Day 105: Back to Ipoh

By late yesterday we'd realised that although the Cameron Highlands were very pretty in places, not doing any serious trekking meant that we'd rather over-estimated the amount of things to do. So instead of just hanging around at a loose end, we decided to head back to Ipoh.

Had breakfast in our usual Indian spot, then hopped in the car and started driving back in no particular hurry. The drive wasn't as bad as I remembered it being, but it still took quite a while. We arrived back in Ipoh at lunchtime, and decided we'd head back to the same Chinese restaurant as the other day for more popiah, but tragically it was closed.

We mournfully had a Hainan chicken rice dish instead, which was still fairly good. Rather than heading straight for the hotel, there was one last spot on the outskirts of Ipoh we wanted to see - some cave paintings up to 4000 years old. We drove out to the spot, parked in a nearby petrol station and headed off on the walk. Although the paintings themselves are on public land, there's no way to access them without trespassing across the polo club's fields. I think there's a dispute between the government and the club about how much the access rights are worth, so of course nothing gets done.

We scaled a couple of fences, wandered across the fields past grazing horses, climbed a very steep 200+ set of stairs, and finally arrived at the rock art. It was very nice, similar in style to the Aboriginal art from up in Kakadu and similar places. Depictions of animals, people, hunters and so on. And very well preserved, despite being very close to a major city. It seems like not many people come through here (though of course those who do seem to scratch out a mark of some sort). Thankfully the paintings were higher up the cliff face and couldn't be reached by vandals - at least not dedicated vandals without ladders and so on.

Once we'd had our fill we drove back to the hotel - we'd decided to book in to the same place as we were quite happy with it on our earlier stay. This room is on the 9th floor and not quite as big, but still a good size. Spent the rest of the afternoon Skyping and doing internet stuff.

Headed out for dinner that night to a restaurant called Plan B which was quite modern and fancy by Malaysian standards. I had a fried chicken burger and Shandos had a salad. Back to the hotel fairly early where we took advantage of the free movies on demand, and watched the 2016 Jungle Book remake. Reasonable entertainment for 90 minutes!Read more