Happy Tripping - Ipoh

Spending time with my son and his wife ( Joa Wee & Felicia ) together with my sister, Lee Lee for some Christmas holiday have always been our family yearly plan. It was no different for 2020 as we got together and planned for a family getaway. In fact, my sister, Lee Lee had been instrumental in ensuring we get to somewhere to spend some good time together. For the year 2020, it was Ipoh that we chose and probably the nearest attraction away from Penang. 

We would have chosen Haadyai, Thailand had the pandemic COVID-19 had not wrecked our plans! This time, we had quite a nice group to travel and to have fun in Ipoh. Felicia’s mom, Molly, sister’s close friend, Lay Hwa and Lai Eng together with my brother in law, Tee and Felicia, our daughter in law joined in for this fun filled time. We were very careful as we masked up (opened only when we take photographs!) and practice the necessary steps and measures of safety like washing hands, sanitizing and keeping apart at all time especially during the difficult times. We really tried avoiding crowds as much as we could.

Our accommodation in Ipoh this time was Kinta Riverfront Suites and the place was really nice, peaceful and quite quiet. Though traffic at this place was slow, Ipoh town was bustling with local tourists and people from everywhere. Despite the raging pandemic, I noticed with utter disbelief that some people just won’t masked up or keep their distance. We truly tried avoiding those jammed packed places and did not mingled too much at crowded places except for some places like the Market Lane and Concubine Lane whereby the crowd must be mad to get crowded there and truly unavoidable for us. We were in and out as fast as we could as the crowd swell in the early evening of the day. Our liquid sanitizers were squeezed out fast and quickly as we moved along these places. Despite all these, we made sure we enjoyed ourselves with couples photographs, “lemak poses “ and even hearty laughter wherever we went.

Our very first place of stop was the Ipoh iconic fruit attraction which is the pomelo farm and we stopped at Tambun Pomelo Agro Farm. It never ceased to amaze me that trees as old as 10-30 years could still yield such massive pomelo fruits. Though there was definitely a galore of fruits at the farm but this was a rather small farm with an assortment of types of fruits grown here. There were commercial guava trees, jambu air trees, medicinal fruit trees, banana trees, lime trees, kaffir lime trees and of course, pomelo trees which were heavily fruiting and ripening. However, prices for these fruits ain’t cheap and so, we only bought what we would consume for the day. 

Then, we were off to Kampung Kacang Putih for some murukku snacks buying. SLing and I led the group to our preferred kacang putih shop namely Enak & Ranggup Shop for some murukku and other Indian light condiments favourites. By this time, the back of the car were about a quarter filled!! Yeah, the ladies sure knows how to shop for good stuff! We were off to lunch next and after a simple meal of Ipoh well-known fare of bean sprouts and chicken fair , we were off to our resting place for some good ol’ rest to our not-so-young supple bodies! This was the time, Sling, Lee Lee and I sneaked out the Nam Heong Coffeeshop in town to get some packed great White Coffee, Portuguese egg tarts and yam friend dumplings with lovely pork fillings for our tea break session. It was fun going out when there was less traffic on the road and less people at the shop in the mid-afternoon.

After sharing tea goodies with the rest of our entourage of great people, we were then out to the historical places in Ipoh especially Market Lane and Concubine Lane. It was also the artistry wall drawings at the nearby places that led us to our historic poses and thus called the extra “lemak poses “ or also know as the “hiao poses”. It was such a lovely sight and drew a lot of laughter and cheer to the heart. For me, seeing my sister in her great joy moment or sharing the laughter with her friend, Lay Hwa & Lai Eng and seeing Felicia’s mom,Molly breaking a smile and enjoying herself were priceless indeed. It was also joyful to see my brother in law , Tee in his usual happy & joyous self ; together with the excitement and fun shown by Felicia, SLing and SYuen were indeed priceless. 

