A Glimpse at the Land of Lightning

Talks had been going on over the past six years to visit the ‘Land of Lightning’, Kelantan Darul Naim, but to no avail until the last Deepavali holidays.

Believe it or not, the trip has its origin associated with Pantai Cahaya Bulan [Beach of Moonlight], formerly known as Pantai Cinta Berahi, literally meant to be the Beach of Passionate Love. Twenty over years ago, two young girls were strolling along the golden beach of Pantai Cinta Berahi one evening during the sunset hours. They were met with their white horse princes and fell in love at the first sight. They got married within months and later came back to Penang. Both ladies ended up as teachers at the Berapit Secondary School. Every now and then, during the festive seasons, they would go back to visit their relatives in Kelantan. We, as the colleagues of theirs, were half jokingly wanted to follow them back to Kelantan hoping to have a free food, free accommodation vacation. We proposed to go in a bus load year after year. The proposals only ended on the lips service. It did not materialize until recently on October 25, 2008 when we organized a 3 Days 2 nights trip to Kota Bharu.

This time we were determined to make the trip a success. As soon as Mr.Chee Choo Beng had worked up the cost of bus fare and accommodation for each person to be in the range of RM160, he was appointed unanimously as treasurer to start collecting a minimum sum of RM 100 per head as deposit. At first we intended to cater a luxurious bus with 26 seats. The response turned out to be overwhelming that 39 people were in the booking list. Hence, we had to get a bus with 42 seats. The members were all from colleagues and ex-colleagues of Berapit Secondary School, the friends of the teachers of the school and their family members. The group members comprised young and old, with the majority of them ladies. The afternoon supervisor of the school could not join us as his hands and legs were tied to his junior. However, he gave us his moral support by sending his father as his representative.

Two weeks before the trip, Madam Lim Gim Seok, who was a local resident of Kota Bharu with a good networking there, had to do all the contacts to arrange for the places of interest for us to visit. She mobilized her extended family members to do the necessary arrangement like the booking of apartments, checking of places to be visited and drawing of maps leading to those places. Finally, Madam Lim herself had to make numerous phone calls to those persons in charge to confirm the dates and times for our visits. It was due to her diligent and untiring efforts that made the trip a fruitful and enjoyable one.

We started our journey from Bukit Mertajam at around 5.30 am on October 25, 2008. God was with us all the while as the weather was fine throughout our journey to the Islamic city of Kota Bharu. The whole journey took us less than 6 hours. On the way we stopped at Grik to have our breakfast at around 8 am. By the time we reached Kota Bharu, it was almost 1 pm in the afternoon.

After lunch we went to visit a batik craft industry. Most members in the group were very keen to have a hand on in the painting of batik. Each individual or group paid RM20 to paint on a piece of cloth which could be brought back as a souvenir.

Among other handicraft cottage industries that we had visited were kite making and silver craft. A thin, elderly Malay man did a demonstration to show us the art of making kites. He had won the third place in the national kite making competition held last year during the Visit Malaysia Year of 2007. At the silver craft centre the ladies were fascinated with the silverware that they overstayed the time allocated for the visit. They were more interested in buying silver crafts like ear-rings, necklaces and other ornaments than learning the trade itself. Most of the gentlemen were merely the onlookers; they either had their purses shrinking to pay the bills for their wives or their backs pain after prolong standing while waiting for the ladies to strike their best deals. Besides visiting the handicraft industries, we visited a few temples at Tumpat and Bachok. It was a surprise for us as well as the other visitors to note that there were many huge and magnificent Buddhist statues being built on the land of the Islamic state of Kelantan. Apparently there was no restriction or hindrance on the part of the state government of Kelantan for the non-Muslims to practice the religions of their own choices. According to a young Malay trader we met at Siti Khadijah Market at Kota Bharu the following day; he was of the opinion that he too had no objection to the practices of non-Muslims as he believed that all religions share the universal values and advocate the practice of good virtues. Another prominent change in the Siamese temples that we visited was its non-sectarian feature. It has become a hybrid of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. This was evidently shown in the building of 102 metre tall Amitabha Buddha statue erected in the compound of a Siamese temple at Bachok. Food and drinks at Kota Bharu were generally more expensive than that at Bukit Mertajam. However, for a change it was worthwhile to try out the specialties of Kelantan like nasi lauk, nasi dagang, nasi kerabu, nasi tumpang, ayam percik, laksa and laksam, kuih akok, buah tanjung, jala emas, cendol pulut tupai and many other mouth-watering dishes.

On the morning before we departed Kota Bharu, we stopped at Siti Khadijah Market to have a shopping spree. Visitors could find everything from vegetables, local snacks to fresh tropical fruits. A unique feature here was that the majority of traders were women. Bukit Bunga was the final stop for us to buy the local products from Kelantan and Southern Thailand. We arrived home safe and sound at about 8.00 pm in the evening. Everybody was tired but happy to be home after this fascinating and memorable trip.