We ain't in Thailand anymore..

I was awesome
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After crossing the border and getting some money changed at a terrible rate at a gas station as I couldn't find anywhere else, I flagged down a bus on the main road heading to the major town of Kota Bharu.  The east is predominantly Malay Muslim, meaning that 99% of women are wearing head scarfs and long flowing dresses in all sorts of beautiful colours and designs.  I had made sure to wear clothes that covered myself adequately, but still felt under dressed.  Especially given a very creepy man in the bus who stared at me the entire 1 hour bus journey, craning around in his seat in front of me.

Believe it or not, these guys are fighting
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I checked into a dingy backpackers, into a dorm as accommodation is very expensive here compared to Thailand.  In the dorm I met a guy who had travelled down on the train the same day as me - except the train was made to back up to Had Yai and they all got on buses for the rest of the journey, without much explanation why.  He later found out that it was derailed by extremists - so my instinct about not travelling by train was well founded!

..I was dragged up to embarrass myself on the drums...

After a chat with the guesthouse owner I went for a walk to check out a culture centre that has traditional performances three days a week, as I happened to be there on the right day.  Imagine my surprise to see the Malay culture centre full of stalls selling "Chiang mai cotton" and "Bangkok fashion" - I had arrived during a festival celebrating Thai-Malaysia relations.  But I did see a performance of tradition instruments and a highly stylised form of martial arts, like a more obviously combative Tai Chi.  Being the only whitey in the audience I was dragged up to embarrass myself on the drums.

As I was leaving I met a girl from South Africa, and we went for a beer in China town (the only place where you can get beer) then had dinner at the night market, where there were lots of yummy food stalls to choose from.  She filled me in on the Perihantian islands, where I was off to the next day.