Travelog for: Mukhsin

That billboard showing the event calendar is located in front of Gelanggang Seni, or cultural center, where they have cultural performance from time to time. But it's still early for a show now, and nearby this place is the state library. imajica started going to this llibrary since she was 5 but apparently cows are not allowed to enter, so we just take a picture in front of the building.

We go around the town, it's so nice over here. Today is Saturday, but it's not usually as crowded as always. I pass by this roundabout at the center of the town, where this clock tower is located.

Tourists who come to Kelantan usually "land" in this central square. So you can see here, many buses and cars from outside Kelantan and even from Singapore and Thailand.



At the square there's Sultan Ismail arch which has been one of main landmarks of Kelantan.



And on the opposite of the road you can see the Merdeka square, it was the world war memorial as well as the place they had celebration of independence in 1957 in state level.

At the square there's also Jahar Palace, it has an amazing wooden architecture and was built like almost 100 years ago. Now it's become the museum of Malay royal tradition and customs.

Now I'm at one of the main roads in Kota Bharu, with many shophouses which aren't very modern - they perhaps are from the days of Japanese/British colonization (1940s) or earlier. But of course, they're having renovation from time to time.

We go to the cultural center again, and time is perfect! They're having performance of Rebana ubi now. Rebana is traditional Kelantanese big drum and has been known as one of popular traditional features of Kelantan. There are many of them, I hope I can discover the rest as well!

They play rebana during events, or in villages sometimes when they have wedding ceremony or something.



Here in the cultural centre they play rebana as performance for tourists who come to Kelantan. The show is 3 times a week, and if you come other times you may also have a chance to see other kind of cultural activities.

I'm going shopping with imajica! We're going to Tesco. The arabic-like writing is how you write Tesco in Jawi - the old Malay writing, which can rarely be seen now, but we preserve the script here somehow at least at shop signs, billboards ads, etc.



Tesco in Kota Bharu is located nearby Kelantan river, and this is Sultan Yahya Petra brigdge, one of the oldest bridges in here.

After shopping we go to take a closer look at the river, near the Tambatan Di Raja.



And this Grand Riverview Hotel is one of the hotels by the riverside.

On the way back, we stop at this Sultan Ismail Petra mosque



Or this how it looks like at front side (um, actually I am not too sure which side is front!)

This is one of the minaret tower. Makes my neck hurts looking that up high.



Let's come inside! This is the backside of the prayer hall



And the front has the mimbar where the head leads prayers and preach. It's almost empty at this time though.



Come have a look at the upper stair! This is an extra hall for prayers when more people come than usual, especially during Eid or Ramadan holy month.



And view of the main hall from upstair..

This is neighborhood nearby the mosque! These are typical homes you find here in the town.

Aliah told me that I'm going to London. I'm saying goodbye to Mousy Mouse, Little Ro & Berkeley.  Goodbye everyone! 
I'm going to pursue my dream as an actor and I hope I meet all of you again in the future! 

Mukhsin has arrived safe and sound! Hope to take him out this weekend.

Well, here's Mukhsin at last - sorry it has taken SOOO long!!!
He's had a pretty good time so far!
Well, he settled in pretty quickly and made friends with Cheburashka, who is originally from Moscow but lives with me here in London now!

We've had some pretty up and down weather, but here's Mukhsin relaxing in the garden on a nice day!

One of the first things we did together was go along with my colleagues from work to Thorpe Park, a big funfair outside of London. I am not very brave and Mukhsin was too short to go on most of the rides, so mostly we just watched!
Mukhsin would have liked to go on this one...but oh well...

Or this one!

Well we did go and watch a 3D film there...here he is with the glasses on...

On the way home we walked along the Thames river a bit...

It's funny, i didn't even notice that big bird then!
And over towards St Pauls Cathedral, on the Millennium Bridge...it's supposed to be wobbly, but it was ok!


On another day, I took him to work with me. Well it's not very interesting in my office, but nearby there is the famous Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
here's Mukhsin near the Tower...

This is another photo by the Tower gates where you can see new architecture behind, including a famous new building that everyone calls The Gherkin, because, well, it looks like a gherkin...

And this is Traitors Gate, where traitors to the Crown used to go to the Tower by boat. There they were held in the dungeon and finally their heads were chopped off!

Here he's admiring Tower Bridge, which isn't as old as the Tower (the Tower is about 800 years old, i think the bridge is about 100 or so)...it looks nice though!


And another view of the Thames, with new buildings

Then last weekend we visited Kew Gardens, a beautiful botanical garden in South London.
Here's Mukhsin near the conservatory, which is the oldest glass building in Britain.

Another view there.

And there's a walkway which is WAY over the top of the trees! We went on that - wow it was high up!


Well I hope you can see that Mukhsin has had a good time so far! We may be visiting a few other places soon, unfortunately the weather has got really weird again...

Mukhsin and I went on a road trip with my friend Dave!
Here's Mukhsin in Dave's car...(you can see the town centre of Chippenham through the window)

The first place we visited was Abbey House Gardens in the little town of Malmesbury, in the county of Wiltshire. It's a really lovely county and also has some mystical stuff, like a stone circle and some white horses carved onto hillsides.
The gardens are really lovely, though...it's just some people's garden (they have an amazing old house too but you can't go in there), but they opened the garden to the public. So...here's Mukhsin enjoying himself there.







Here you can see Malmesbury Abbey (an ancient church) behind Mukhsin.

After that, we stopped briefly in Chippenham, but it wasn't really a very interesting town.
But here's quite an old part.