Kampung Bahagia, Kuala Krai, Kelantan

Another post about the past. But not really too far back.

We had the opportunity to go to Kampung Bahagia, Kalau Krai, Kelantan. This is back in 2009, when my only camera is Olmpus mju S600. Great lil p&s, weather proof, and all that, except that the pictures aren’t really that sharp. You’ll know what I meant from the photos.

Anyway, a quick google on the place tells me that the fancy Malaysian astro-tourist was actually there before me, despite the fact that it’ll only takes me about 2 hours to get there. Here’s the page that I found that talks about Dr Sheikh Muszaphar (no-biggie to me) and gulai kawah that was served in the place (very nice food, a big deal to me ).

BTW, seems that I like to take a cheap shot on the astronauts, eh? Nothing personal, except that I firmly believed that the Angkasawan Program is a waste of rakyat’s money.

Here’s a fact that makes the kampung special. Though located in the district Kuala Krai (about 1-1/2 hours from Kota Bharu by car), it’ll require additional 1 hour travel journey via boat. Not many places in Kelantan or even Malaysian Peninsular are not reachable via land these days.

To get there, you’ll need to travel to Kuala Krai town. If you’re coming from Kota Bharu via Kota Bharu-Kuala Krai Road, just go straight into town, and keep going straight till you hit Tangga Krai. This place, formerly known as Tangga Bradley (Bradley Stairs), is one of the two de-facto standard for severity of floods in Kelantan. The steps in Bradley Stairs measures the height of flood for in-land Kelantan while the steps in Tambatan Diraja at Kota Bharu measures the severity in the low-land areas.

By the Kelantan River, at the lower end of the steps, are several jetties for the boats. I don’t really know the system here, but it is best to check with the locals about which jetty to go. Each one of them have some weird time schedule and specific destination.

coming down to one of the jetties

It’ll take about 1 hour to travel to Kampung Bahagia with the all-powerfull speed boat while going upstream-against the current (and 45 minutes of travel while coming back, downstream).

the high-speed boat ride

Plenty of views to be seen along the river.

a parked boat similar to what we're riding

a kid waiting for someone by the river

When you get to Kampung Bahagia, you’ll be greeted by series of stairs and all the billboards notifying you what is happening at the place. At the top of this stair is a kedai kopi (cafe!) which also acts as open PO box where the postmen will dump all the mails for the kampung folk. I guess nobody loses their mail yet with this system. All based on trust. The good thing about kampung life.

another jetty by the Kelantn River

welcome to Kg. Bahagia

a project by BN government

klinik desa kg. bahagia.

That’s it. Selamat Datang ke Kampung Bahagia.