Ipoh, Again

The first time I went to Ipoh was at the end of October 2021. Since then, I haven’t been there again. At least until October 2023. After almost two years of not coming to the British colonial city, I finally decided to pay it a second visit.

Firstly because I needed to finish my annual leave as I still had a lot of them—eight before the year ended; and secondly because in October I was distressed and I think I needed to somehow distract myself from the sadness. Not that I didn’t acknowledge my feelings, no, but I think it is better to just being sad somewhere else far away in a new place rather than crying alone in my own room—at least for a while. So off I went.

I went there on 26-29 Oct 2023. It was considered a lot—probably too much—if I was just staying in Ipoh for the whole four days, but luckily this time I wasn’t just visiting the capital city of Perak. Lai, lemme tell you more about it.

Ipoh, Kellie’s Castle, and iPhone 15 Pro Max (26 Oct 2023)

I booked the train ticket to Ipoh in the early October. While for the return ticket to KL, I needed to wait for my friend, Siska, to confirm her participation. After she decided to join, I bought two return tickets the following week. But we wouldn’t be vacationing together on the whole four days because she didn’t take any leave and only utilised her rest days.

So on the first day, I was pretty much alone—kind off. Nah, I’m kidding. On the first day, I was accompanied by one of my Ipohite friends, Jason. At first, his plan was to just teman me makan. But after knowing that he still had ample of time, he decided to take me to the Kellie’s Castle. On my first visit to Ipoh two years prior, I had visited the unfinished castle site. But I think there was no harm to do the second visit. So off we went.

It was Thursday and as expected the castle was mostly empty—which I like. I tried to take as many good pictures as possible, but my old iPhone XS Max could only do that much. Luckily I got Jason and his latest iPhone 15 Pro Max. So I didn’t complain when he helped me to take some of the pictures. I eventually requested him to take majority of the pictures there. The result? Well, you couldn’t ask for more.

One of the pictures taken with the powerful iPhone 15 Pro Max

After Kellie’s Castle, we went back to the city and Jason went back to his home after fetching me to my hotel—I was staying at Brick Box Hotel. We planned to have dinner as well but on the very same day his sister lost her wallet so he needed to accompany her to the police station to make the report. So I had dinner alone in Tong Sui Kai.

There was a funny moment happened there. Right after I ordered a food, a drink, and a dessert, an uncle came to me with a menu and said something in Cantonese or Hokkien, which I’m not familiar with either of them. I said to him, in English, that I don’t speak Cantonese or Hokkien. Without saying anything, he left. Not long after that, a younger guy came—I bet it’s his son.

“Sorry, sir, my dad was asking whether you really order these two—he pointed at the tea o ais and mango dessert illustration—or just one?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s both,” I said while awkwardly smiling.

“Oh, okay.”

Not long after that, all the food came. Upon paying, I asked the guy, “Actually, what language did your father speak? Is it Cantonese or Hokkien, ah? Cuz I don’t speak any of it.”

“Oh, it’s Cantonese.”

“I see. 其實粵語我不知道但是漢語可以一點點啦。”

“欸，那這樣你跟我爸爸可以說話嘛。”

We both laughed.

The food I ordered at Tong Sui Kai

Taiping, Laziness, and Hesitation (27 Oct 2023)

The idea of visiting the city of Taiping was planted into my brain in March 2023 where another Ipohite friends of mine, Frankie, was telling me that if I would visit Ipoh, he would then take me to Taiping and we would be strolling around the smol city. “You will be fall(ing) in love with Taiping,” he said.

Long story short, my plan to visit Ipoh in March 2023 was of course didn’t materialise because for the umpteenth time, Frankie was unavailable. Again. I was a bit annoyed by this and he knows it, too—he eventually made up for it, though. I’ll let you know in a bit down there. So when I got the extra little time in Ipoh, I was saying to myself, “Why don’t I just go to Taiping?” One-day round-trip tickets of Ipoh-Taiping-Ipoh were then purchased not long after that.

Taiping’s Raintree Walk

On the second day, a half of me woke up with a lazy feeling of not wanting to go and just wanting to stay on the bed. The desire to just continue my precious sleep was undeniably hard to resist. But the other half also thought that, “What’s the point of coming all the way up here and bought those tickets if you don’t eventually go? The ticket could have been bought by someone else who probably needed it more than you!” An internal conflict that eventually won by the latter.

