Tuesday, July 26, 2016

10 Hours In Kota Bharu

Shortly after my day trip there last October, there was a free seat offer by Firefly and having enjoyed my trip, I decided that I wouldn’t mind a return trip sometime after Eid this year. I checked the offer for last Saturday, 23 July 2016, and was lucky to secure free seats for both the trip there and back. Alhamdulillah!

We left for Subang Airport at 07:17 and arrived within 20 minutes. I had already checked in online but as I brought my long brolly along, I had to get a tag from the counter for the brolly. I didn’t have to check it in, I merely needed to hand it over to the cabin crew after boarding the plane. I didn’t quite know how to tell the good-looking bloke at the counter but he understood me when I resorted to English and answered in English too (thank you kind sir for not being like those jerks who acted all superior when replying to my English queries in Malay; I do understand Malay but most times, I think and speak better in English. And there’s no point to act all arrogant).

We landed at Kota Bahru airport at 09:35 but I left the terminal only after confirming the flight time back to KL (the time stated on the ticket and boarding pass differed so I thought I’d confirm it first). I had a longer wait for the bus no. 9 to the bus station in the city this time – 30 minutes. Oh well, it’s not as if I don’t already have to wait that long or longer for RapidKL buses! The taxi from the airport will cost you RM30 or RM20 if you hail it by the road outside the airport building. The bus fare was only RM1.80. Well, I wasn’t in a hurry and I had my novel to occupy me so it was a no-brainer: bus it was. It was already a hot bright sunny morning and barely 10:00!

The bus pulled at the bus station about 20 minutes later and after checking the bus to Billion and departure time, I walked to the gold shops around Pasar Siti Khadijah. The last time I was there, I was looking for a white gold anklet. Kelantanese aren’t fond of white gold so it was a challenge to find one. Well, this time I was looking to replace my bangle. While it’s easy enough to find a bangle in yellow gold, I wanted an oval-shaped one, not the usual round bangles. There weren’t many there and I didn’t really fancy the designs of those few oval bangles. I spotted a few Cartier-inspired Love and Juste un Clou bracelets and Hermès-inspired Clic Clac and while they were in yellow gold, they were wayyyy too big for my wrist. There were also some Pandora-inspired bangles and Tiffany T bangles but I’m not a fan (yet). I walked around and even ventured to the other side of the market and the few gold shops at the market itself but the few that were there didn’t catch my fancy at all.

I hurried back to the bus station after purchasing some mineral water and fish satay from a street vendor and caught the bus no. 23 to Billion Shopping Centre. I gotta give it to the bus company: the bus was punctual! I wanted to go to a fragrance shop there that I had visited when I was in the city with Abah and Mummy. I left after performing prayers at the adjoining Renaissance Hotel. I had to wait a bit for the bus back to the station.

Back at the station, I checked the schedule for the bus back to the airport and was informed there was one departing at 16:20. The 17:10 bus would not run that day. I had about 100 minutes plus to kill so I went back to the gold shop and then to the market to shop.

I returned back to the bus station laden with purchases sans new bangle at 16:10. Again, the bus was on time, in fact, it left a minute before its scheduled time. The traffic back to the airport wasn’t heavy this time (unlike on my last trip) and we reached the airport in 20 minutes. It was still too hot to be out and about so after checking out the two restaurants across the street from the airport, I went into the terminal to wait. I killed time by making progress on my novel.

At 18:00, I went to get a tag for my brolly then I went to find dinner. It was still bright and hot and the sun was glaring in my face. The first restaurant was full of people but I didn’t stay as it didn’t have seafood tomyam (I’m reducing my chicken intake; I started this just before Ramadan) and besides, people were smoking openly there. The second restaurant was devoid of people and yes, it told me something but it had seafood tomyam and no one was smoking. I ordered seafood tomyam and hot barley and both were way below par.

I returned back to the airport and quickly went in. The flight from Subang landed late so we only boarded at 19:30. We were airborne within ten minutes though and landed at 20:35. I went to collect my brolly from the cabin crew but some idiot placed my brolly below all the passenger check-in bags so I had to wait a while before I got it back. As a result, I had to perform jamak takhir instead of jamak takdim prayers. Mehhh.


So that was my ten hours in KB. Will make another trip if a similar offer crops up!


Boarding the plane
View from up in the air
Another view from up in the air
Siti Khadijah Market. This area was still closed last October. Was so glad to see it has reopened



Cat at Siti Khadijah Market
My less-than-satisfactory early dinner. I rate it 3/10
Cat at restaurant