Kelantan-Sleeping Buddha-Wat Polithivan 吉兰丹 睡佛庙

There are a lot of Thai descendant in Kelantan, majority of them are living at the border between Malaysia and Thailand, which is at Tumpat district.

They are called Siamese, where their living style are almost same to those living in Thailand. Religious in Buddhism thus you can find a lot of magnificent Buddhist temple in Tumpat; and among them, the sleeping Buddha temple which named Wat Polithivan, is located not far away from Kota Bahru.

We didn’t rent a car to travel around, because after our calculation, for only 2 of us, it’s much more worthy to take the public transportation.

Before coming to Kelantan, already get to hear that Kelantan’s public transportation system is not that good in service, advisable to have own transport. But to be fair, after I personally experience the public buses in Kelantan, I would say the public transportation is not that weak. (its airconditioning is pretty cold)

Kelantan is a state with low density of population, so you cant expect it to have good bus service as those in Singapore with 5 to 10 min interval bus frequency. As in fact, even in Kuala Lumpur , there is no such frequent bus service either. By taking into the fact that difficult business environment in Kelantan, its 30 min interval bus service is acceptable.

From Kota Bharu, we took bus no 27 to a small town called Chabang Empat (bus 27 serves from Kota Bharu to Pengkalan Kubor border).


In Malay, Chabang Empat means crossroad, and in fact crossroad as seen in Chabang Empat was too common. We specially asking the bus driver favour to remind us when reaching the place. While travelling, we also take note of the brown-colour signboard which indicate the Wat Polithivan

Bus driver never did out of our expectation, he really forgotten our request, until we stood out then he remember us these 2 tourist….

Chabang Empat is a very normal small town.Before I came to KB I already get to know from Cari Forum that there is 1 malay old man doing the taxi business here in this small town to fetch tourist to the famous Wat Polithivan. I tried to get other mean of transport to go there, but the people there were like “united” together, straight away waived to the old man our arrival. (seemed it was the monopoly business by the old man). As in fact, I did saw this old man before coming to KB , his trademark is having a Haji cap , with a green-coloured old car…

Info that I gathered from Cari was the taxi fare is RM8, but the traveler was traveling by himself , that’s why negotiation would be better. We were in 2, old man already offered with RM15, we can only act poor … and last price RM10.

Wat Polithivan was about 5km away from Chabang Empat, and there seems no any public transportation passby there, and this situation has nurtured a good monopoly business to the old man

Wat Polithivan is the second largest sleeping Buddha statue in South-East Asia.There is another one in Penang , in which I think both are about the same size. The difference is this sleeping Buddha in Kelantan was like isolated and forgotten. The whole compound was only us 2 tourist, the old man driver and some vegetarian canteen operators…feel very peaceful there.


Sleeping Buddha functions similar to the one in Penang , storing the urn and a lot of picture showing the situation in Hell, warning people not to commit wrongdoing.

And 12 buddha which symbolized the 12 zodiac in Chinese, seems great Chinese culture influence here.


Beside the sleeping Buddha , was a old temple which I guessed it was the 1st temple in Wat Polithivan.
。

And there were a pair of peacock, I found it’s pretty pity to be locked in cage.

And in fact, I noticed Wat Polithivan served another function in the community which is the local stray dog warm home. There were so many stray dogs inside the Wat compound, I think due to the fact the Malay don’t really like to see the dogs appear around their houses.

Our driver had proved my this observation- when we were approaching the Wat entrance, this old man even turn his steering and about to hit the stray door besides the road. That dog was scared and fall down to the drain.(me either almost fall down from seat)


On our way back to Chabang Empat, this old man told us that RM10 was not enough for him to Makeh (Kelantanese’s dialect which mean to eat). He asking for RM12, where RM 10 for petrol and RM 2 is for food.

Another taken his service , what to do ?