I arrived in Taiping at around 10:27 AM. At first, my plan was to go to Antong Coffe Factory because it looks like it was in a walking distance. But the road didn’t look that promising on Google Maps, so I changed my mind. I went to Uncle Chuan Kopitiam for a breakfast and I had my very first mee Jawa there. Boy, I wasn’t disappointed. Go give it a try if you guys happen to be visiting Taiping.

Mee Jawa at Uncle Chuan Kopitiam

After breakfast, I continued my journey to Perak Museum and then to the All Saints Church. There wasn’t much of anything in the museum. But there were some visitors who mostly were families with kids. I guess I was the only one thirty-year-old man visiting it alone. LOL.

There was a bit of eeriness when the room was all empty. Just me and the diorama. I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but it wasn’t a comfortable feeling and it also wasn’t that scary either. So my suggestion would be that if you plan to visit Perak Museum, better to have a company—or two.

Taiping’s All Saints’ Church

As for the church, I only took the pictures from the outside because I wasn’t so sure if we are allowed to go into the church area as it is also a part of a cemetery. So yeah, I didn’t complain.

From there, I walked under the sun until I got a comfortable location to order a Grab and then continued my journey to Double Tap Cafe. Basically my job there was to kill time before strolling around Taiping Lake and eventually went back to Ipoh. I had a dessert and a coffee there and managed to fill in my monthly checkin for the month of October in my journal—which I had been neglected for almost four weeks due to an unforeseen circumstance. I also managed to write up some draft for my Port Dickson trip, which was also neglected due to the same reason.

The badly needed caffeine intake—and dessert

Upon seeing that I only have one-and-half hour before my train departed from Taiping, I decided to finish my business there and went to the Taiping Lake, which was only a walking distance from the cafe. There, I was using tripod for the first time and I wasn’t so sure what happened, but it seems that the tripod I borrowed from my friend, Zia, was having a bit of an issue. Because it couldn’t seem to take pictures if the distance was “too far”. And by “too far”, I meant no more than two-metres. So I decided to just take the pictures from as close distance as possible.

The result? Well, for a first-time tripod user, it wasn’t that bad, but maybe because my phone was not as advance as any iPhone Pro Max, you kind of knew that there were things that can improve had I had a better phone. And, nah, I’m not gonna buy new phone anytime soon.

My candid work—with the help of a borrowed tripod

Right after I decided that it was time for me to go, rain started to pour slowly at the Raintree Walk. Kind of fitting, I guess. A few minutes later, my Grab arrived and took me to the train station. By the time we arrived there, it was raining cats and dogs. I was lucky.

Harry Potter, Dim Sum, and Tasik Cermin(s) (28 Oct 2023)

On my third day, Siska finally joined me on the trip. A few weeks before, I suggested her to book the earliest bus possible for herself because the bus might take longer time than the train and the bus terminal is a bit far from the city-centre. I was wrong. The bus arrived way earlier than expected—it was speeding. I was still packing my staff and hadn’t taken shower by the time the bus came, so I had to left her to her own devices. Only after around 10:30 AM I checked out and then we met. I had planned to move to another hotel for the sake of trying them out. So I also had to take my fully-loaded backpack with me.

As the subtitle suggested, we went to the renowned Harry Potter cafe of Platform 9½ of Ipoh. The place is quite famous. If you’re into Harry Potter, you can give this place a try. We ordered the butterbeer and two slices of cake. For me, personally, both the food and the place was okay and I don’t think I will give it a chance for a second visit.

The butterbeer and cakes at Platform 9½

From the cafe, we both tried to checked in early to our hotel. We stayed at two different hotels so we would know the difference and would consider every options should we have another chance to visit Ipoh. My second hotel would be JQ Ban Loong Boutique Hotel, while Siska’s was Belakang Kong Heng By DreamScape. It was separated by a few hundred metres but was still within a close proximity.

From our hotels, we decided to go to Canning Dim Sum for our lunch. It was also on the list of everyone’s “Places you must visit in Ipoh“. Because the place is halal-certified, it has definitely become a popular culinary trip destination for many Muslim travellers.

Yum!

After devouring our lunch, we went to the two-and-only Tasik Cermin(s)—the S is intentional. There had been a lot of improvement since the first and last time I was there in 2021. From what seem to be an abandoned quarry, Tasik Cermin has transformed into a well-maintained tourist destination. I’m not entirely sure when the development had started, but from a traveller’s point of view, I can say that this is a good progress.

