IPOH revisited

Aerial view of the town of Ipoh shows the town padang, with the broad length of Brewster Road running up to it. In the bottom right hand corner, the Supreme Court. Next to it, the town council offices. Bottom left : Ipoh's town library. (taken from http://www.perak.info/)

Ipoh is a charming town, not because a few of my loved ones live there, but because it's got character. The old buildings stand tall and whisper volumes of history. The old converge with the new. I once had the opportunity to enjoy the night breeze at Padang MBI or affectionately known as "Ipoh Padang". Bad grammar, but MBI seems to like it. That was when I imagine I was back in its heydays when Ipoh was bustling tin mining town. My brother in law told me that Ipoh used to have the most number of millionaires in Malaysia! Okay back to my imagination : usually my vision would turn into black and white but that time my vision of old Ipoh was colourful albeit in sepia tone - you know that tint of "oldness" in the 70's colour photos? That's what I'm talking about. Sigh, I wished I could go back in time and see how Ipoh was like. Enough visualizing and let's get back to the present.

Another two reasons why I really like Ipoh are the cheaper, lovelier food and tyre alignment is just RM12! Yes, RM12 for all FOUR tyres!

Hahaha yes I shall tell you about this absolutely luverly makan place along Anderson Road @ Jalan Raja Muda called Ipoh Hainan Chicken Rice. I think you have not lived until you have tasted its Ambra juice or humbly known among the Malays as air kedondong. I've never eaten kedondong before, mainly because of its name - kedondong - which is less glamorous than apple, pear, dragonfruit and what-have-you. But my first visit to the restaurant in early May was indeed a revelation!

Ambra juice with sour plum a.k.a. Air Kedondong Asamboi

The ambra juice is fibrous, slightly "kelat" and spiked with asamboi. It was love at first sip! I ended up enjoying two glasses of this exotic drink. The food is lovely - very nice hainanese chicken rice with kerabu mangga and lemon chicken. My sister said I should have the Thai chicken for my next visit. And so I shall!

After that lovely meal I went to get my tyres changed especially because Goodyear tyres in Ipoh are RM30 cheaper each than Klang Valley's pricing. Wah! Bak kata Kamdar "Memang Berbaloi"! And yes alignment of all FOUR tyres for a mere RM12, done by a "see foo" to boot. This see foo apparently gets a cut of each alignment charge and he smiles his way to the bank at the beginning of each month, according to a reliable source. Mr See foo is also very quick with his work despite doing alignment MANUALLY (yup, no fancy schmancy computers like other tyre shops) - he did my car in just 10 minutes! And he does some 20-30 cars in a day. Cayalah!!!

The very camera shy SeeFoo

There are many other reasons why I like Ipoh but I shall let you discover Ipoh for yourself (like how Ang Lee did when he decided to shoot a Tony Leung film in Ipoh, think it's called "Lust, Caution").

VIVE IPOH!