My Retirement Dream

InfoHub, Inc. may be of some use in this regard — it offers a few links to other sites for tourist information relating to Kota Bahru.

This paragraph taken from here may interest you — especially the final two statements:

Kota Bahru is a quiet little town, which is also the capital of Kelantan State in north Malaysia. The city is relaxing in the absence of the hustle and bustle of other cities. The city would be a nice choice to witness the traditional Malay culture and discover the surrounding countryside. This small town marks the end of the east coast road, and the beginning of Thailand. The city is located on the northern bank of the flood-prone Sungei Kelantan River. The city is so small and quiet that the official tourist brochures list the Central Police Station under the “Places of Interest” column, while the “Entertainment and Night Life” column is headed by Kentucky Fried Chicken. The reason behind the town being so old fashioned, is that members of a conservative Islamic party run the state government. This government has banned, among other things, the sale of alcohol in the state resulting in ending what little nightlife the city had before.

I could not spend long there, alas. If I couldn’t even acquire reasonably-priced drinks at my lodging, then I believe I’d pass on visiting — apart from traveling through on my way to elsewhere.

You can have a look at a map of sorts here, but keep in mind that it was apparently posted in December of 2007.

“Perhentian diving & Kota Bharu markets” Tsimko’s photos around Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

Uploaded by TripAdvisorTRIPWOWu on Dec 19, 2010

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia by TravelPod blogger Tsimko titled “Perhentian diving & Kota Bharu markets”

Tsimko’s travel blog entry:

“Along with Eike we took the last public bus from Taman Negara to Jerantut. Train station was closed so we had a few hours by the time it reopened. We had a long dinner with other travelers taking the same route, in total 7 people. Just after midnight we bought the tickets to Kota Bharu and shortly entered the train. There were no sleeper compartments so it was a long 6 hour trip. Then we shared a taxi to Kuala Besut, the jetty point for Pulau Perhentian. We didn’t wait for ferry either, so by noon we found ourselves already on Kecil, the smaller of the islands.

Although the place was pretty busy, we managed to find a vacant bungalow on the Long beach. We stayed for two days there. Most of the time I was occupied with my advanced diving course. It was more studying than I expected. I squeezed my five dives into two days, so didn’t have much time for anything else. Particularly the night dive was a totally new experience. I got to know some new fish species, saw also a bamboo shark, but in general I think there are better places in Malaysia in terms of underwater world.

While walking a jungle trail from one beach to another we were asked by a young man to lead him to the beach as he was feeling dizzy and unwell. So we all slowly walked to the beach, where we sat him down in a shade. While I went to the nearest diving shop to ask for help, the man passed out and got into the trance, shaking as undergoing epileptic attack. In attention to many people trying to help him he pulled together after some time and got to normal. Later on we met and spoke to him for a while. It all happened probably due to long exposure to the sun and dehydration.

Pulau Perhentian Kecil has a nice chill-out atmosphere, few beaches, plenty of opportunities for snorkeling and diving, several interesting places to eat (I tried a shark) and cheap accommodation.

Just after I got back from the last dive, with Eike to took a ferry back to the mainland and subsequently a bus to Kota Bharu. We stayed overnight to give the town a chance to prove it’s rightly a highlight of peninsular Malaysia. We shared the hotel not only with many other tourists, but also with bed bugs. Luckily I had been warned about this and had got a silk (cotton is no good) sleeping bag linen. To be honest, there isn’t much to see in town, a few museums perhaps. However, there are many markets, one specialized on fruit and also a famous night market, where I got good fish with blue rice. We were done with sightseeing pretty quickly and spent whole afternoon taking a rest in our hostel, consuming fruit we got on the market and enjoying wifi connection.”

Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tsimko/1/1249834756/tpod.html

Photos from this trip:
1. “Kota bharu 1″
2. “Kota bharu 2″
3. “Kota bharu 3″
4. “Kota bharu 4″
5. “Kota bharu 5″
6. “Kota bharu 6″
7. “Perhentian 1″
8. “Perhentian 3″
9. “Perhentian 2″
10. “Shark”
11. “Perhentian 4″

See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00c1-5360-9664?ytv4=1