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1st Day - Arrival at 3pm
I actually bought an earlier ticket to Ipoh(9.25am) but i missed the train due to oversleeping =.="" so i was forced to take the next train at 1pm instead...in the end i only arrived abt 4pm in Ipoh, which is like SO LATE ALREADY!! >< i felt really awful for missing the train though. Zzzz. But my sadness is gone once i arrive and saw this wonderful structure that is the train station xD
That was the Perak state flag. To be honest i don't really know all how the state flags look like, except for Sarawak. Yeahhhh i can be excused cos i dun grow up in my own country! =P
My friend then brought me to try the soya products sold at this stall, and it's very obvious it's famous as there were literally cars lining up just to buy either their soya bean drink or their "tofu-fa", a bean curd desert. We ordered ours and consumed it right there in the car.
"Taufu-fa" or bean curd desssert
My soya drink with grass jelly
Then we went to one of the old streets in town where my friend visits alot on her photoshoots. I like retro buildings and old alleys, so it was a thrill being there. Here're a few pics i took there:
A very interesting door lock.
After that we went to the Ipoh Parade Mall since we had no idea where to go as alot of the places she wants to bring me to are either closed or not the right time of the day yet =.= had some fried chicken from a popular Taiwanese franchise, which was kinda like a suicide since both of us are sick at the time and yet we still ate fried foods xD after that we strolled for abit more before going back to her house to rest and get ready for the night out.
We went out with her father who brought us to this marvelous restaurant famous for its chicken, bean sprout and "hor fun" (which was what we ordered). The restaurant was called "老黄"....a famous HK chef and food aficionado (i forgot his name...) and HK actress Ella Kwoon ate at that restaurant before! Cos their picture was hung up at the wall... xD Because i didn't bring my camera along tho(left it in my friend's car) i didn't take any pictures of them....so sayang!
Satisfied and full with the meal, we went back home for a short rest before heading out again, this time me and my friend only. She took me for a spin around town, visiting a mall complex with very interesting design amongst others. I did take some pictures but unfortunately the biggest weakness of my camera i.e. night-mode shooting, ISO, poor focusing was happening again and i found out much later that all the pics i took were blurry....
After that we went for a drink session where i finally got to taste "snowflake beer", which is basically freezing up the glass so that it looks "frosty" and like "snow" with plain beer inside. Ours was good ol' Carlsberg(my fav) and i like how the beer looks like in our frosty glass mugs xD we didn't drink too much tho and i was abit worried for my friend because she's driving, but in the end we got home safely and that's enough xD
Because of fatigue + alcohol i fell asleep as soon as i'm in the room(after cleaning up of course).....been a long time since i fall asleep easily. That's partly why i like beer: it relaxes me and gives me a good night's sleep...
2nd Day
Woke up early and headed out for breakfast, where we had a very traditional Chinese breakfast, Dim Sum~ Below is the restaurant where we ate, and i highly recommend you try their Dim Sum here. Good service as well by the staff there.
"Har Kaw" which consists of prawn fillings
I think this is fishball...
A Dim Sum staple, "Chee Cheong Fun". Love the gravy.
This reminds me abit of Tempura... Prawn fillings inside.
A surprise. I really like this, especially the lotus filling! =D
An all-time favourite of mine: Egg Tart. Love this, but my friend told me there's a better one in the market. Need to try that the next time xD
Another popular Dim Sum staple, "Char Siew Pau"
I thought it was fishball again but it tastes different. I dunno what ball is this...haha....xD
A Dim Sum session is never complete for me without the King of Dim Sum, "Shiew Mai"! Like those in Miri, these has actual prawn fillings in it, but unlike in Miri, these have fish roes as topping.
After breakfast, her Dad took us to visit the Gunung Lang Recreation Park, a famous tourist park attraction with it's amazing mountains. Did i say i love mountains? xD They're not huge to be qualified as "Mount" but it was big enough for me to gape at. Hahaha. There's a lake in the centre of the park where u have to cross over by boat to reach the garden where you can have a nice and quiet stroll....
Big, fat, healthy and happy fishes =D
The following pics are taken after crossing the lake and onto the garden park...
