Perak: Tepeng

Save the best for last. Tepeng. Went to school here from Std 3 till Form 6. I just love this town. Here was where I learnt about other people/cultures. Everyday is like holiday celebration because I had Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sikh and Siamese friends.. and they came from different backgrounds (some are rich, many poor) but we never look beyond that. Everyone treated each other equally.

I guess it was like that in other places as well, 80s and early 90s were where social tolerance at their best. From there it went downhill.

Fobia sangat dengan bangsa/agama lain, idok ler aku tengok kome2 ni hidup dalam mawaddah, sakinah wa rahmah pun.


Back to the main story, after we checked in (Ipoh) and rested a while, we made a move up to Taiping.

"Exit here please.." I was directing Marul to use Changkat Jering exit..

"But the signboard/gps said further up" he contested

"Hello, sape org Taiping ni? Just follow my direction, Im local" I gave the ultimatum..

Seriously, it made more sense to use Changkat Jering exit than Taiping (U) exit if youre from KL. The reason Taiping (Utara) got the honor is to promote Kamunting Raya area, certain quarters made a lot of moolah from this...

Anyway the first stop, what else to do that eat, eat and eat... so we went to the best cendol in town (maybe the whole malaysia), ansari cendol. Hmmm mm, back then after school, when it's hot, and when I had extra money, I would buy the chendol. It was 20cent per bowl + 10 for pulut. Thenbefore I left it was 30 + 20, and now its 1.20 + 50.. amboiii....

No red beans.. I hate red beans, be it in the bun or dessert.. or in anything.. it tasted worng wrong wrong..

The passembor was okay. Nothing to shout about.

Previously it was on the Bismillah restaurant down the road, now it has it's own building...

The direction there is easy... If you could find the Hospital and the St George school.. you're there. Its just around the corner.

My school. KE or Satan spawn school.. It's a boy school. The oldest in Taiping (1905). This one is primary school, the secondary is just behind it.

The road leading to the secondary school (back road). Looked idylic and serene... but in reality when the school is in session, this is where the gangs meet and fight. If youre late to school esp during the monday's assembly, dont worry, there's a secret path down the road, where you could sneaked in unnoticed...

King Edward will live forever, as long as the Taiping hill stand. Thats the school song. Every monday we had to sing that + perak song in front of this building. Come to think about it, I dont know why we sing the Perak song. ITs not the official song anyway i.e. its not the "Dilanjutkan, Allah usianya sultan.." but its the "Perak Darul ridzuan.Negeri indah permai. Penduduknya hidup aman damai. Dinaungi keadilan sultan." hihihi

Taiping also boast a lot of good school around. There's the privileged schools like MRSM Taiping, Seratas and Hua Lian. There's good "girls or boys only" school slike Convent Taiping, Treacher's Methodist, St George and King Edward. And there's other schools like SMDB, Tengku Menteri, Kamunting...

About once a week you would see hundreds of Seratas students in town shopping in their blue uniforms (poyo pakai uniform hari minggu), but I never saw MRMS students (in brown uniforms)... hmmm

Sekolah ini digelar tok mamak gadai spender (TMGS).. hihihiih. they dont have 6th former, therefore the girls here will go to King Edward. Likewise, the Convent would go to St George.

Also traditionally, the Tigers wont date convent chicks.. and on the rare occasion it happened, the fight ensued with Georgian because they claimed convent chick are theirs. Sadly, the SMDB chicks were left unnoticed although the school is just a stone throw away from ours (Edward an Georgie).

Wah, jauh berlayar... back to the present. After we filled up our stomache with excellent appetiser, we made a move to the Lake garden. No zoo this time. I planned to park the car and walked around the lake, but fat ass marul wont have any of it. So we just drove and stop.. Boring *yawn*

Lazy afternoon at the lake with the Maxwell hill in the background... reminded me of a movie..


Seiring dan Sejalan from Hapuskan Ayer Matamu. After 30 years, the lake garden still look about the same! Ko mampu, Mata Ayer, Perlis? Marah Linda... hihiihih

Then Marul being Marul, he needed bathroom break to berak.. hihihih I just remember, he's like my uncle. Every 30 minutes he has to go.. Even in shopping mall... weak splincher katanya..

Ayo, were in the middle of the lake... I dont know any public restroom around apart from the zoo..but you ahve to pay the ticket for that.. Let's try Maxwell hill. I was there a few weeks before for the Mt Kinabalu training. And I remembered Steve was lookign for one...

I told him, "Kalau takde ko berak jer dalam sungai depan MRSM tu.." (if none, you just do it by the river there)...

Lady luck was smiling on him... there's one in Maxwell hill..