The wide smiles etched across their faces together with the evening sweat running down their necks amidst the sardine squad of people and joyous laughter were simply too priceless and meaningful indeed. That evening as we wind down for the day with some simple choo char dinner, we went to bed early with the anticipation of breakfast and looking forward to a great day the following morning. This was, afterall, the prelude to a better day the following day.

Bright and early morning the next day, everyone was looking forward to events of the day. After some discussion and navigation ( thank heavens for Waze! ), we managed to land ourselves at Restoran Choong Kee Pokok Besar in Pasir Pinji for the well-known yong tau fu fare. All of us picked the YTF stuff for us to enjoy and ordered white coffee delights to satisfy our palate that morning. 

After eating our hearts contents, we were off to burn out some calories and headed towards Qing Xing Ling Cultural Village. The entrance fee to this cultural experience was RM 10.00 per head and I must say that it was all well worth the money. If you are ever in Ipoh, please go this cultural village and have a taste of the yesteryears memories. Not only is this place such a beautiful sight amidst the natural limestone hill formation, it also depicts the lovely Chinese cultural lifestyle of the olden days and also some loving memories of what we would do as children. I would say that it is more of a cultural experience rather than a museum. I love the early days rickshaw experience whereby I could pull SLing around as she sits the rickshaw and also pulling her on the olden days wooden cart. 

The visits to the sample Chinese house filled with memorabilia of the past brings lots of lovely childhood memories. Placing oneself in the houses/old houses with the huge serene pond and limestone backdrop can be quite invigorating and refreshing for the eyes and souls indeed. I find it truly amazing that the owners of this place could actually capture the very essence of the culture and way of life of the people of the olden days. A good flight of stairs leading to the olden days shops making up of a drink shop, a tailor shop, a weighing shop, a wedding/bridal shop, a butcher shop, a barber stand, a record shop, a food stall, a rubber tapper stand, an olden day kitchen and lastly, the olden days poop/toilet were indeed a delight to the heart and the poor old soul of mine. Maybe, the younger generation would not have been more enthusiastic as the older people but nevertheless, it was an interesting day of re-collecting one’s thoughts. As we exit the cultural village, everyone seemed happy enough have had that experience of visiting this place. Phew! Job done!

Lunch was stupendously good in one of the restaurant recommended by Felicia. The restaurant served great food with very reasonable prices. Food fare ranges from fried pork knuckle (Thai style) , sweet potato vegetables, pork belly with salted fish, pipa duck, French beans with salted egg yoke and lastly, special sesame bun with pork and sliced onion delight. What a fare indeed! I was really awe struck by the deliciousness of the food fare. A very simple restaurant that served really quality food. I really loved it very much. From then on, it was more goodness after goodness as we stopped by the get some famous Ipoh biscuits and goodies including the salted chicken ( I really don’t fancy much of this but the Penang folks in my group seemed to love them! ) As we left Ipoh that day, I could only say that we have had a good time indeed.

To top off the beautiful day, we made one last stop in Nibong Tebal for some crab porridge. Who in the right frame of mind would come up with such a dish, you may ask. Behold, my dearest friends and family, I must say that it was simply the most ridiculous but most wonderful porridge indeed. The porridge was generously graced with some of the juiciest crabs ever and the porridge was superb but rather pricey though. Someone mentioned to me that some layman once said , “ Cheap not good; good not cheap.” For once, you pay for the quality of the food and I most definitely would not be hesitant to pay for this food. It was superb and everyone enjoyed the meal very much. To top off the nice food, we had boiled octopus tentacles with some concoction of chilied peanut sauce, fishball and lala cooked Thai style.  Super good!

As I lay down to sleep that night, I could not stop smiling that it was such a privileged having to spend some great times with everyone. I am happy and blessed that I get to spend time with these beautiful people. I am blessed that they have been happy throughout the trip. It was such a blessing indeed.

Alright, where to next? Only God knows, I guess.