Terengganu

I caught a bus to the town of Terengganu on the coast. I had misunderstood when I had ask about the bus the day before and needed to catch the bus from a different bus station in town so had to catch a taxi to get to the other station in Kota Bharu. It cost me 11 ringgits for the 3 hour bus ride to Terengganu and 8 ringgits for the 5 minute taxi ride within Kota Bharu. I am just to cheap for taxis but did not have time to take the bus or walk.

The bus ride to Terengganu went well but I for some reason did not think I was there yet when the bus pulled into the station so did not get off at first. I finally decided to ask if this was the bus station in Terengganu and the driver acted like I was crazy for not already getting off and leaving.

I spent the rest of the day wondering around in town. The Zanial Abidin Mosque was just down the street from where I was staying and the call to pray at 5:30 to 6:00AM was not really the wake up call that I was looking for but it is still something that I find unique about Muslim countries.

I walked past the local market in town and it was closing up but they had huge piles of Durian. I think that was the most Durian I have seen in one place at one time. I have learned the smell of Durian really well and can tell there are some close by usually long before I see them. This was in the china town area of town and I ended up eating some dumplings and was not full so had fried noodles from another place.

I wanted to go to the museum called “Kopleks Muzium Negeri Terengganu”. My book said it was South East of town and there was a local bus that went to the museum but I could not figure out where to catch the bus. I ask someone and they pointed me to a direction but I only found a bus stop after walking about a kilometer. I ask a guy setting at the bus stop next to a motorbike if this was were to catch the bus to the museum and he nodded yes. He sat there a few minutes and then got on his motorbike and rode off so I guess he was not waiting for the bus. I waited at the bus stop for about an hour and no bus ever came. I had seen a sign that said the museum was 5 kilometers so started walking. There were signs for the museum ever once in awhile so I ended up finding the museum without a problem but never did see a bus on the 5K walk to the museum. The museum was in a really huge building and it is in the picture below but not sure it was really worth the walk.

When I was walking to the museum I walked past a shop where they were making roti and I ordered one. Roti is fried flat bread and they give you a small bowl of red curry to dip the bread into. I enjoyed my roti but when I tried to pay they said free for you. I have no idea why but I said thank you. I also waved to them as I walked past on my way back to town. I did happen to see the bus going towards the museum on my walk into town and it past me again going into town just before I got to where I had waited an hour for it when going to the museum. I missed it again but was almost back in the center.

When back in town I happened across the bus going past what is called the Floating Mosque or Masjid Tengku Tengah Zaharam. On the walk back to town I had sort of decided to give the mosque a pass but since here was the bus sitting here waiting for me I went ahead and hope on. I made it to the mosque with out a problem and it is not really floating but still a pretty setting.

After walking around the mosque I decided to see if I could walk along the beach for the 4 or 5K back into town. I don’t know why I thought the beach would run the full distance to the center of town but it did and was a really enjoyable walk even it was a bit long.