Travelogue: Ipoh
18th June 2015
Half of the semester has ended and im looking forward to my Student's June Holidays. During the June Holidays, I was allowed to take leave and I took 2 days off to spend time with Boyfriend and his Paternal's relatives. His relatives stay in Ipoh and therefore I thought that it would be awesome to spend my holidays at Ipoh which I have never been before. I was feeling a little excited of the itinerary set by his dad ( hiking, temple-visiting, seeing a fortune teller) but none of the plans was executed because I was down with fever and flu throughout the whole trip. It was quite a meh trip because I was all prepared to conquer the hike but my dear body couldn't cooperate with me.
We set off on Wednesday night as the journey to Ipoh was 8 hours ahead and we decided that spending a night on the coach would be better than wasting our day travelling. I slept throughout the whole journey because my body was feeling warm and my head is spinning me around. Just when I slept throughout, we have reached to our destination at 6am.
Our accommodation was FREEE. Why free? It is because we stayed at his grandparent's house which was big enough to accommodate 3 families. I really like having all families to stay under one roof. The house was filled with laughter and noise. So imagine 3 families staying together? There goes by saying I get to see most of his relatives, nieces and nephews.
We checked in into the room and rested for a while before we headed out for breakfast. Breakfast was well recommended by his Dad ( he said that this was the nicest Yong Tau Foo in his hometown). I love the concept of residential coffee shop. It means that they do their business at home. Basically, this Yong Tau Foo were all home-made and passed down from one generation to another and we had it at home.
We were asked to choose between yellow noodles or bee hoon and what's so special that they have only curry soup that went with our noodles unlike the original stock soup that we at at food court. However, one of the cons was all the YTF were fried and oily. It is an unhealthy meal.
After a good breakfast, Boyfriend's Dad brought us to the market where his grandmother works. You will be awed by how strong his grandmother is. At the age of 70+, she is still able to cycle from home to market to set up her stall and from market to home everyday without failed.
Basically my first day spent was all about eating and they have been eating non stop. Every stop we went, we will be ordering food and consistently eating! It was crazy because I don't have the habit of having more than 2 meals per day and that day I was asked to have 4 meals. Our daily routine was eat> drive> back home> eat> back home to rest and this lasted for the whole day,
As you can see, I have more food photos so this concluded by Day 1 at Ipoh with Zi Char dinner with the rest of his relatives and sort of celebrating Father's Day! Have to personally thanks to his cousin ( Ah kit) to drive us around despite of his hectic schedules and also taking a step forward to initiative to bring us around when we didn't even asked.
19th June 2015
My Day 2 at Ipoh whereby I have nothing much activity on hand. We missed our hiking because my fever hasn't subsided & therefore they cancelled this plan. His cousins from Singapore took a night ride bus to join us and we went down to their department store to shop around.
It was ironic to see little shopping malls at Ipoh unlike Singapore where every MRT stops, there will be a shopping mall for tourists to shop around. In Ipoh, its more on living in a rural country therefore all you can see are street food/ stalls and hawker centre.
Our Breakfast for Day 2. Boyfriend ordered Curry Wonton Mee which we cannot find this kind of dishes in Singapore. The original Wonton Mee you can find would be mixed with Soya sauce and Chilli Sauce so this dish definitely added up to our taste and curiosity.
Our whole evening was spent at the department mall and we decided to went up to the highest storey to view the landscape of IPOH. It was magnificent beautiful, just like our very tourist attraction, MBS scene.
21st June
Day 3 came in a little too happening. Everyone that we asked to go along arrived. We finally have our activity planned and go. However, this was our last day at Ipoh as we have booked our midnight bus tickets back to Singapore. But i'm happy that we are going to their water park which was the "Lost World of Tambun''. I would say that it is something memorable for me to bring back to Singapore or rather if people asked me how was Ipoh, at least I have something in mind to talk about.
First to start off our Saturday Morning, we have dim sum for brunch. We went to their Chinatown to Yum Cha and ordered a lot of food. Their ordering service came in with a lady pushing the cart around and all we need to do is to grab the plate from her cart and she will write whatever orders that we took. Some staffs will came in with big tray filled with dishes and called for us to check if we want any of the dishes.
We left with a group family to mark this Dim Sum Session.
Half an hour drive and we arrived at the theme park. What we thought that this theme park would be most suitable for young kids age 8-12 so adults like us didn't enjoy ourselves, The whole theme park was divided into 3 attractions. We have the amusement park where you can sit on the thrilling and fun rides. On the other hand, they have water attraction which we have to get all wet to enjoy the fun. Anyway the fun part was to play with the slides. The rest are just for kids. Oh yes, they have kayaking, less dangerous of bungee jump, a day tour in the cave which is suitable for us but we were told to book 1 day in advance if we are interested.
Lastly, you can find animal farms around. We witnessed a tiger performance and horse/ pony riding along the way. Something special to bring up would be their hot spring and spa which we skipped it because it opens at 6.30pm.
Happiness is when you get to have lok lok in Malaysia and we had it. HAHAHA! Some people will find it dirty due to the sharing of the lok lok stick while some of them will enjoy because it feels home to be.
I never expect to have cafe at Ipoh even though there are many cafes around but to the point that travelling by car make the journey easily so the thought of going to a cafe didn't came into the mind. I was surprised that Sherlyn drove us down to this cafe called "Petite Mary". She knows both Shi Hui and I love dining at cafe and she herself does cafe hopped around with her friends so talking about which cafe to go, its all in her hands.
This beautiful pastry house with a European flair in the color combination of the clouds and the sky must be very famous in Ipoh. A status ( must be Mary) came greeting to us when we stepped in. Pastries, bread and cakes are found at the counter and I can't help myself napping all the photos away. Their bread and pastries were all self-serviced so you simply have to get ready your tray and tong and choose your favourite bread.
Boyfriend went to grab his bread while I took some time to choose the cakes and macarons. We shared around so that we can have different flavours each. All the items above costs us around 40 SGD which I feel its worth it, after all it a themed cafe.
Back home packing and we are ready to bid goodbye to the rest (:
Till then