There's even a mini playground.
Absolutely loved the views. The calmness of the water, the peaceful greenery....
And surprise, surprise....there's a small enclosure where two ostriches, a couple of deers and turkeys are kept! =D
I dunno how much time passed but we spent a long time there taking pics and strolling around, which was cool(i kinda needed this break in pace from the city). But then it is time to go back....and when we were back they had already switched on the artificial man-made waterfall which is a sight to behold, really.
And this, which basically described the park itself.
That was the end of our Gunung Lang visit! Next we went to the Ipoh Cave Temple, which is what it name suggests, a temple in the cave itself. It was a wonderful sight within and instantly i was reminded of a very vague memory of the insides of the Batu Caves which i visited years ago when i was younger with my mom and brother. I took some pics but my battery went flat after awhile and i was forced to imprint every sight i had in my mind instead....
So i'm sorry for the lack of pictures from here on! Even the pics i took in the temple are blurry themselves so i decided not to post it. There was a staircase which u can climb all the way up to the top of the mountain(ok not really the highest point i think but still high enough) and reward yourself with a good view of Ipoh i think, but i only managed 5/6 of the trip up before i surrendered climbing up the stairs due to fatigue in my legs and a need to go to the toilet =X but the workout gave me a good sweat and i kinda love it actually, got my adrenaline pumping xD but one thing tho the steps are narrow and you have to be extra careful when u climb back down...
After that we went and visit another cave, the 'Kek Lok Tong' Cave or in chinese 极乐洞. Compared with the Ipoh Cave Temple this cave is wider on the inside, where the ceiling are beautiful limestone 'decorations' created by mother Nature herself over hundreds of years.....i absolutely love it there. The cave is also much, much windier than the first as it has another opening out at the back to a valley behind the mountain(which i did not go down to because of the heat and sunny-ness). It was there i finally managed to cool down abit. It was very relaxing, and there are statues inside as well which i saw a few ppl 'kowtow-ing' to....
One funny thing was because there were swallow nests inside the cave and naturally swallows flying about and shooting their dropping down, some parts of the floor were full of dropping stains....and i was looking at an information board of the cave near the entrance. When i finished i turned around to go explore other areas and right at that time when i was about to step forward, a swallow dropping fell in front of me with a huge *SPLAT* sound.
Oh my god!!! One more step and it would've fallen onto my head! I was really really lucky!!! Damn you really wouldn't wanna be pissed on by swallows. Smell like....shit... == lol and i looked at the place on the floor where the 'dropping' landed and saw that it was full of dried dropping stain, so i guess that's like a "danger zone" of bird droppings or something....haha... xD
After that it was time for lunch so we went back to the town area and had our lunch at this restaurant called "老方" (forgot the full name but it's like "Fang's Restaurant" where we had beansprout again, with steamed eggs(like how my mom cooks it which i absolutely love), another plate of vege and fish(loooong time since i last had fish). Again it was delicious and i was very full by the time we finished.
Then we went back home and her Dad had to leave for office for official matters and me and my friend took a break at home and rest(we were tired haha). Then it was time for me to go to the train station(departing at 7pm) so my friend brought me to the station, we had a little tea break while waiting for the train(almost missed the train due to confusion over train number, but in the end it was the right train). The train departed punctually at 7pm, i bid farewell to my friend with a heavy heart. I didn't wanna leave so soon! =( feels like i haven't really explored much yet, which is kinda the truth xD i really wished i hadn't missed the train on the first day and wasted half the day away...zzzz
I'm gonna go back there again one day, perhaps that time with a new camera xD then i can go photoshooting with my friend and made sure to take more complete pictures of the place! xD Like how my friend described Ipoh, it was a pretty laid-back town, perhaps that's why i instantly like it. One day, i'll be back again!
Lastly, a picture of the lovely people who brought me around visiting, my friend and her Dad =) Thank you and bless you two! =)
Note: If you wanna see more pictures of my trip you can head over to my Facebook album named "Virgin Steps: Ipoh, Perak". I've also edited some of the pictures i took and posted it on my DeviantArt, where you can check them out.
Have a good day peeps! :)