"Kota Bharu, the Islamic City" Kota Baru by ntm2322

Kota Bharu means ‘new city’ or 'new castle', is situated in the northeastern part of Peninsular Malaysia and is the largest town on the east coast with a population of around 425,000 people, the majority are Muslim.

When I first visited the city in October of 1992 its name was simply Kota Bharu. On October 1st of 2005, Kota Bharu was declared Kota Bharu, the Islamic City.

I like Kota Bharu very much. It is a very typical and genuine Malaysian city, it has beautiful mosques and museums and its architecture is quite unique. And in order to respect the Azan all activities in the city must stop. For your information, Azan (or Adhan) is the Islamic call to prayer and is recited by the muezzin (this is a person who leads the call to Friday service and the five daily prayers) from one of the mosque's minarets.

Whenever you are, even if you are in the supermarket or shopping centre, you will surely hear the call.

A genuine Islamic place!

Eating
If you like to eat and want to know how the local cuisine tastes like, some of your best choices are nasi kerabu, nasi berlauk, nasi dagang. And for the most gluttonous ones you can also try the sweet cakes (called kuih) of which the most popular are apom, curry puff, pisang goreng, etc.

Shopping
For shopping you have the Kota Bharu Central Market, the Kota Bharu Trade Center (KBTC) situated next to it (actually, this is the largest shopping centre in Kota Bharu), Kota Seri Mutiara, KB Mall, Pelangi Mall, etc.