Kelantan - Tumpat One Day Trip (Part 2)

After visted to Wat Photivihan, we went to another temple. Yes, don't feel weird. There are actually a numbers of temples in Kelantan although this is an islamic state. The next temple we visited was Wat Mai Suwankiri. (龙船寺) which is located in Tumpat too.

There is a 400 years old dragon boat and a  standing Buddha. We were amazed by the huge standing Buddha from the entrance and misunderstood that it was a Standing Buddha Temple. Instead, it is the famous Dragon Boat Temple. Opps, sorry for the mixing up.

Like other temples in Kelantan, the temple was constructed more than 100 years by craftman from Thailand. The interior of the main temple is such majestic.  You will be stunned by the huge gigantic Standing Buddha at top of the building.

ANother main attraction in the Wat Mai Suwankiri, the Dragon Boat.There are 4 dragons act as "guardian", and the boat is surrounded by water.

You will notice that I don't take many photos of each temple even I found that the architectual is amusing me.  One of the reasons is that I do not know whether the action of photographing inside the temple is prohibited, and another reason is the weather on that day is terribly hot.


I believe I will revisit all this temples plus some temples which are already on my list soon. Do stay tune for more updates .

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Kelantan - Tumpat One day Trip (part 1)

Due to boringness here, we decided to go for one day trip nearby. You see, life here is like very peaceful and back to those time when our parents were young. No cinema, no shopping complex , no city entertainment here. Gonna find something to keep ourselves happy, right?

Upon some very last minutes google search before falling asleep, we came out with some lists of visit : a) Wat Photivihan (the sleeping buddha) at Tumpat. OK, at least one choice had been chosen. We believed we can go for other places of interest with the little help from GPS.

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Something happened during the trip, where we had accidentally set the wrong destination( we set the wrong wat name. U know, there are too many wat-wat here with long name where we can't really remember). No wonder why it leads us to Bachok la, luckily we believed with our instinct and we got some help from the locals. Oh, forget to mention, the locals here are friendly,which is a different norm from our west coast.

Soon, reaching our first destination -- >  Wat Machimaram at Tumpat. When you see the huge sitting buddha from the roadside, you will feel that are the hard works to find the location do worth.

Magnificent Sitting Buddha can be seen from the road side. Don't worry if you scare you can't look for the location, because the signboard of the temple is along the road when you reach Tumpat.

Wat Machimmaram contains a large statue of the Seating Buddha, that is 30 metres high and 18 metres wide. This Seating Buddha took 10 years to build by the skilled craftsmen from Thailand, and its was completed in 2000. Wat Machimmaram located in Kampung Jubakar, Tumpat and occupies over 2.4 hectares. The Thai group will conduct the religious celebration at the Wat such as Wesak Day, Kahtinna, Loy Krathong, Saibat, Songkran, and so forth. (source : http://dhammapath.blogspot.com/2010/10/wat-machimmaram-seating-buddha-tumpat.html). 

After that, we went to Free Trade  Zone  of Pengkalan Kubor. This FTZ is just located at Thai Border. To get there, we need to pass through a police checkpoint. Although it is a FTZ, I still find the items here mostly more or less same in our shopping complex. Kind of feel like being cheated. Can't even buy my lovely chocolates as they are not cheap. Mark you, you won't able to find any alcohol drinks here. Almost end up with disappointment but at last something there to cheer me up. 

 I called it rainbow ice cream because the ice cream is so coloured full, with only RM2 you can have a full cup of ice creams, with bread and glutinuous rice at bottom, topping with jellies, peanuts and corns. DOn't try to choose any flavour, the colourful of the ice cream is the trend mark.

After hanging in Pengkalan Kubor end up buying not much and under a huge hot sun, we moved to Wat Photivihan.

The temple houses a 40-metre statue of a sleeping Buddha, which is the longest of its kind inSouth East AsiaThe devotees of this temple are mainly ethnics Thais , and the temple itself is a typical Thai  Buddhist temple.（Source: wiki).