The place now has official ticketing system with designated counter and staff. The way from the entrance to the tasik has been electrically lit. They also have a corner dedicated for information counter and two lake tours—yes, two. As now we have two Tasik Cermin(s). A hidden lake—Tasik Cermin 2—has now been made open for public to explore. By joining the boat tour, of course.

The hidden beauty of the Tasik Cermin 2

If you have been to the area before the transformation, the first Tasik Cermin is the one that we normally see, with addition of the aforementioned facilities. While the second one, it is actually hidden behind the karst mountains and can only be accessed using boats through a smol tunnel from the entrance of the Tasik Cermin 2. Interestingly, the latter is actually closer to the main road.

After some consideration, we decided to go for the Tasik Cermin 2 boat tour, and boy, we were so right for making the decision! It was a fun and exciting experience! The fee for the tour was RM25, which I think was pretty worth it.

After being awed by the natural beauty of the hidden lake, we decided to take a short break at the neighbouring cafe of Kin Loong Valley Chang Jiang White Coffee. We both had tea o ais with a unique presentation. Not long after that, we decided to go back to our hotel. Exhausted.

Kin Loong Valley Chang Jiang White Coffee

Nasi Kandar, Cave, and Exhaustion (29 Oct 2023)

Our initial plan was actually to go to Qing Xin Ling Leisure and Cultural Village. But we were unprepared and probably didn’t notice on the Google Maps that the place was closed on Sunday. We didn’t know this until only we were on our way to the location. The Grab driver uncle who happens to be living nearby the site told us on our way there. Apparently he also forgot it when he picked us up and only realised it when we almost arrived.

The uncle told us that the road to the site passes through a housing area. The community there had been giving feedback that their peaceful Sunday had been continually perturbed by the coming vehicles every now and then. Since they spend most their time at home on Sunday, they have requested the manager—or whichever entity responsible—to close the tourist destination on Sunday.

Luckily, the site is not too far from another tourist attraction of Kek Look Tong. It is an enormous cave which also functions as a temple. But before we headed there on a sudden change-of-plan of the day, we had to start our day with a breakfast—or rather a late brunch cuz we had it at around 12:30 PM. There was no a better place to go than the renown Nasi Ganja Ipoh.

The food need no introduction

For the record, nasi kandar is not at the top on my list of Malaysian dish, but I gotta admit that theirs was probably the best nasi kandar that I have ever had in entire Malaysia. But I’m definitely open for recommendations. So if you guys happen to know any good one here in Kuala Lumpur, I’ll gladly give them a try. After having the nasi kandar, you guys know what happened.

The cave has both an entrance and an exit. At the exit, there is a park with a vast grassed plain, some trees, another water-related attraction, and some monkeys. We spent about an hour there—which somehow felt longer than it actually was. Initially, I was thinking whether we should go to Gunung Lang, but after some consideration, we decided we will take a rest somewhere before heading to the train station.

Me from the back with the heavy-ass backpack. Oh, and look at the view!

We were so exhausted despite the short time we spent there. Probably because we had brought our backpacks with us as well after we had checked out earlier that day. Mine was especially way heavier as I packed for a four-day trip compare to Siska’s two-day.

After some careful thought, we decided to take a rest at Ipoh’s Plan B. One was because the place is at a walking-distance to the train station. Two was because the place is spacious so we didn’t have to worry about the next customers who might be waiting for a table. It was a wise decision, considering that we no longer had access to our hotel and the train would only depart at 6:35 PM, but it was also a regrettable one as I had to spent around RM77 for the meals and beverages there. Considering the number of food I had ordered, however, I think the price was still justifiable. In total I had two drinks, a big portion of a Grilled Lemongrass Chimcken Salad, and a slice of onde-onde cake.

The chimcken salad

After countless conversations and a number of silence here and there due to tiredness, the time of our train departure was finally nearing. Around 30 minutes before the time, we were on our way to Ipoh’s train station. At first I was contemplating whether we should take a Grab there due to my overweight bag. But after spending some amount of money on food and seeing that the distance was merely 500 m, I decided that it was probably wiser to just go by foot. Exercise, I thought.

