Kota Bahru

This place is mostly a stopover place for people going to the islands and the cheap hostels are easily found online and in guidebooks. I stayed at denai lodge for rm15 per night(the place is mosquito infested).
Food is decently cheap again and the night market has a good choice, iced lemon tea is called teh o ben limau here(Ben instead of ais). The place doesn't have much to offer, but people are friendly and especially the children at the night market are awesome.

There are usually some silat events to see you have your usual fare of mosques etc.. I just spent 5 days relaxing and doing nothing. I thought I'd meet other travelers there but I had no luck for some reason the few usually arrived late and left the next morning. I supposedly was lucky seeing this big silat convention with different styles from different Asian countries. Apart from that I slept a lot.

Kemaman

I hitched my way to kemaman, and planned to stay two days, because I felt I needed some time of rest after all the camping and suspected a fungal infection because of several red itchy patches of skin. At first things looked bleak. The only place there calling itself a hostel had a room rate of rm120 ... and nobody at the reception. I didn't give up however and managed to find a cheap enough hotel with one room for rm 25. It was a tiny room, barely enough space for the double bed(but with ensuite shower) and I wondered whether they used it for 'special' guests usually(fittingly called VIP room..). It was good enough for sleeping so I took it. I was pretty much the only foreigner around and locals were quite friendly especially the Chinese. A guy called Harry decided to give me a tour of kemamans heavy industry.

The place didn't seem as conservative as I read it would be, or the Chinese just don't care. I saw a few just wearing hot pants.