Kota Bharu

Sazali and Zu took us to the capital of Kelantan, Kota Bharu, which sits on the Northeastern tip of Malaysia to attend an AGM run by the MFD affiliation office so we would be able to present on our work in Malaysia. We left Kuala Lumpur late in the evening, and headed up north via a bumpy “snake” route winding between the Cameron Highlands and the foothills of Taman Negara. I am more than certain that the sights were awesome and unfortunately, we went through this pass during nighttime.

It was a long drive, and we were exhausted that we showed up few hours late for the meeting. However, many people attended the meeting (maybe 50+) to vote for new executive board members to run the office. By the looks of it, the meeting was productive and a new group of members was selected to run the necessary positions. Coco and I was able to share on our work in Malaysia, Coco talked about deaf-blindness, and I presented on my research activities in Malaysia. I was able to find several interested participants afterwards – and we headed straight for the beach after my interview with a couple of other people. We dined on crab, fruit, and drank coconut water. It was definitely a nice change from being in the city for so long – kids were flying their kites, parents looking over their shoulders for their children, and snake charmers attracted a fairly large group in order to promote their product. Stalls stood and sold corn among some other stuff. The atmosphere was very laidback, more of my style. We then stopped by at a nearby shop to purchase local caftans (a loose dress), and Malaysian-style batiks (piece of cloth [dresses or shirts] with colored designs by dye – having first applied wax to the parts to be left dyed [MAC dictionary, 2010]).