Epitome of Serenity

Last November, we went 'wat-hopping', saw more wats than I ever had in a day and probably in a long time too.

This image of Budhha can be found in Wat Photivihan in Kelantan.  Okay, I will say it, a Malaysian state steeped in historical and cultural heritage dating back to, possibly even earlier, the Srivijayan Empire in 3BC.

But really, we were surprised by the gems we found in Kelantan. Looking forward to another trip in March. Hopefully.

Wat Pracacinaram, Kelantan - Bots and Cats

This isn't your regular wat picture I suppose, but I just had to put up a picture of these felines. They were almost all over the place at Wat Pracacinaram.

This is my first ever wat. Ever. Yaay!

I had no preconceived idea about what a wat should look like and I was blown away by what seems to be a wonderful balance of quaintness and over-the-topness, not at just this wat but at all the wats we saw that day.

Well, except for the last one we saw (Wat Chonprachumthat). That I'll save for another write-up. :)

There was on-going construction at the time of our visit (that was November 2009). I guess they would have finished by now. The construction, however, in no way dampened our visit.

I also first learned the word 'bot'. One of the men said we could enter the 'bot' as it was unlocked. I had no idea what he meant. I thought he mispronounced 'boat'! Haha, stupid me. And travel buddy said, no he said wat. I kept my peace. I thought I could differentiate the sound of 'b' and 'v'. Still, one never can tell.

Anyway, afterwards, back at our room in Kota Bharu, I googled 'bot' and found out it to be the prayer house, or I just googled it again, it defines a 'bot' as the finest building in a Thai Buddhist monastery. Talk about wow.

This picture does NOT do it justice tho :(

Anyway, we didn't enter this fine looking building since we weren't sure that we could. Lesson of the day; in case of ignorance.. ASK.

It also happened to be something like all souls day or something. There were Buddhist devotees placing offers and burning paper money. We tried not to be too intrusive and kept out of the way. Good thing they were quite nice about us (me rather) taking their pictures :)

Wat Photivihan, Kelantan - the tale of the purple mangosteen

 

Welcome to the home of the largets reclining Buddha in Southeast Asia!

The second wat we saw in Kelantan was Wat Photivihan. Totally different from Wat Pracacinaram, and again different from the next two wats we were fated to see later the same day. I like this wat for the different trees growing in the compound. This one I'm standing under is a mangosteen tree. There is even a cocoa tree nearby.

Before anyone thinks I am an expert fruit tree person, let me set the facts straight. I DO NOT know my trees, except for rambutans, durians, mango and banana trees. I dont think I can name anymore. Maybe they'll come to me after I'm done writing this piece. It's always like that isn't it. :)

So I'm standing under this tree for shade, trying to make a meaningful picture out of the combination of concrete seats and over-manicured tree. As soon as I clicked on the click button, something dropped onto the ground next to me. I was creeped out of course. I looked down. A dark round thing rolled to my feet. I got really creeped out. I looked up the tree. Nothing out of the ordinary. I looked down again at the dark round thing. Then I saw that it was a mangosteen. Hmm. I should have taken a picture of the fruit. But as I said, I was creeped out. Who remembers anything when they're creeped out except to get away as far as possible as quickly as possible from the creepy place?

Anyway, creeped out as I was, I picked the fruit up. Looked up at the tree. It seemed to smile at me. I smiled back and said thank you. And walked quickly away.

I looked for my travel buddy. He was busy taking pictures. I decided not to bug him and took some more pictures on my own.

Afterwards, when we got into the car, I showed him the mangosteen. I said if I ate it, it would be the freshest ever mangosteen I'd ever eaten in my entire life. Would you like to have some? He shook his head. I said, but what if it were cursed or something? You eat some too, so that at least if we died or something, we'd die together or at least have dysentry together.

So he ate a wedge. And I ate the rest.

To this day, we have not experienced any adverse effects from it.

Phew.

Wat Maisuwankiri

I was in Kelantan again last weekend. For only the second time in almost 15 years.

