Deep Blue Sea

Another quiet morning in Kampung Banggol, I made myself a cup of MILO and help myself at the porch ...... that's all for my breakfast and the book "Tuesday With Morrie" .

This is my last day at the resort, and I wasn't sure how I will spend the day since my flight schedule is 5pm, but I will need to check out at 11:30am . The French group is leaving too today, the cute guy came over to my chalet and ask how's my night market dinner is, not bad .... but he's not having much luck with his Thai dinner though. I like it when we talk, he always has the smile, and always look into my eyes .... and I do the same, I like myself for doing that as well .

I decided to went out for a walk, with the camera, hope to get nearer to the horses this time, get a clear shot . Motorbikes passes by once a while, most of the time, I hv the road by myself ...... too bad that the horses are kept in the corral during the morning, and it doesn't seems polite to disturb them then .

Some of the corners of the kampung reminded me of the one that I hv lived in during my younger years. Brought back the memory, and the faces of those who are no longer with me now and the moments that we used to share.

Once back to the chalet, I checked with Danielle on the bills ..... and she suggested that I just keep my backpack in the office after I hv checked out and stay around the chalet before depart for the airport. Seems to be a fine idea for me .

Chatting with Danielle, a 19 years old Dutch girl who like to hv her skin tanned before going bk to Holland in Sept ..... na, Danielle is more than that. Listen to her story, found out a little bit more abt the education system in Holland. At the end of the conversation, we made an appointment to meet again in PG, when she's coming over to help babysit a Dutch couple's childrens ...... I hope she will enjoy PG as I do for Kelantan .

The French group is leaving and taking the Jungle Train back to SG ..... how I wish I can be catching that train as well, but there will always be next time . I wish the French guy safe journey, and if we are going to meet again somewhere, share with me the Jungle Train experience .

There's a little peer behind Harry's residency .... I grab a chair and just watching over the river, the abandoned boat (I didn't try the paddling though ), the cows across that is relaxing as I am, and the few type of birds that flying around. No crocs , but a few monitor lizards hving freestyle in the river ...... sitting there, listening to the nature, and just breath with the surrounding's rhythm.

I went over to Kak Ya's house, to bid farewell ..... she wants me to come back soon, at year end, bring along a boyfriend. Told her that it's a quite difficult promise to keep ..... she said just grab any guy from the street will do , haha . Anyhow, I told her that I can't promise on the date when I'll be back ....... Yemen is calling, and many more places .

Farewell to Kak Ni and Danielle, I jump into the taxi as it's raining mildly ..... thank God I'm not cycling today . The taxi driver, Pakcik Adi told me his admiration for our PG Chief Minister, and also Eli Wong ..... together, we express our disgrace on the UMNO, haha ..... guess politics is everywhere now in Msia .

I like listening to story .... ppl who I hv came across during this trip told me their stories, and there's how human interaction grows. Grateful for this trip ...... thank you to the beautiful land of Kelantan and it's ppl . Till then .

I woke up at 7am on the Sunday morning, being wake up by the chirping of the birds ??? Maybe and also becoz of my colon movements . Was keep thinking that I'm going to ask the French group (2 man + 1 woman + 1 kid) to share the taxi with me to the city today ...... anyone speak French here ???

So, being the effective TC when comes to having fun, I hv get myself all ready by 8am ...... while the other holidays makers just woke up from their sleep and getting fresh air at their porch. Changed my mind as I wanted to see merry Siti Khadijah Market in the morning, wonder how long it will took the French group to get themself ready. I ask the gardener what bus to take, and the way to the main road ...... and there I started my walking tour today .

Just when I'm start having my morning walk, I heard a motorbike honk from behind and then the all smiling garderner stopped besides me and offering me a ride ..... boy, such a wonderful morning . I didn't bring along my telescope with me, luckily the bus driver keep flashing the light to me from far along ..... I put up a stop signal, better to stop the wrong bus then to miss the right one, hehe .

RM1.20 ...... and I hv my 20 minutes ride to the Kota Bahru city. Once reached the bus stop, the Tourism Information Centre is just opposite the bus stop ..... well, might as well ask for direction for the places that I wish to go today, the counter girl keep telling all the places is "dekat sahaja" (just nearby). OK, I'll count on her words ..... and let's go and fix my stomach .

I climb all the way up to the 3rd floor of the market, as per the brochure suggested, this is the best place to take the view of the colorful stalls down at the 1st floor ...... hmmmm, but why I didn't get the same effect as what I watched from the brochure, bad photographing skills I suppose . Hei, did I saw a basket of turtle eggs there ??? Tot the selling is illegal (later that night, Kak Ya told me that it is still very much legal, ewwww) .

