was spicy enough.
Cold drink to soothe the spiciness and heat.
3) Visit to Nordin Batik
Kelantan is one of the largest producers of batik. We were lucky to have a look on the making of batik process. The batik-making process would make you understand why the prices of batik is so high. The talents, creativity, manpower' energy and etcetera cause the price of batik which could easily cost about RM300.
4) Buddhist Temples
Wat Machimmaram; which is famous of sitting Buddha
Wat Photivihan ; which is also well-known with sleeping or reclining Buddha
It is one of the biggest Buddhist Temple in South-East Asia. It is 40 meter long and I remember there is another reclining Buddha in Penang too. Truthfully speaking, the Buddha temples here are well maintained and have many nice paintings walls which elucidates about the history of Buddha and etcetera.
Another temple which my team had missed out due to flattened tyre:
Wat Pikulthong which has one huge Buddha facing the beach.
Seriously sad when I heard the other team describing the nice view of this temple.
5) Rantau Panjang Free Duty Zone
The tour guide drove till Thailand border to let us to explore the duty free zone.Due to time constraint, we were given only 40 minutes at Rantau Panjang Free Duty Zone. This was the place where we hunted for Thailand snacks, free duties chocolates. Perhaps our wallet were left with few pennies hence we were unable to shop much. Otherwise the tour at Rantau Panjang Free Duty Zone could be easily extended till 2 hours.
Baba Ice Cream which I found the name from a random blog.
Bottom contained with Nasi Pulut & 炸油条, Scoop Ice Cream with the top has jelly, corn and peanuts. Taste really nice! ((: - quoted from Maxloon Pui
6) Scrumptious Thailand Foods
The helpful tour guide had generously introduced few choices for us to enjoy Thailand foods, hence we asked him to lead us to the restaurant which he opined having the best Thailand Foods in town. Sri Cheng Mai Restaurant was the place we dined in.
A string of descriptive words about food immediately came from my minds: flavorsome, tasty, tangy, appetizing, palatable, savory...
To conclude my Kelantan Trip, sincerely thank the bunch of friends and the helpful drivers who added the great memoirs! The friendly people in Kelantan had impressed me especially the tour guides and we had understood better around the state's culture and activities.
P/S: No entertainment places like cinema, night clubs, karaoke and etc. in Kelantan. The positive view would be: having more splendid time to communicate and spend with loved ones.