Arrived at the bus station around 5:00 AM—a bit early for doing the round of the hotels. I made good use of the time by reading Ian Morrison's account of the Malay campaign, the forlorn attempt by the British (which consisted of English, Scottish, Indian and Nepal troops) and Australians to stall the Japanese invasion of Malaya and their march on Singapore. The Japanese invaded Malaya here on 8 December 1941, where they suffered heavy casualties, but managed to force back the British and Indian defenders. The Japanese divisions were equipped with about 18,000 bicycles. Whenever the invaders encountered resistance, they detoured through the forests on bicycles or took to the sea in collapsible boats to outflank the British troops, encircle them, and cut their supply lines.

As soon as it got light I was on my way. Didn't like the look of the nearest hotel, which was directly across from the bus station, so I walked towards the city centre and stopped off at the first decent-looking hotel I found, which cost 70 rinngits for a spacious room with bathroom and air-con. This was the Annas hotel, and it was only after I had booked in that I realized that it was an "Islamic" hotel, with exhortations everywhere to say prayers, and a green arrow on the ceiling pointing to "Kiblat" (the direction of Mecca, I take it).

Kota Bharu is the capital of the provice of Kalimantan, and appeared to be more conservative than any of the Malaysian cities I had seen so far. All women (except Chinese) wear the Muslim veil, though I did not see anyone wear the full face covering, as I had seen in Kuala Lumpur. Still, the women run a lot of the markets, and drive around on motorcycles, cars and four-wheel drives, so they seem to be quite independent.

A surprising aspect is that many of the shop signs and other signs are in Arabic. I don't know whether this has a historical or religious connotation.

There's lots to see in Kota Bharu, and I regretted that I didn't stay longer. At the time I thought it would take a lot longer to get to Bangkok, and I had no idea of how I was going to get back to Singapore (that's planning for you—future, here I come!). I did manage to visit a handcraft museum, several royal residences, and other notable buildings, built in the unique Malay wooden style.