Didn't bought any of the salty fish, shrimp, or fish chips ..... last time I did that in KK, turns out the foods are not fresh, not gonna take my risk ..... somemore I'm lazy to carry them .

I need FOOD ...... I found the food court at the 2nd floor of the market, but the food looks quite spicy to take especially in early morning . Luckily, I found a Koay Teow Soup stall and order the Koay Teow Perut(cow stomach) ...... it tastes good, especially with the chili powder, remind me of the one in Luang Prabang . So, I sit right in front the stall, squeeze with the locals who's at the same time having the spicy nasi lemak ..... while sweating while looking around, while enjoying my RM4.70 Koay Teow Perut + MILO.

After filling up the stomach ..... I started my walking tour, visited the Royal Musuem, checking on tourists who took photos in front of the Balai Besar (no entrance insides there), spotted a few PG plat number cars. It is suprisingly merry around the area, makes me wonder if the economy downturn ever exist ???

I seems to be having problem translating the city map (which rarely happens to me) ..... I ask for direction to the another 2 musuem which are just across the road, and the bus driver happily pointed me to go further down the other road ........ and here I go, walked for abt 1km and sense smth is definitely wrong after I reached the Petronas petrol station but no sign of musuem . After asking help from a stall owner, I hv to walk back again, guess you can't get too relax while on holidays, not when comes to direction .

Spotted a quiet jetty when I almost reach the musuem, decided that I shld have just take rest and have a nap ...... hehe . So, there I'm, sharing the jetty with a pakcik ..... looking over the Kelantan River (much alike Mekong), the villages across the river, spring wind blow over and I'm into my dreamland .

Headed for my lunch and decided to frequent to a Chinese restaurant, my favourite dishes, Chicken Rice ..... RM3.50. The local chinese speaks Hokkien, in a slightly different slang than the PG's style. Move to War Musuem ...... i'm the only visitor, the cupboard door open by itself when I walked by , errrrrr ..... is there anything I shld know abt this musuem ???

Final stop of the day, the Cultural Centre ...... I'm early and was dissapointed to know that they no longer showing how to play the Wau (big kite), as lack of venue coz it needed a big space. Anyway, have my fun by trying the Kertok (drum percussion) ..... did I say I always wanted to try tabla ???

When I finally make it back to Pasir Belanda, it's 5 smth in the evening. Still some time to spend before I go to the night market with Kak Ya ..... end up gather the village girls and teach them how to play the monkey ball game . And then we have the French little boy, and then the French cute guy to join in. I can't remember when it's the last time I hv ever jump up so high or running like a leopard like I did that evening . It's fun to see each of the kids has their own way handling the game, a girl especially is tension whenever I get to be the monkey and try to catch the ball thrown by her . The French boy, definitely the Man Of The Match ..... working hard and throwing himself everywhere to protect the ball from the "monkey", even though he's hardly 4 years old, I think. Of coz, I enjoy the eyes contacts with the cute French guy too .

Dinner is RM2.00 for the Nasi Kerabu and Murtabak, RM1.00 ...... spend the night chatting with Kak Ya, listen to the chants from the owls. Thick clouds, I'm going to miss the star gazing on my final night in Kelantan .

Back to my comfort bed, it somehow fix my sleeping problem .... I don't dream as often as I did at home, and have better quality sleep . Goodnight, Kelantan .

I wonder how many ppl have been mislead by the newspaper's reporting abt Kelantan, where the place is suppose to be conservative and lack of developments ........ I'm one of them before 02 May 2009 .

I reached Kota Bahru's Sultan Ismail Petra airport at 2:40pm, and saw no others commercial planes around, and wonder is it true that Kelantan is a laid back state ...... but I do aware that my flight does have lots of european passengers, hmmmmm ...... I always tot that tourists mostly go thru Terengganu state to go to Perhentian or Redang island.

Jump into the airport taxi and the chalet that I stay in is quite familiar to ppl around, I relax myself and just let the driver drive me to the place. When the driver told me that he will take me thru the village road, I asked if he can slow down so I am able to look around and enjoy the scenery (didn't know they hv F1 circuit here). And so he does, slowing down, giving me explaination of the village views ..... and suddenly I shouted "Who's palace is this ???". The driver chuckles and said it's not a palace, just the villager's bungalow house ....... and mind you, that's the starting point of my village bungalow house tour .

After having my mouth wide open, amazed by how luxury the houses in the village area ..... finally I reached my chalet, the "Pasir Belanda Resort" (actually just 15 minutes ride from the airport). It was exceptionally hot that evening, 34 degree Celsius ....... I asked the receiptionist girl, if this is normal ??? Turns out she's travelling too and just reached couple of days ago. Harry, the Dutch owner and his family were away for a trip ..... so, he has Danielle, the Dutch Lady to help out.