Expenses:
Kota Bharu to Chabang Empat (27bus) RM2
Taxi through and flo Chabang Empat RM12

吉兰丹 睡佛庙 Wat Polithivan, Kelantan Malaysia

吉兰丹有不少的泰裔后人，他们都聚居于与泰国接壤的大马边界，也就是道北Tumpat县市。

泰裔就好象普通的泰国人一样，多数信仰佛教，所以在道北县可以看到许多壮观的佛堂，而离开哥打峇鲁最近而且出名的是这一个吉兰丹睡佛Wat Polithivan 。

我们没有租用汽车代步，因为我们算算一下，还是乘搭公共交通比较划算。

虽然来吉兰丹玩之前，就听说吉兰丹的公共交通不完善，最好有自己的代步工具。不过当我自己体验了那里的交通服务后，我觉得吉兰丹的公共交通不弱！而且冷气蛮强的! 当然在吉兰丹那人口比较少的州属，巴士服务当然不会好象新加坡巴士那样10分钟一趟频密（吉隆坡都没有），可是考量吉兰丹巴士公司的艰难经营，实在不容易维持呢！（吉兰丹巴士大约30分钟一趟）

我们从哥打峇鲁的中央巴士站，乘搭27号巴士去到Chabang Empat （这个27号巴士服务是从哥打峇鲁到Pengkalan Kubor马泰边界）。

这个Chabang Empat 在马来文的意思是十字路口，这样的路口实在太普通了，所以除了交待巴士司机提醒我们下车的地方，我们自己也一路上注意路牌—棕色路牌Wat Polithivan。（怕司机忘了）

巴士司机不负期待，差点忘了停车，是我们站了起来，他才想起我们这外来游客。。。

Chabang Empat 是一个普通的市镇，当然我之前已经从佳丽论坛知道这里有一个老人家使用私家车载送游客到Wat Polithivan。可是我还想尝试其他的管道去到哪儿，只是镇上的人们好象都很团结，直接招来同样那个老人家，（看来这是独门生意了），我还没来吉兰丹就已经看过这一个老人家。。。。标志是带着一顶Haji 帽，还有他的青色老车。。。。

网上的资料是老人家收费8元，但是那个老兄是单人行，所以议价比较好商量，而我们一去问，老人家立即就开价15元，唯有装可怜。。最后10元定价。

Wat Polithivan离开Chabang Empat 市镇大约5公里，好象没有公车抵达。无形间为老人家营造了独市。

Wat Polithivan据称是全东南亚第二大睡佛，槟城也是有一座，可是我早已经忘了它是多大了，看起来好象一样大。。 可是吉兰丹这一座睡佛好象都蛮被遗忘似的，全间佛庙就只是我们两个游客加上司机当地人，斋堂经营者加上三两位和尚，感觉还蛮“平静”。

睡佛的功能就好象槟城的，里面是放骨灰的，然后旁边画了一些地狱的图画，警惕世人。

也有12座佛陀代表着华人的十二生肖，看来这座泰国佛庙也是深受华人文化影响。



睡佛的旁边有一座荒废了的佛庙，我估计，应该是Wat Polithivan第一座庙的地点。


旁边还养着一对孔雀，感觉还蛮可怜的。。

其实这座Wat Polithivan 还有一个功能，可能不是很多人看得到，它是这个社区的流浪狗收留所，里面的流浪狗可真多，可见狗儿在这马来人居多的地方没有立足之地。。我们的司机驶进佛庙的路口时，还特地甩一甩尾，吓跑路口的流浪狗，也把我吓倒。对狗的憎恨，可见一斑。



在回途中，老人家说10元车资不够，要12元，10元是汽油费，2元给他Ma Geh (吉兰丹马来语，吃的意思)。

都上了车，还能怎样？




费用：
哥打峇鲁27号巴士到Chabang Empat RM2
德士来回Chabang Empat RM12

Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB), Kelantan 吉兰丹 月光海滩

The nearest beach to Kota Bharu is Pantai Cahaya Bulan , or in short, the local call it PCB. In English, it means moonlight beach. Thus taking public transport to the beach , you should look for “PCB” instead of the long-winding Pantai Cahaya Bulan.

Pantai Cahaya Bulan isn’t a pretty beach compared to the Pantai Sri Tujuh, its name is misleading. And in fact, the beach name itself had been “downgraded” when the emphasized-morality PAS took over as Kelantan State Government. Previously it was called Pantai Cinta Berahi, meaning the love beach. While the state government do not want you to have too much daydreaming of the place full with love.

It’s not pretty because of its serious erosion here at the beach. There is no soft sand at the beach but only the big bulky stone preventing the wave of eating up the sand.

