Bank Kerapu, Kelantan, Malaysia

3mr_deven 5:00 PM Jun 5, 2012

Bank Kerapu, the backdrop of my 1-day-visit in Kota Bahru, Kelantan, Malaysia.
I just arrived from my 1-day-visit to Kota Bahru, Kelantan, Malaysia at around 2am today(Wednesday, 6/6/2012). I had left my home in Petaling Jaya for LCCT(airport), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday(Tuesday) morning at 4am to catch my 8am Airasia flight to Kota Bahru's Sultan Ismail Petra Airport. After a timely check-in for the flight, I enjoyed a swift-one-hour flight to my destination. Upon my arrival at 9am in the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, I promptly rented a car from Karisma Car Rental at the airport for RM85 until 9pm, approximately for 12 hours. The car rent is a real bargain when compared to a 12-hour-hire of a taxi, which could have easily have amounted to RM200++. Anyway I had great fun driving the car up to all the 4 corners of Kota Bahru yesterday. I started my visit by visiting the Arulmigu Siva Subramaniyar Temple of Kelantan Hindu Maha Sabah in Jln Hamzah, which is situated 1.1 km from Airport. Subsequently, I visited the Siti Khadijah Market which was merely 2km away from the temple. I had read many interesting facts about this market online, e.g. about the Durian Puffs(Lepok Durian), infamous dried fish crackers(keropok) and lobsters(udang galah) that are cooked in traditional Kelantan-styled gravy being sold there. After 2 hours of 'sliding' on the slippery floor of the wet market, I left for a drive to the Cahaya Bulan beach with packets of the stated goodies in hand. Shortly after reaching the rocky beach, I remembered reading online about the infamous meat pancake(Murtabak Raja) that was prepared and sold in Jalan Bayam, Kota Bahru. I promptly stepped on the pedal, and headed to the Kota Bahru city centre which was about 15km away from the beach. Despite driving through a heavy traffic jam and taking several wrong turns, I finally managed to find my way to Jalan Bayam. After asking around several roadside wellwishers I gradually found this infamous Siti Murtabak Raja restaurant at Jalan Guchil Bayam, about 2km along Jalan Bayam. The RM12-Murtabak-Raja was packed-up in a 5x6 inches yellow box, and a stack of these boxes were neatly displayed on a table at the restaurant. I quickly grabbed a newly-packed-and-warm-box and headed for the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport to check-in for my flight back to Kuala Lumpur. The plane was delayed by about an hour, but I was glad to reach back home an hour from the plane's departure.

4Joey K 5:00 PM Sep 24, 2022

Interesting War History
If you like history and museum, this would be a good stop over to understand the Japanese invasion of Malaya through Kelantan. An interesting fact is Kelantan was once ruled by Thailand as a gift from the Japanese to the Thai Monarchy for allowing them to go through without any resistance There's also a replica of Fat Man and Little Boy bombs that destroyed Japan.