Our spontaneous trip to Ipoh was almost over. At around 6:35 PM, the train departed Ipoh’s train station inbound to Kuala Lumpur. We didn’t talk much inside the train. Understandable. We arrived at KL Sentral around 9:13 PM and we were drained to continue our last leg of the journey by LRT. So we ordered Grab to take us home. It was, once again, a wise decision.

Not a Whoosh! but still whoosh-y

That’s Not All. Impromptu Third Visit (8-9 Dec 2023)

I’m not sure which one I like better, the first statement or the second one, so I used both. Of course, if it is not full of surprise, it is not me. For the same reason of finishing my annual leave—now using three out four—I decided to go to Ipoh again in the early December. Initially, my plan was to use to the leaves to move to my new place and then tidying up. But apparently, I managed to do it in a shorter time than I had anticipated. So eventually I had two extra days, which was actually my original rest days of Friday-Saturday, to be spent.

As I have mentioned above, an Ipohite friend of mine, Frankie, had promised to take me to Taiping if I were to visit Ipoh. But since I had made the trip myself earlier in October, the idea was no longer interesting. But then I was thinking, I haven’t met this guy for over a year, so I guess it was no harm to give the city a second visit in the span of a few weeks. So off I went—again.

As Frankie was only available at night, I decided to take the afternoon train of 11:32 AM from Kuala Lumpur. Upon arriving, I headed to the same Brick Box Hotel by foot (trust me, it is that near). I booked a different hotel name under the “Brick Box Hotel“, which is cheaper than the previous one I chose, I didn’t know why. But I was a bit confused because this time I didn’t get any instruction where I can collect the access card to my room. Previously it can be collected from the key safe-box outside, but this time it was a little bit different as I didn’t receive any messages anywhere.

Brick Box Hotel

I was waiting for almost an hour, while waiting for a response, at the empty lobby only to found out that it was a self-service checkin where I could just take the key at the receptionist desk—which I stoopidly didn’t inspect thoroughly the first time I entered the lobby—and then swifted into my room. Lesson learned.

I took a rest for a while before Frankie fetched me for our dinner. As he felt sorry for the not-materialised Taiping trip, he took me to this fancy Chinese restaurant of The Museum. I told him several times that we should ordered a smol amount of food as we might not be able to finish it. But he was so stubborn and ordered quite a lot. As I had predicted, we couldn’t finish them all.

That was not all. There was another plate coming up after this

There he insisted that I should finish the meal, saying that I was a guess and that his mother has told him to treat me well. He had done exactly that, but my stomach was too full. So I regretfully had to left the food unfinished. Something that I always try to avoid when it comes to eating—except only when the food was too awful or when I’m fully satiated. I’m sorry.

After we finished our dinner, it was raining cats and dogs and we didn’t bring our umbrella so we had to wait for a few minutes until we can run to Frankie’s car and continue to our next’s stop. We went to Kedai Biskut Happiness Authentic Local Delights and I bought salted peanut candy, heong peah, and some tea.

On my second and last day, we decided to have breakfast the next morning. I was craving for some dimsum and we went to Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum. Reflecting from yesterday’s dinner where we could not finish the whole meal, this time I took a moderate amount of food and I insisted Frankie to not taking too much food. It was yet another a wise decision.

This time we managed to finish it

After the breakfast, we went to Kedai Makanan Nam Heong so that I could buy their egg tart before Frankie fetched me to my hotel and he rushed back to his home to work. He was an angel on those two days. Bless him.

My plan was actually to use the 12:02 PM train to get back to KL. But I was too lazy to wait for the next few hours. So I left the ticket unused and I booked for an earliest possible bus that would take me to KL ASAP. After some drama of almost going to the wrong destination—Terminal Amanjaya instead of Sri Maju Bus Station—I finally managed to get onto my 8:30 AM bus.

It took me around four hours to arrive at KL Sentral because the bus was bound for Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS). While the same trip with a train usually take about 2h 40-ish minutes. An apparent prove that a train trip between the capital city and Ipoh is quicker than that of a bus—except maybe if you guys staying nearby TBS.

I don’t visit Ipoh that often, but when I do, it was two kind-of impromptu visits that were separated by a mere few weeks.

Was it too close? Probably.

Was it boring? Far from that.

Because even after three trips, there are still some places that I haven’t had a chance to visit; and I will make sure to give them places a visit. Although probably not that near in the future. We’ll see.