The last time I was there, it was only for a night. And I wasn't really impressed.

It was December and the entire state (or so it seemed at the time) was under water! Of course I had to go during the Monsoon right?

Anyway, so it was with mixed feelings going again last weekend. It being the start of the Monsoon and all. Haha. What's that phrase? A glutton for misery?

Well, it was either South of Thailand or Kelantan. Both places that we havent really been there done that to. I was kind of jittery going to South of Thailand as the car wasn't in my name. What if the border police stopped us? What if they weren't satisfied with my papers? What if my car didn't pass their pollution test? or something this? or something that? urrkk.

Anyway, so we flipped a coin and Kelantan it was. Well, I did will the coin to flip for Thailand. It went for Kelantan instead. First it was heads Kelantan, tails Thailand. Then  it was best two out of three. And I wanted to do best three out five. But my travel partner put his foot down. The coin has spoken! OK la.

I was pleasantly surprised and glad we went to Kelantan. :) It is still underdeveloped relative to the rest of the country, but the weather was beautiful and we got to visit the wats! (And we will be driving or riding to South of Thailand sometime soon, maybe before Xmas or early next year! woot!!)

In so little words... the wats are amazing! Here are some pictures from Wat Maisuwankiri.

The monk was texting. I think he subscribes to one of those A Meditation a Day kind of thing.

This old house reminds me of my grandmother's place. Ah, her place was not as grand looking as this, but it evoked the same kind of feeling of home, of coming home. Miss her a lot. She passed away in 1983. RIP nani.

The balcony has a Romeo and Juliet-ish feel. A la Asian. I imagine me sitting at the window, dreaming and smiling at the moon and I hear a soft singing from below. I look down and there he is. A smile. That smile. His hands on his heart. Fall for you. Just for me. Especially for me. Only for me. :) Corny? Who cares. :)

road trip : Kelantan ~ Lake Temenggor leg

We had already had a lovely surprise taking the supposedly under contruction highway that cut east from Gua Musang across to Lake Kenyir and on to Kuala Terengganu had we wanted to go that way to return to Kuala Lumpur.

But having had this nice experience with the new highway, we felt it would be a perfect way to complete the road trip by taking the road that ran over Lake Temenggor. It was a drive well worth taken :) The road was in good condition and there was not much development all along the area, which meant we had a great view throughout the drive.

We kind of went a bit faster than usual, not stopping to take photographs because we did not want to miss the sunset view at this lake. We managed to get there in time for the sunset sky. And it was so worth going that fast!! The lake is much prettier than I imagined.



And so although we had earlier thought we would head on to Gerik to spend the night, we decided that it would be nicer to stay by the lake if we could.

This bridge takes us across Lake Temenggor to Banding Island in the middle of the lake. There is a nice resort called the Belum Rainforest Resort on this island. You can't possibly miss it... just follow the sign boards!

Anyway, the resort is very nice, a fancy schmancy place in the middle of all that wilderness and it has a nice manicured garden, almost like an anomaly :)

But regardless the unnatural beauty of the garden in the middle of the wilderness of Belum, the place still, for me, had a magical quality.. just as any place located next to a body of water would for me :) There's something about water that mesmerizes :)

Anyway we didn't quite fancy the room that was available and it was a bit pricey. The guy at the reception said there was no other accomodation available nearby.

That was probably the only disappointing thing about the trip so far. So we thought we'd explore a little, go look at the jetty, eat something, and drink tea and then head on to Gerik to settle for the night. We said we could always drive back here in the morning to explore the place.

There was a little cafeteria at the jetty. Just by pure chance, I asked the lady if she could tell us of any place to stay in the area.

And to my surprise she said yes!! She pointed to a collection of wooden huts on the opposite bank of the bank across from the jetty!!

