Kota Bharu

Kota Bharu means 'new fort', and the city takes its name from the stockade built here in 1844 when Sultan Muhammad II moved the seat of the Kelantan sultanate to this bend of the Kelantan River. The Balai Besar, the great audience hall, was finished in the same year, and Istana Jahar went up in 1855; the palaces, the mosque and the open padang around them still mark the original royal core. Kelantan itself was far older, a river state long tied to the trading world of the Gulf of Siam and paying tribute to Siam for much of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 transferred Siamese rights over Kelantan to Britain, and a British adviser arrived the following year. Resistance to the new land taxes and administration broke out in 1915 in the Pasir Puteh uprising led by Tok Janggut. Under British oversight the town gained roads, schools and a railway link at Tumpat, while remaining a Malay administrative centre rather than a colonial or immigrant one.

On the night of 8 December 1941 Japanese forces landed on the beaches near Kota Bharu, the first major battle of the Pacific War and the start of the Malayan campaign; the airfield fell within days. After independence the city grew as Kelantan's administrative and commercial centre, and its politics diverged from the national pattern: the Islamic party PAS has governed the state since 1990, and in 2005 Kota Bharu was declared an Islamic city, a policy visible in its by-laws and public life. Floods in 2014 and since have repeatedly damaged the city's low-lying districts.

Kota Bharu is the centre of Malay traditional arts in Malaysia. Wayang kulit Kelantan, the shadow-puppet theatre with its leather figures and gamelan-style ensemble, and mak yong, the dance-drama recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, both come from this region, as do dikir barat, the seated call-and-response singing now performed across the country, and the rebana ubi giant drums. State religious policy has restricted some performances since the 1990s, and much of what survives is kept going by ageing troupes, teaching programmes and performances at the state cultural centre.

Crafts are the other half of that identity: songket woven with gold and silver thread, batik printed and painted, silver filigree and chased silverware, carved wooden doors and boat prows, wau bulan kites with their crescent tails, and gasing tops weighted with lead that champions can keep spinning for an hour and more. Workshops in and around the city still produce them, and the handicraft village puts the processes on show.

Kelantanese speak a dialect that other Malaysians find difficult to follow, and they are known within Malaysia for their entrepreneurialism and their women traders, who run the great majority of stalls in the central market. Religious observance is public and expected: prayers punctuate the day, dress is modest, and Friday is the pivot of the week.

Well over half a million people live in the Kota Bharu district, the overwhelming majority of them Malay, with a long-settled Chinese community around Jalan Kebun Sultan, a smaller Indian population and Thai Buddhist villages in the districts towards the border. It is the largest city on the northern east coast, and the commercial and administrative centre of one of Malaysia's poorer states.

The economy runs on trade, government, education, health services and the markets: wholesale and retail businesses, textile and gold shops, transport, and cross-border commerce with Thailand through Rantau Panjang and Pengkalan Kubor. Fishing and rice growing continue in the surrounding districts. Wages in Kelantan are among the lowest in the country, and very large numbers of Kelantanese work in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, sending money home and returning for festivals; that outflow is a constant subject of local politics.

The day starts early — markets from before dawn, offices and shops from about eight — and pauses for prayers, with a long midday break on Fridays. Evenings are for the night markets, the beach road and the coffee shops, but the city is quiet by late evening and there is little nightlife in the usual sense. Floods, roads, jobs for young people and the long-running dispute with the federal government over oil revenue are the recurring issues.

Kelantanese cooking is sweeter, more herb-heavy and more coconut-rich than the rest of Malaysia's, and Kota Bharu is the best place to eat it. Nasi kerabu is the signature: rice tinted blue-grey with butterfly-pea flowers, heaped with shredded herbs and raw vegetables, grated toasted coconut, fried fish or chicken, salted egg and fish crackers, dressed with budu, the fermented anchovy sauce that flavours much of the state's food. Nasi dagang, coconut rice steamed with fenugreek and served with a rich tuna curry, is the standard breakfast, sold out by mid-morning.

Laksam, thick rolled rice noodles in a white fish-and-coconut gravy, is eaten at any time of day; ayam percik is chicken grilled with a spiced coconut sauce, and nasi tumpang is a cone of banana leaf packed with layers of rice, fish floss, curry and omelette, originally made as food for travellers. Sweet things matter here: tahi itik, akok, and the dense layered kuih lapis appear on every market tray, coloured with pandan and palm sugar.

The central market is the city's larder, with women traders selling vegetables, river and sea fish, herbs, pickles, budu and prepared dishes from stacked stalls. Jalan Kebun Sultan provides Chinese noodle soups, roast meats and coffee-shop breakfasts, and the Wakaf Che Yeh night market grills chicken and satay until late. Alcohol is not part of public life here; iced tea, teh tarik, coconut water and sweet cordials are what accompany a meal.