cow dung and batik...

cow dung and batik...these are my first impressions of kuala krai. a sleepy town located smack in the heart of kelantan, a muslim state run by a VERY muslim political party. i was half expecting a religious watchman to jump out from the nearest bush every time i held my boy-friend's hands, demanding to see our marriage certificate. i expected to see men and women segregated about their daily lives...different lines at market counters, different seatings at the cinema(er..until i found out there are no cinemas in the whole state!) and different treatment for different races. i expected many things...

what i found instead were cow droppings everywhere...fresh, old, always smelly, sometimes dried. u see them on the road, u smell them at the roadside stall when u have ur breakfast noodles, u hit them when u don't pay attention on the roads. they were everywhere. surprisingly, i didn't see many live cows, since there were so many droppings. i did see alot of dead ones though, slaughtered, skinned and quartered, by the roadsides, hung for their deeds, sold for their meat. i didn't realise that the death penalty was not only reserved for drug trafficking in malaysia!

i also found a society where the malays are really warm and friendly, always smiling, and all over the place. the chinese i met, however, were vocal about their discomforts and their thoughts of the running of the state and the preferential treatment of the malays by the local government there. hmm, if things are so bad...why stay there?

apart from a notice board advising the correct way of wearing a headress (what a shocker! there are even immoral ways to cover ur head!) i found plenty of gorgeous batik, abundant in their colours and patterns. there were beautiful traditional printed cotton ones, and luxurious hand drawn silk ones. the funny thing though, is that the best quality ones were imported from indonesia, not malaysia.

anyway, first impressions are not always accurate, u need to give it time, to show its real colours....i'm still expecting to be given a "saman" for kissing in public though!