Ipoh

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Another fairly early rise (well for us anyway!) to catch the early bus to Ipoh. A rather comfy large bus took us to the bus station where we grabbed a taxi to the hotel. It turned out the hotel, although clean and with good AC, was a long way away from the centre of town. The drive to Ipoh was absolutely stunning the huge limestone cliffs either side of the bus covered with palm trees. The Chinese owner was really unhelpful and not at all clear whether we had booked or had paid for it. After checking the emails once again, and then firing up the so far reliable Nationwide Flex Card (they should advertise the fact that their rates are better than STA Travel more, I think).

We then grabbed a taxi to town (our Hotel Owner had no understanding of the buses whereabouts or times) and wandered down by the river in search of some food. WE visited yet another lovely clock-tower and wondered to ourselves why my friend Ashwin was so in love with his home town. If we had had more time we would have done a jungle tour into the countryside which is Ipoh's main draw, however as a stopover en-route to Langkawi it didn't have much to occupy us for a half a day. Nevertheless, it being my Birthday (despite deciding to actually celebrate it in Langkawi), we decided cake and beer was in order. We found a chain restaurant called Old Town White Coffee named after Ipoh's famous coffee and I tried a Malaysian speciality called Assam Laksa. It was very strange if I am honest, but definitely met its spicy description of being very hot. It seemed to consist mostly of rice noodles, mint, pineapple and anchovies. Interesting I must say.

We rounded off the evening in true style with discounted fudge cake from Tesco Extra and some Guinness Foreign Export. Not quite the most exotic of Birthdays, but then again, cake and beer is always a good thing.

The next morning we decided to visit Ipoh's Perawak Cave. Of all the cave temples in Ipoh, Perawak is the best maintained with a series of deep caverns with beautiful golden statues. We had hoped to get a taxi but after waiting for nearly 15 minutes, a shirted man in a large western car who had been parked off the side of the road asked if we would like a lift. Now, Mother and Father, if it had not been for his perfect English and nice not Drug owner looking car we would have said no, but the man had lived and worked in London and very kindly dropped us right at the entrance to the temple.

The temple opened up with several steep stone steps leading up the cliff face. As Andrew was in pain with his knees I ventured upwards with the other tourists, leaving Andrew to enjoy the sounds of an off tuned recorder player. There was rather a nice view from the top of the steps but also a lot of funny looking monkey s and tourists.We then took a very demanding taxi to the ferry where we very easily purchased two tickets to Lankawi. The ferry was a fairly pleasant albeit with a very noisy family. When we arrived at the Twin Peaks Resort there was no one in sight. After a 20 minute wait we were finally checked in to our little wooden cabin. We had a burger cooked fresh from a street cart and then headed to bed.

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Photos

Tesco Resuced Fudge Cake
Mother will be pleased with the yellow label!