Most Malaysian cities retired the beca decades ago. Kota Bharu did not. Around Padang Merdeka, the markets and the old shophouse streets, the trishaws are still parked in the shade waiting for a fare, and the men who ride them have often been doing it for thirty or forty years.
Look closely at one and you will see it is a piece of craft in its own right. The passenger carriage sits beside the rider rather than behind, the frame is painted in reds, yellows and greens, and the hood is stitched canvas that folds back on a sunny morning. Owners decorate them the way other people decorate a car, and no two look quite the same.
The reason to take one is the speed. A beca moves at roughly walking pace, which turns out to be the right pace for this part of town. You notice the shop signs, the smell of a kedai kopi, the doorway of a goldsmith you would have driven straight past. Riders know the city well and will happily point things out, though the loghat is thick and a smile carries most of the conversation.
Agree the fare before you sit down, keep some small notes on you, and treat the ride as a short hop between places rather than transport across the city. It works beautifully between Pasar Siti Khadijah and the palaces around Istana Jahar, which is the same ground our heritage walk covers on foot.
It is one of the last places in the country where you can do this, and the trade survives because people here still use it. Ride one while that is true.