Kota Bharu

I enjoyed Kota Bharu. It's a small city, easy to walk around and quite tourist-friendly with good signing, museums and plenty of good places to eat. Anyone visiting the town should drop into the tourist information centre just for a chat with Roselan. He's a delightful chap, very friendly and helpful, who enjoys dropping his bits of London English into conversation. Although I didn't arrange any tours with him, he happily gave me details of things to do. I was very tempted by his Malay cookery workshops, but unfortunately there were no other participants to share the cost, so I decided against it. ("I'm Jamie Oliver round here, pukka Malay food!") He wished me a slighly camp "cheerio," and I set off to follow his sightseeing advice.

People rave about the market in Kota Bharu and I suppose it is worth a visit if you haven't seen many Asian markets. The usual smells of fish, raw chicken and well-trodden vegetable scraps greet you as you enter the large circular market hall. Upstairs, the selling space is smaller, around the outside of the building, and from here you can look down into the main fruit and veg area below.

I visited the Kelantan state museum - more of that later - and wandered around looking at other places of interest, including the Second World War museum which focussed on the local landing and subsequent occupation by the Japanese. The craft complex was as touristy as you'd expect, but very nicely done. I was delighted to find, after hours of city streets, a hut in the food court offering foot massage. My masseur, a southern Thai, was an interesting guy to chat with. I even discovered that my feet were being cared for by the hands that massaged the Sultan.

Is this what happens when your floating restaurant is going under?

And yes, it was still open.