It just goes to show that you should never hesitate to ask. You never know what nice little surprises you might discover! :)

Anyway, however after more inquiry from one of the boatmen at the jetty, he advised us not to sleep at that place. Very dirty was his comment. Instead he said we could check to see if we could get permission to sleep at one of the empty apartments in the fisheries department on the mainland. How exciting! I seriously think this trip is charmed! :) Everything just seems to fall into place :)

To make a long story short, we ended up spending a very comfortable night in a two-bedroom apartment! :) We did some more exploring next morning. Didn't see anything too exciting, though we almost came across a wild boar.. or so we thought. We tried to wait the creature out for a bit, but I guess it was scareder of us than we of it!



We went to check out the place that we were originally supposed to go to, and were glad we didn't stay there! It is neglected beyond description.

Sadly, it could have been an amazing place to stay, if only the landlady had maintained the place. After all it was partly floating on the water. And that was magical already.

In the end, we only had tea, and even that was a bit awful. My travelling buddy poured his tea into the lake! I hope he did not kill any fish that morning!



A limestone formation we saw en route to Gua Musang. Pretty!

road trip: kl-gua musang-lake kenyir-lake temenggor-kl : up to gua musang

So this is Gua Musang - there are two parts of this town - the old town and the new town; the old town being way more interesting than the blandness that is the new town.

Three things made me excited about coming here; its numerous limestone outcrops, its train station and its description as a frontier town.

We got to the old town early evening. It is so quaint! We used Rough Guides (http://www.roughguides.com/) and it has descriptions that quite fit our needs :) Saw the train station first!! That was a treat!!



When we first arrived in Gua Musang, we wanted to see the fabled old train station - part of the fabled Jungle Railway that runs through the jungles of the peninsular from Singapore to Thailand. We might be taking that train ride in future. Hear it's got 'atmosphere'. I have not travelled third class nor with livestock, so it will be an interesting ride. We shall see :)

A little story-telling :
Looking for a suitable place to stay turned out to be an adventure by itself!

I got locked inside a room that I was looking at, and as I banged on the door to be let out; (I was on the third floor and everyone was on the first floor) already I imagined this was part of the (dodgy-looking) hotel's secret involvement in the human trafficking trade and I was on my way to be transported to some god-forsaken shanty town in the south of Thailand!! Yikes.

Should I be thankful for having been bestowed such fly-away imagination? (Yes. Thank you. Muah!)

Anyway, drama aside, after securing a safe-looking place to stay (the receptionist at the second hotel was a 10 year old boy - safe by my book..haha) we decided to eat before it got too dark to look around town.

We had earlier read about and wanted to eat at a place called 'Kedai Makan Mana Lagi'!! Such a cool name for a restaurant. (where else to eat restaurant or what other restaurant is there? whichever you prefer).

Until we actually ate there :( ...the portions were tiny :( ...
Hey just because we're thin people doesnt mean we don't eat eh.
Fortunately food is not our main criteria when travelling :) we can live on cookies :) still cool :)

Some stopovers before we reached Gua Musang;


I'm not sure what this place is called but already we saw limestone outcrops! So many and so beautiful!
Word to the wise : This is not a limestone outcrop.
I just like the reflection of the hill in the pond :) The limestone outcrop is just on the left of this picture. I should have put up a picture (which I have by the way) of it here but trust me. It is an amazing view. Go see for yourself. :)

There is only one thing that surprised me about Gua Musang. A place like that? With limestone outcrops all over the place? I would have thought rock climbing would be a local passion.

This place should be a place that produces world-class rock climbers. Then when I tell people (and friends) that I was just back from Gua Musang, they won't go... 'Gua Musang??? What's there???!'

Imagine that.... Gua Musang... the home of world-class rock climbers.... that would be nice :)


Why am I not surprised???
I had just read sometime not too long ago, that Malaysians consume an average of 25 teaspoons of sugar daily!! This was my tea and I had specifically asked for less sugar.


More sugar... but this is the natural kind... so should be OK. Right??


The first limestone outcrop that we came across en route to Gua Musang. What an incredible structure. Unfortunately I forget its name. We saw a sign on the road and made what turned out to be a rewarding stop :) I love these road trips and the little surprises that we are lucky enough to stumble upon :)