It’s
been a while since my last trip to Kota Bharu. Firefly seems to have stopped
offering free seats or low fares so I had to decide on an alternative. Malindo
keeps rescheduling its flight times so that was out. Like it or not, I was
stuck with AirAsia. And while I want to leave early (because I planned to
return on the same day), 0630 and 0735 are too early to depart from KLIA2 (I
have to leave the city at least two hours before for the hour-long journey). So
I mulled about it, checked the train services (this was when I found out
there’s no more overnight train service from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu; you
need to take it from Gemas and it takes a long time before you arrive too!) and
finally checked the bus times. I then decided to take a night bus and proceeded
to buy the ticket online before buying an AirAsia ticket for the journey back.
On
Friday, 08082017, I left micasa and went to MadValley to board the Komuter
train to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan. My Transnasional bus left on time (was
pleasantly surprised at this) and I settled down for a long evening ahead. I
was prepared with my pashmina, socks and eye mask but sleep was still elusive.
I
peeked out at some point and it didn’t look like we were on the highway. We
stopped for a half-hour ‘meal break’ at 02:00 and I remembered thinking, ‘Meal
break? At this hour?’. It was a stall (warung) in what looked like the middle
of nowhere. What a miserable wretched godforsaken place! I went to check out
the women’s prayer room and I was so disgusted at the smell and condition of it
– it was dusty and not at all a place you want to perform prayers in! So glad I
had performed prayers back at micasa.
We
resumed our journey and sleep continued to evade me. I had my eye mask on and
closed my eyes but I was just pretending to be asleep. When I finally pulled
off my eye mask in exasperation, I found we were already in KB. I was earlier
told by a colleague that the coaches usually terminate at Tesco so I was very
happy when I found that the bus stopped at the bus station in the city instead.
Alhamdulillah!
The
azan was in the air when we disembarked and I made my way to the mosque by Siti
Khadijah Market to perform prayers. I rested a bit there too and only left
after 08:30 after dhuha prayers. I walked to the market, went up to the food
court and walked around. I didn’t find anything that caught my fancy so I left
and walked to Mydin. Mydin opened early so I went in to buy water and rested
outside, reading and eating my sandwich.
I
left and went to Mr DIY (heh) and then went back to the bus station to ask for
the airport bus schedule. Then only did I set off for the gold shops. I wasn’t
successful at first and was only successful when I crossed over to the shops on
the other side of the market (near to the palace) but there were more closed
shops in that row of shops. For reference, gold price is RM215/gram in KL and
RM175 in KB. After that, I ventured into the market and bought some pelikat and
batik sarong at a stall. I told the salesgirl that I was running low on cash
and she said they accepted debit and credit cards now! That’s good news but bad
news if I didn’t want to shop (I did manage to fight my temptation. Also the
bag I brought was starting to fill up).
I
had lunch at one stall at the newly covered road by the market; it was the same
stall I had my meal before and I liked the taste. I was not disappointed this
time. Had to ask if nasi air and nasi sup are the same thing, I was told no, so
I decided to have what I had before, i.e. nasi air and warm lay chee kang
drink. My meal only cost me RM7 in total. Mind you, nasi air at the foodcourt
in the market itself cost RM7 and that’s before any drinks.
After
lunch, I walked to the bus station, stopping en route at Bata to buy three
pairs of sandals which are no longer available in KL. I had to wait for the bus
but the alternative was to return to the market and spend and while that wasn’t
bad, the heat and humidity in there was.
The
bus came and I got on into the air-conditioned relief. The fare remained at
RM1.80 as it was on my previous visit. I was sitting down when I saw the text
from AirAsia informing that my flight had been retimed from 1730 to 1820.
Bloody hell!
It
was blisteringly hot when I disembarked near the airport. There were a lot of
people at the airport, presumably waiting for those returning Haj pilgrims. I
walked up to another entrance and once inside, went to find the prayer room
(it’s upstairs, next to KFC). After prayers, I decided to go into the boarding
area as there didn’t seem to be many seats in the arrival area. After clearing
security, I sat down to wait, even dozing off at one point.
A
few flights were retimed and one Malindo flight was even cancelled. It got me
wondering how bad the weather in KL must be for the flights from KL to all be
delayed. Mine only landed at 1805 and while we boarded quickly enough, we only
took off at 1845. If there was any bad weather, we didn’t experience it in any
turbulence so Alhamdulillah for that.
We
landed and I quickly made my way to the washroom before heading to the nearby
prayer room. It was my first time ever at KLIA2 but I’ve heard of how far one
needed to walk in there. I trekked for 1.3 km from my seat in the plane to the
bus. I had planned to buy a ticket for the 2030 bus but was told at the counter
that the first available bus was at 2050, the earlier ones being full. The
ticket cost RM12 and even though she said my bus was at 2050, I still hurried
to the bus station and was glad I did when I managed to board the 2030 bus as
planned and hoped. Alhamdulillah!
We
arrived in KL early enough but got caught in the nightmare that was
Brickfields. Selfish inconsiderate thoughtless drivers leaving their vehicles
haphazardly parked. In the end, we limped into KL Sentral at 2130. I was back
in micasa just after 2200, knackered but overall pleased with the end result. Alhamdulillah.
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