260. COLOURS & FLAVOURS OF KOTA BAHRU, KELANTAN

Districts of Kelantan and its capital Kota Bahru

Traditional long time favourites - old coffeeshop coffee and bread toasted over a charcoal fire with butter and coconut/egg jam...

A rustic menu... 

A durian vendor outside the main entrance pavement of the hotel...no staff shooed him away - live and let live...

This was the recent trip to Kelantan organised by My Art Space Travel Light Sketch Deep series, ably led by Chankerk Teh...the following pics are from his album..

Into the mix are pics from fellow painters and our local hosts...Chang Ben Tim, Lim See Kiat...

My gift of a drawing block and watercolours and paint brushes which I hope will go some way to nudge them towards expressing themselves through drawing...

Rainbow Village is an apt name for this commune. Apparently during a election season, politicians gave the homes a makeover. They lost the elections and posters and flags were left as is and became shredded by the wind and littered the compound. It appears the winning party wasn't interested to give residents their time of day...!

Amiable young man. Painting/sketching is a solitary pursuit. Quiet, focused, meditative...one can be alone and is not lonely. Even in a group, each one will find their own quiet space...

Lunch and drawing stop at Singgora, a privately owned property. The gracious owner was present to host us...

Under that thatched roof and bamboo grove is this kitchen where frying and bbq-ing take place, away from the living and dining areas. Love it!

   Colours & Flavours

Show & Tell - assessment and critique time

The Chinese Peranakan Association of Kelantan has this gallery where they proudly show their ancestry and roots and where their members put on a dance segment to welcome us. The womenfolk were all excited at this visit  and they were dressed to the nines. Guess in small towns not a lot of exciting things happen for the womenfolk who are chiefly home-makers. Their little shop did roaring business! We had a really nice Kelantanese krabu lunch - herby and fragrant...

Kota Bahru by night

...where Kodar Cafe comes to life and where we had a nice dinner...tasted home cooked.

In this quiet, leafy commune, this wooden house has stood the test of time for a 100 years...

The avant-garde looking main market of Siti Khadijah is a fabulous octagonal building with a ceiling that resembles the skeletal spines of an umbrella. The wet market is on the ground floor flanked by stalls selling household items, above that is the dry goods section and fruits, the top floor carried garments and textiles. Most interesting unique market building...Like!

Market Survey

Market research

At closing, these rambutans were left at the stall with a 'Free' sign...waste not...I helped myself!

I've not seen such knives and swords in the longest time except in museums. There's a decent collection at Singapore's Malay Heritage Center. The keris is a ceremonial sword and they look really good when worn with their traditional Malay national costume for men, where it's tucked into the folds of their sarong. 

Glorious shot of this reflection in the placid water...and a collage of Yours Truly - taken by Azmin Han, an excellent photog we met at Singgora where we stopped for a local Kelantanese lunch and drawing opportunity. Priceless...

Rumah Singgora is this traditional Malay village style wooden house, well preserved by her owner. The place offers dining serving Kelantanese cuisines served in pavilions amidst lush greenery, loaded with atmosphere...Like!

A well is a novelty to city slickers!

As always, I'm drawn to trees, no matter where I am in the world, they catch my eye and I take a closer look. There's so much life in trees. They support other life forms. There can be nests of many different species, big and small. They provide shelter, to man and beasts alike. Life supports Life - even a fallen tree, left on the ground, becomes home to many species of small creatures.

A demo by this troupe in the Malay/South East Asian art of self defence - Silat. 

Wau Bulan - moon kite - its tail resembling a crescent moon - a state symbol associated with Kelantan where artisans turn kite making into an art form, when an annual kite festival is a big thing. 

Skin Flicks!

This wonderful family is passionate about keeping this art form going - shadow puppetry - Wayang Kulit. Kulit is skin, the puppets handmade from buffalo hide. The family patriarch manipulates and voices the puppets from behind the screen while his family played in the orchestra...how neat is that! They warmly opened their home to us, we made ourselves comfortable as we watched the performance and played the instruments - pleased to report we didn't mutilate the music, at least there was no cacophony...!

Kelantan state has an Islamic government but they seem progressive. The shadow puppets are from Hindu folklore derived from the epic Ramayana story but the sitting government has not banned its performance, has instead offered courses on training enthusiasts of this art form. Happy to note they separate culture and art from religion. I'm not sure if their other state governments look at it the same way...

Took a detour out of town to this creek, Jetty Pulau Gajah where, besides fishing boats, there were several showy tourists' boats that took tourists out to view the surrounding region and mangrove forests. These boats were beautifully painted with fine detailed work, the art suggests Thai influence. Kelantan shares a border with Thailand, the nearest Thai border town is about an hour and a half away...

Close-up details

Went off the beaten track to take a closer look at the making of match sticks. It's so good of the business owner to continue this trade that caters chiefly to people with no easy access to gas or electricity. It's also so good of these handful of workers to continue at this job, it must be terribly mundane...the label on the carton boxes has the name of a city in Pakistan.