Well I think it’s only the location of it makes it attractive to the Kota Bharu people to folk here during the weekend. (well in Kelantan context, their weekend is Friday and Saturday ). So there are a lot of eatery stall along the beach, but they were all selling the similar food, which made you no idea which one to choose. For me , I walked till the end and gave chance to the farthest stall..



On the bus journey to Pantai Cahaya Bulan , there was another Japanese uncle, dressed very simply without any bag or water.

When we were busily taking photos on the beach, this Japanese uncle return from his Pantai Cahaya Bulan journey and waited for the next bus. He said this beach was boring without anyone selling the beer…. Hello brother , here is Kelantan- a Malay Muslim dominated place and you came here to look for beer ? are you borrowing a comb from a monk (Do nonsense thing)? What a alcohol addict.


Sun following us everywhere we went causing us felt so hot that nearly faint. The only solution would be coconut. Else we could have really fainted on the beach.


And a thought suddenly came to my head, will that Japanese continued his searching for beer in Kelantan , will he found the coconut alcohol instead at last?

There was nobody on the beach also, and Pantai Cahaya Bulan is quite small, considered a half-day settled tourist spot including having meal here.

If a bunch of friends were to arrange a bbq at the nearby hotel, it would be quite a good idea to chitchat with friend, while enjoying the sea breeze. But my advice is not to have it during the monsoon season else you will have difficulty setting up the bbq fire.haha



If you would like to spend little more time here, I suggest you to scroll along the main road, as there are many souvenir shops, but too bad, I couldn’t find any local made Batik, but all were imported from China. Too sad, Made in China is much cheaper than in Malaysia?

How to reach?
Take the City Liner no. 10 bus outside the Tourism Malayisa office.

吉兰丹 月光海滩 Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB), Kelantan Malaysia

离哥打巴鲁最靠近的海滩是月光海滩Pantai Cahaya Bulan，当地人都简称PCB，所以搭巴士前往，就得注意PCB了。

月光海滩不是一个美丽的海滩，地不如其名，其实这一个海滩名字也已经“降格”了，以前叫作爱情海滩 Pantai Cinta Berahi，不食人间烟火的回教党执政吉兰丹后，不喜欢爱情，改称现时的月光海滩，难怪财政“月光”。

说它不美丽，因为这里的海水侵蚀很严重，海滩都没有那细软的海沙了，取而代之的是硬绷绷的防海蚀大石头。

也许地理位置使它依然成为哥打巴鲁人周末最爱前往的海滩，所以海边有着许多贩卖同样食物的摊子，让我觉得需要做出抉择都有点困难，只好一路走到最尾段的摊贩。



前来这个月光海滩的巴士上，还有一名来自日本的游客，行装简单，两梳蕉就上路，实在潇洒的说。

当我们疯狂拍照，突见这一个日本人正折回头，打算等候下一轮巴士回到哥打巴鲁，他说那里都没有卖酒，没有乐趣，真是嗜酒的日本脚。老兄，这里是吉兰丹啦，况且跑到都是马来人的地盘找酒，真是“提灯笼到茅厕-找屎（死）”。



这一个海滩，比起七星海滩，实在没得比，就只是摊贩比较多而已。

我们也都不断受到太阳的眷顾，“罩着”我们，热到我们还差一点就昏倒，不弄点椰水那里成样。清凉的椰汁，让我渐渐有着苏东坡的一点情怀-“日啖椰子三两颗，不辞长做丹州人”



突发奇想的，觉得那个日本人一定会在吉兰丹，寻找椰花酒来一解思日乡愁吧？

海滩上也没啥人在晒太阳，月光海滩其实也蛮小的，不在这里用膳的话，属于半小时可以搞定的景点。



但这里也是有着住宿安排，或许一群朋友来这里烧烤谈天，还蛮不错的，当然不要选在东北季候风强盛的年尾来这烧烤啦！风那么大，也许起火都有问题。



若要在这再消耗多一点时光，不妨沿着大路走离海滩，沿路都有着许多贩卖纪念品的商店，非常可惜的是，我找不到本土制造的Batik衣（蜡染），全都是中国入口。难道中国入口可以连价格都媲美本土制作？可谓悲哀。

如何到达？

在大马旅游推广局 Tourism Malaysia 外乘搭10号City Liner巴士