(to be continued)

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Brief introduction to Tanah Merah Food

Ok, gonna make this very short article regarding the food at Tanah Merah, Kelantan. 

There are Chinese food in the town, but honestly only some are a bit tasty.

1. Chengrai Restaurant

I assume this as Chinese mixed with Thai Style food. The food above from CHengrai Restaurant. The sotong we ordered was spicy + sour sotong. I considered it not bad becasue the sourness of the dish is appetising and the sotong were fresh. The upper right dish was curb ribs (南乳排骨）. Good recommendation from me. And the last one was salted fish fried with kai lan. Not a bad dish, but I can't really taste any salted fish there. Overall, the first meal over there was not a bad impression to me.

Ask the local chinese, they will able to guide you to the restaurant. Or you can try to look for the signboard of the Chengrai Restaurant beside the road. If you come from Tanah Merah town, the signboard should be at your right just a few kilometers away from town.

2. Roti Tempayan Belimbing

This was once my dinner. Roti tempayan and ayam tandoori. Trust me, nice dish. The roti tempayan is somehow like the roti canai we ate, but  it is thicker than the roti canai. Whereas the ayam tandoori is abit similar taste with "Cha Xiew". Don't look down upon the onion, try it. The onion was marinated and you can feel sourness from the sauce and sweetness from the onion itself.

3. Satay Kajang in the town

You can imagine how excited we were when we discovered there is Satay Kajang in the town. Sorry but I have to say, there is actually nothing much in this small little town. You can feel it when You see I am excited over that there is even waffle selling in the town or seeing that there is gym in the town.

 Tried it. I feel the taste of the satay is not bad. But I am not satisfied with the sauce they provided. I don't feel like there was any taste in the sauce. There are also other foods selling in this restaurant, somekind of mamak restaurant. The satay is not cheap, RM 0.80 per stick. But the drinks here is good. We had tried carrot milk  and singa beng. Wonder what is singa beng? It is actually air limau kasturi. Just cost RM 2.00 and Rm 1.00 each. Cheap drinks right??

Search for the big signboard of "satay kajang" left side of the road from tanah Merah town area.


You can find all the signboards or restaurant above driving along the main road of Tanah Merah Town to Kampung Belimbing area.

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Road Trip to Kelantan

The moment that I thought for days had finally arrived. That's the moment I gonna leave my hometown for another stage of life. Not to count what I had scarified  I am still reluctant to leave my lovely home, yet the decision had made. LIFE GOES ON.

Before I started my journey, some people had told me that the road to the EAST is quite tricky and steep. But now I would like to clarify that although it is not a road like North-South highway, the condition of the road to East is acceptable.

My journey is Ipoh-Kuala Kangsar-Gerik-Jeli-Tanah Merah. The picture above shows the journey from Kuala Kangsar to Gerik.

We stopped at Gerik Town for lunch. Please make sure you pump full petrol to your car if you wish to continue your journey to Kelantan. This is because there will be no petrol station after Gerik town for around 100+ km/ 1.5++ hours (depending on your speed). The nearest petrol station from Gerik will be in Jeli, Kelantan. BUt don't worry about rest house, there will still be some rest house along the journey in case you wish to rest or go for washrooms.

Actually after Gerik will be hill road. So beware. The scenery after Gerik. You will feel like you have entered into jungle or kampung area. Indeed, yes you are. Look for the "beware of Elephants" sign board. There will be  elephants appearing and crossing the left and right of the jungle of the roads. 

Ready to pass by Tasik Temenggung. The scenery here is quite beautiful. However, it was a raining day and I can't capture photos from my window.

The only best picture without any water mark on my window. Tasik Temenggung.

Journey after Tasik Temenggung. I have kind of feeling that I was going to Cameron Highlands.

Breathtaking scenery at top of Banjaran Titiwangsa.

From my rough calculation, the journey from Ipoh to Tanah Merah, Kelantan is actually consuming around 5+ hours excluding the rest time at Gerik. As I said, it still depending on your speed. We drove slowly along the journey as our car is small. 

First dinner at Kelantan which denotes my new life here??? 

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