Day 101: Exploring Ipoh

Exploration time! We had a full day here to fully explore the city, and intended to make use of it. Ipoh is Malaysia's fourth-largest city (700k people), and is an old tin mining town. The large mountains that surround it on three sides are full of tin, and for a hundred years or so between 1870 and 1970 tin mining made a lot of people very rich. These days the tin boom has subsided, and only one mine is still in active use. But the city is rebounding with tourism and although fairly unknown to outsiders, Malaysians come here in droves to eat the tasty food. Time to explore!

We'd read online that there was a 2-3 hour heritage walk that runs every Saturday morning, starting at 8am from the station, so we figured that would make a good first stop. So an early start for me (I even used an alarm!), and we were out the door by 7:45, at the station just before 8am. But no sign of the tour or anyone else there. I asked a couple of staff members and nobody seemed to know anything about it!

Defeated, we figured we may as well just do the walking tour ourselves following an online guide and map. There were plaques at most of the buildings in the first half of the walk, though they sort of petered out a bit, to the point where most buildings in the latter half didn't have a plaque. Most of the stops were grand old colonial buildings like the station, courthouse (now the town hall), first Anglican church, mosque, a commemorative clock tower named after the first British governor (who was subsequently murdered after some heavy-handed law enforcement; the adjacent street is named after his murderer), and a few other buldings like the post office, some old banks and some shophouses. Most of the old town is very British colonial, like Penang and Melacca, and like the old Chinatown districts in Singapore as well.

Also marked on several spots were street art murals, many done by the same renowned artist who'd done them in George Town (Penang). We wandered around checking these out, then stopped in a nice cafe for a coffee and a rest. Batteries recharged, we headed back out and checked out the area known as Concubine Lane, where all the tin mining magnates used to keep their mistresses. Now it's full of knick-knack shops and Chinese tour groups, so we wandered through fairly hastily before stopping at a museum dedicated to Yasmine Abdul, a Malaysian director of several films and many ads. Quite an oddball character, so the museum was very interesting.

By now it was lunch time so we grabbed a table in a Chinese hawker hall and had several dishes. Highlight was definitely the popiah, a large steamed spring roll filled with vegetables and crushed peanuts, topped with a mild chilli sauce. Delicious! Also had some egg custard tarts, satay sticks and some pastries (char siew pork, kaya, and an awful one with pork, chilli and anchovies which went straight in the bin!).

After lunch we did some more wandering, checking out various shops and more street art. Eventually we retreated to another cafe where I tried another local delicacy - white coffee. The beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine and coconut, meaning that the coffee is white without adding milk, and is very sweet. Just the way I like it.

We also met up with a travel blogger friend of Shandos's who is working for a few days at a hostel in Ipoh, albeit on the other side of town. He had a couple of hours to spare so came and visited us, where we went to another cafe but this time I decided on juice rather than coffee. After parting from Jub we headed back for the hotel, just in time to miss a huge downpour which started right as we arrived back.

Relaxed and freshened up for a bit, before heading back out around 6pm. We'd heard that Market Street was having a Chinese festival tonight (Mooncake festival apparently) starting at 6pm, so we wandered over there. Absolutely nothing was happening, but the people nearby said it was starting at 7:30. Not wanting to wait 90 minutes in the drizzle, we headed off to find some dinner - salted chicken. This is another local dish where they wrap a chicken in butcher's paper and then cook it in a wok full of heated salt.

The place was just closing up (the entire town apparently runs on bus trip tourists making a long day trip up from KL, so the place is empty outside of 11am-4pm), but we grabbed some takeaway and ate in a nearby Muslim food court. Not my favourite dish I have to say - aside from being very greasy and salty, it just didn't have that great a flavour. After washing up we we both still a bit peckish, so went to an Indian cafe around the corner. A misunderstanding of the menu meant that when we thought we ordered two garlic naans, we actually ordered two garlic naans and two tandoori chicken platters! So two half-chickens turned up with curry dips along with our naans. We sent one back, but the tandoori chicken was just so much better than the salted chicken I probably could have eaten both plates!

By now it was dark and 7:30pm - perfect time to visit the sports bar we'd seen the night before where I could watch the Man United game. Shandos retreated to the hotel, so I watched the game entirely on my own in a cavernous bar, surrounded by 3 bar staff and nobody else. Until a Malaysian guy came in, sat right next to me and started smoking - what a jerk! And it was the only "sports bar" I've ever been in where they have a game on TV but no sound; they insisted on playing god-awful EDM remixes of pop songs, making my ears bleed. Alas. At least United won, a stonking 4-1 victory over champions Leicester City. Back to the hotel ahead of check-out tomorrow, and another first for our trip - we're hiring a car tomorrow!Read more