Ipoh

---

When doing some rough planning of my trip, I had decided that I really wanted to visit Ipoh for some reason. However after consulting with my friend, who'd lived in Malaysia, she'd advised not to go if I was going to Georgetown as they were similar and to go to the Cameron Highlands instead. Luckily, I had enough time on my itinerary to visit all three places. However, I would only be having a quick pit-stop in Ipoh. The bus journey from the Cameron Highlands was uneventful and took around two hours, maybe a bit longer. I really can't remember. The bus station in Ipoh is miles out of town and all the hostels say what a ballache it is to get from there to the city centre. I had researched online how to get there and hoped I didn't mess it up. There is an information desk in the bus station and I asked the lasses working there where to get the local bus into the city. They pointed me upstairs and i found the gate easily. I had to wait about half an hour for the bus and it took about 20 minutes to get to the local bus station close to the city centre. It definitely was as the hostels online make it out to be, just time consuming. I had more stress trying to find my hostel as the sign outside wasn't very prominent. I had booked a really cheap dorm bed, the reason it was so cheap, no air-con. I would definitely melt during the night, but at least I had a fan I could blast at my bed.

Now, off to explore Ipoh. I only really had a couple of things I wanted to do here given the short amount of time I had; look at the street art and visit the Old Town White Coffee flagship store. I was staying on the edge of Little India, so I took a wander through there. It was interesting, but nothing amazing. I've got to get to India itself one day. I was walking in the vague direction of the train station, I was going to kind of do a loop around that side of town, but I got intrigued by an alleyway which had some street art so headed up there. At the other end of the alley were some steps leading up to Birch Memorial. The memorial is a clock tower that was erected in 1909 in honour of James W. W. Birch, the first British resident in Perak state. Things didn't end well for Mr. Birch as he had been murdered by local Malay chiefs in 1875. There is a food court surrounding the clock tower and since it was lunch time it was fairly busy with people. Across the road is Masjid Negeri, a big mosque. I loved the big sign out the front of the mosque stating that Islam is a religion of peace. More people need to remember this and stop blaming the actions of a few on the majority. Rant over! I was pretty close to the train station now, so I headed over there. The gardens in front of it were really pretty. The train station looked like it had once been a grand building, but was now crumbling into disrepair. I headed into the station and went to what I thought was the ticket counter. I got that wrong, I think it was the place for taxis. The woman pointed me in the right direction. I went into the next office and was promptly ignored by the staff, who were standing around doing nothing. Finally one of them deigned to serve me, or so I thought, but instead pointed out the ticket machine to join the queue. Seriously, Malaysia you need to sort your signage out! Nothing is clear. Also, get rid of the lazy staff at the train station. I got my ticket and headed out to wait on the benches. It took about 5-10 minutes for my ticket to get called. I was able to book a train ticket to KL Sentral for the next morning.

I was feeling hungry by this point so headed off to find the Old Town White Coffee for some lunch. On the way I spotted the first of the seven street art murals designed by Ernest Zacharevic. Zacharevic, a Lithuanian artist worked in conjunction with Old Town White Coffee, a Malaysian cafe/restaurant chain that started in Ipoh. I soon found the first mural. 'Old Uncle with White Coffee', on the side of the Old Town White Coffee building. It looked cool, I snapped a few pictures of the mural and the map on the side of the wall next to it. I thought that would help me to locate the other murals easily. I headed into Old Town White Coffee for some lunch. I've been before but just for breakfast, so I was looking forward to trying something more substantial. I ordered the Curry Mee, which the waiter recommended and a coffee. I didn't have to wait too long for the food and there was free wifi to keep me entertained. The Curry Mee were delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

After my meal, I headed out, I still had six more murals to find. The location on the map that i had took a picture of left a lot to be desired. They just seemed to be a rough approximation, I know it says to use GPS coordinates, but I am not technical enough to do stuff like that. Giving in to my inner OCD, I had wanted to visit the murals in order, but due to the crapness of the map, it didn't work out that way. I came across the 'Paper Plane' mural. This mural shows two young boys riding a paper plane and mucking about,what an idyllic childhood that would be to fly in a paper plane. I came to the 'Kopi-O' mural next. Kopi-O is traditional Malaysian black coffee, I loved the progression in the mural showing the coffee slowly being drunk. I had walked along to the Old Town proper by this point and was loving all the gorgeous building. They had that crumbling, decaying elegance just like the buildings in Georgetown had had.

The next mural I found was entitled 'Evolution', which was definitely my favourite one. It was huge, taking over the whole side of the building. The mural is painted in the style of a traditional Chinese ink painting, lots of black inky shadows contrasting with the white background. The mural depicts Ipoh's past as a mining town. I also came across some other street art, which was cute. I love that it is re-vitalising the area, it reminds me of the run down villages in Korea, that get loads of street art and become tourist attractions, bringing money into the area. I wandered away from the old town bit to find my next mural, Humming Bird, I have to say this one looks better in the pictures I saw online. In reality it is just in a carpark with not much else about, but in the picture I saw there was a big tree next to it and the humming bird looked like it was feeding off the tree. There was a cute shop that I had liked the exterior of, and it proved to be promising inside too. There were lots of cute clothes in there and the prices were ridiculously cheap, so I ended up treating myself to a couple of things. Next, I took a walk along the pretty little lanes in the old town. I loved the facade of one of the old buildings with nothing behind it. There are three small lanes in Ipoh, which are known as the Wife Lane, Concubine Lane and Second Concubine Lane, or to given them their official names Hale Lane, Panglima Lane and Market Lane. During Ipoh's more prosperous days as a tin mining town, these lanes were filled with brothels, gambling houses ans opium dens. Now they are filled with cute shops and cafes to attract the tourists. I enjoyed wandering the cute little lanes. I don't know if the decorations are there all year round or just because it is lunar new year, but they made the streets look even prettier. I found my sixth mural, 'Trishaw' down Market Lane, I liked that this one wasn't just a mural, but incorporated an actual, old trishaw into the design. Soon after I came to the last of the seven murals, entitled 'Girl', which depicts a young girl reaching up to a bird cage. I also came across Lazy Lane, which had more artwork, cafes and shops. Such a cute little area to explore.

I wasn't really ready to return to the hostel, but didn't think that there was much else left to see in the area. I found a cafe/restaurant that I had spotted earlier and decided to idle some time away there. I'm pretty sure it was called Vintage Cafe. I had definitely made the right decision as I sat there sipping my coffee and reading on my kindle, the heavens opened. There was no way I was moving while the weather like that, so I stayed in the cafe a lot longer than I initially intended. The rain did lessen a bit, so I darted back to the hostel, using the shop fronts to take cover under.

I chilled back at the hostel for a while. I sat in the communal lounge reading and trying my hardest not to sweat. The air was super sticky and the fans were only making a minimal dent in it. Later on, when I was feeling hungry again, I headed out for some food. Since it was still raining I didn't want to go to far. There were a couple of places a few doors along from the hostel, so I picked one of them. It was an Indian restaurant, of course. I was gutted that I couldn't serve myself at the buffet and had to point out to the bloke what I wanted. I also ordered a naan bread and a Teh Tarik. The food was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Still not sick of eating Indian food every day. Back at the hostel, I had a chill evening sorting out my backpack and reading.

---

Photos

Curry Mee
Old Town White Coffee