Doing Nothing in Kota Bharu

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Upon arrival in Kota Bharu we found a great place to stay called KB Backpackers Lodge which was in our Rough Guide. To be fair the Rough Guide has only let us down once since using the Malaysian Guide for accommodation, that being the previous night in Gua Musang, anyway our gaff was yet another cell with shared facilities but the owner was really helpful. Our main reason for coming to Kota Bharu apart from it being a jumping off point from the Jungle Train was to see if the legendary Perhentian lslands were open yet, being the time of year that it is (January) it is very near the end of the North-Eastern Monsoon, over the monsoon season, between late October to Mid February the islands close as it is pretty hard to get there and back by boat (something we learnt when leaving) and the weather can be pretty rubbish, anyway Lucy Luck was on our side and we were greeted with a massive YES, but only a few resorts were open, which was fine by us.

Anyway we had decided to spend two nights in Kota Bharu, where we pretty much did nothing but pottered, chilled out and ate lots of yummy rotis and Ayam Goreng (fried chicken which they parcel up in a banana leaf with rice and spicy sauce yum yum), we also found a great little Chinese restaurant which sold beer. T even splashed out and had a much needed haircut and G embarrassed herself in front of the “conservative locals” by coming out of the loo with her dress tucked into her knickers!!! So that was our time in Kota Bharu, for us, a much needed rest stop before our 4 days doing nothing on a tropical island!!!!

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