We remained horizontal (due to lack of choice), had some pastries and canned coffee for breakfast. The scenery outside was pretty gorgeous living up to the line’s nickname “The Jungle Railway”.
There was dense jungle and in sparser areas I could recognise breadfruit, rubber and coconut trees. As we headed further north, we saw some limestone outcrops in the flatter areas and then rice fields as we approached our destination.
This train is nicknamed The Jungle Railway and the morning’s scenery confirms this.
I had bought the tickets all the way to the terminus at Tumpat without realising that the nearest station to Kota Bharu (our nightstop) was actually Wakaf Bharu. So that was about MYR7 wasted per head that could have bought a meal!
We disembarked at Wakaf Bharu at 1350, around 1h20 late and took a taxi to our hotel for MYR25. The G-Home hotel by the river was clean and handy to the cultural sights and market. It wasn’t that good for eating choices.
We needed lunch and grabbed that in the outside foyer of the Siti Khadijah market. The area seemed to have changed considerably since my last visit in 2012. It was a simple meal of Patani White Tom Yum soup and Fried Kway Teow. Walking around after filling our tummies, I noticed some turtle eggs for sale in the market. Definitely illegal!
Lunch near at Siti Khadijah Market.
Produce at Siti Khadijah Market.
Muslims are not allowed to enter these premises. Sign on a pub, since they are not legally allowed to consume alcohol.
Male and female queues at the supermarket but compliance isn’t strict.
The sign says you’re wise to cover your body. This is a very conservative region.
Istana Jahar, the Royal Ceremonies Museum.
We visited Istana Jahar (the Royal Ceremonies museum) which had an interesting traditionally weapons gallery. That seemed quite enough and we retreated from the heat into our room for a rest.
The area around our accommodation was very quiet in the evening. With not many choices around, we ate dinner in the market in a backpacker-oriented (in relative terms) place with Nasi Komok (Khao Mok in Thai) with fried chicken. This is a variation of Indian Bryiani. It was pretty awesome and we were both glad we had gone for the same choice.
Nasi Komok, a Thai interpretation of biryani.
Kailan with salted fish. Yummy; had two plates!
Creamy pale mango with very thin seed.
Dessert was mango, peeled and eaten in the bathroom like a banana, as we had no knife. As we were close to Thailand, the long pale creamy variety was only MYR6 for four. Some varieties were as cheap as MYR3 per kg! Mango heaven!
Needless to say, we slept well that night after the previous night’s light sleep on the train.