The aircon in the room is not helping a bit, took my shower and still can't fall asleep ...... and I decided to rent the bicycle and make a ride to the Pantai Cahaya Bulan. Turns out most of the bikes are suit for europeans, I merely got 1 that suit my height and let me landed safely incase I bump into the cows .

After getting very limited info from Danielle, I hit on the road ..... bingo, wrong turn, I ride into a villager area and ask the pakcik for direction, need to make an 180 degree turn to hit another direction of the road. I have not ride a bicycle in ages ....... you can imagine my clumsiness when comes to a corner, hit the bumper, or whenever I need to make a stop for a direction. I have ask almost everyone , the pakcik (elder man), makcik(elder woman), adik (kid) ...... but I didn't ask any abang(adult man), just in case it's still not appropriate for a single lady to chat with any man in the village (I didn't hv the code of conduct guideline ).

I reached the beach after riding for abt 40 mins ..... the beach is crowded with visitors . Well, but no one is swimming though (just knew later that bikinis are not allowed in Kelantan beach) ..... ppl are flying kites, munching snacks (I can only munch on my Chipsmore, 4get to bring my purse with me ), taking photos, walking on the beach. I decided to ride to the far end to have a more quiet space ...... turns out the bike doesn't has lock, I can't walk away too far from the bike, else I will need to walk back . And mind you, I'm the only person that ride a bicycle to the beach, everyone is taking car, buses, or motorbike ..... ewwwww, now I looks like a villager already .

The dark clouds is crawling and quickly fill up the sky, I decided to ride back as the dinner will be served at 7pm. I hv never go thru a war, but riding thru the kampung(village) road, makes me feel like I'm in a war zone ...... the wind is blowing so strong, I was so afraid that I will be hit by the missile == coconuts . And yes, the rain did falls on me ..... guess God heard my prayer for some rain, but we didn't really discuss abt the timing though . But no worry, I easily slick into a pakcik's house and ask for shelter ..... and started my communication channels with the local. We talked abt the riot in the stadium not so long ago, I even bald enough to ask why he's not preparing the dinner yet (influence from maarten, he's always been bald) ..... turns out he owns a restaurant around the stadium, did I ask for discount coupon ????

I left when the rain is getting smaller, only to find it getting heavier after a while n hv to get shelter from an old makcik this time . She kindly invited me to sit in the porch with her, where there's sofa and warmer ..... she with her Kelantan dialect and I hv to guess what she's trying to say. But I survived, having to know enough abt her family and knew that she's abt to cook the rice and her son will buy the dishes from outsides ...... yes, I'm that hungry . After finishing the warm water that she offered to me, I made my way "home" ...... it's getting dark now, and I just made the call to the chalet, told Danielle I hv somehow get into another village and will be late for dinner .... try my very best to find the way back . Danielle is concern and ask I must call again if I'm really lost ....... hmmmm, I hope not .

After asking 4 more persons, I finally on the right track back, saw the Pasir Belanda sign board ....... but hey, I need to ride through the Muslim cemetary ..... cool, I saw nothing . And when I'm 500m away from the chalet, bump into a guy who's on his bike, and he's kind enough to lead me back ...... only to ask for my phone number later, errrr. And here I am, wet, tired, exhausted and yet still manage to grab a date in Kelantan ...... I parked the bike, show my face to Danielle and Kak Ni and rush for my dinner. Bump into the other holiday makers who had already finished their meals, I'm that late.

Kak Ya, the aunty who live behind the chalet, is the chef for the guests who order meals from the chalet. Turns out, she's from Alor Setar, Kedah .... and her sisters live around my neighborhood. So, I am being consider as her "kampung mate" and even can have free ride with her motorbike to the night market the next day . Kak Ya is such a nice woman, funny and laugh on all my silly jokes ..... gosh, I miss her now . The dinner is toooooo much for me, 5 dishes for myself alone ..... next time I shld be more careful when making the order.

So, I was being told abt the Pasir Belanda history, how's Harry current residency is used to live by an Englishman, who is the advisor to the Kelantan Sultan ..... and the brillant investment by Harry, and the peak low season of the year, how handsome Harry is . Kak Ya hv the tendency to label every man as "handsome", haha ..... but I guess she view everyone as "beautiful" ..... this only can be done if you yourself have a beautiful heart .

I walked back to my chalet with Kak Ya keep asking from behind "Are you afraid to walk back" ..... Nope, but I do afraid of the frogs though . A HK couple was there previously, her wife was traumatised by the sounds made by the owl .

I hit my romantic bed after reading a few pages of "Tuesday With Morrie" ...... no stars tonight, but it's ok, it is still a "moy" (Kak Ya told me it's beautiful in Dutch, not sure abt the spelling though ) night .