Taiping town view from the hill.

The we continued the journey.. to find more great food. visiting Klian Pauh's church..

visiting prison (?)

and the Museum...

Wah, Azean Irdawaty org kanaq rupanya..

And the Esplanade.. knowing very well how much he idolised British, I decided to play a prank to him. Right in front of this esplanade there's an old Army building. I told him .. "yeah, this is where JWW Birch used to stay before he got killed.."

And as in on cue, the floodgate was open.. never ending praises on how nice the building are, taking so many pictures from every angles.. he even touch the patio and claimed i touched the floor just like Birch used to touch.

*rolled eyes* but deep inside I was laughing.. dah la banjaran bintang dengan confidentnya dikatakan banjaran croker because it sounded british.. jijiks.. rasakan dihanjengkan oleh aku.. muahahahahahah

The sun was already set by then, we went to Masjid Taiping for Maghrib+Isya jamak.. and off for dinner..

"where is the best food in Taiping?" he asked..

"Actually its everywhere, but for the safe bet, bawah larut matang" .. so we parked there and walked to the food stalls. Larut Matang refers to the now defunct deparment store. Before Tesco, these are the place to shop. There were several dept stores nearby owned by one company - The Store. There was Larut Matang, Berkat and The Store. Plus other individual dept like Komart (tempat bohsia convent berkumpul) and Taiping Jaya.

-- boobs woo hoo!

Anyway, the best food could be found under Larut Matang dept store. There's 3 sections down there - The halal, the Chinese (some vegetarians) and the dessert stalls.

The dessert stalls served the best ABC in town. I prefers black mountain though (mountain of shredded ice with brown sugar syrup + milk). The Lye Chee Kang also are famous with local.

One of the Chinese stall made the best nyonya kueh around.. she only sells kueh.. and another stall that sells the best kuey tiaw (better than penang and doli)...so for my non muslim readers, if youre there, give it a try.

As for the halal section, you'll be spoilt by choices.. There's popiah basah (60cent), Mee Combat, Satay Basri (60cent per piece), Kuew Teow, Murtabak (RM2.50), Pasembor (RM3).. all tasted out of this world.. sedap sial!!! bangsat terus lapar..

"Why dont you try this kuew tiau?" I asked him..

"I dont want, I want KT Doli".. he replied

"Urghh this one is better than doli you know..."

"I still want doli.."

degil, suka kau lah.."well go later"

to be frank I only had doli once, but found it not into my liking. and last time I had it it was in the small stall near the bomba station. So we were like circling the town looking for the restaurant.. When we almost gave up, we found it... Its near Jalan Tupai, facing the gov dental hospital..

Darn it was full..

Shall we take away?
Okay..

So we went to the cashier.. but before we reached there, dengan muka masam mencuka, mulut mencebih, terus cakap "takde takde, dah habis"

kimak betul.. cakap la elok2.. tu kat pintu tulis smpai pukul 11, pehal pukul 8.30 dah habis.. lain kali tulis dibuka sampai kuew tiau habis..

"puas hati?" I asked him.. bukan salah Marul pun tapi hati aku panas dilamyan mcm sampah. "dah jom berambus, sampai ke mati aku ban kedai ni.."

(sorry no translatation...)

The owner wasnt there, otherwise the service wont be that bad... typical malay restaurant dilemma, if hire outsider they malay will condemn, if hire malay tak pass SPM, service will go downhill..

Then we went to my fav cake shop. Waroeng Kue Prima. Went nuts buying so many cookies/cakes. And dirt cheap too. Devoured some, and left some for next day's breakfast.

Around 9.30p we went back to Ipoh...

Let's gets nasty..

Oh btw, the Taiping town now is full of Bangla and Vietnamese.. hmmmm

Perak: Kuale Kangsor

Sepetang di Kuala Sepetang.. or in this case, sepagi di Kuala Kangsar.

After we left Ipoh, we went back up to KK. The original plan was to meet Aziz, but he was attending a wedding in Kedah. The last time I was in KK when I was 11. Therefore, dont expect me to remember anything except for the old castle and labu sayong.

Equipped with Garmin, we set the places we wanted to go. Dont expect to find a food haven in KK because there's none.

First stop was MCKK. Marul wanted to take the infamous pic of this school. To be frank, I dont even know the existence of this school until I was in form 5. And thats only because we're having a final rugby tournament against them (our traditional competitors were STAR and SERATAS).. Sedih!

Then off we went to the town center. Very small town indeed .About 3 rows of shophouses and a train station (does the senandung malam/express langkawi stop here.. cant remember.. hmmm). Then there's clock tower.


View Larger Map
Not kidding! Jalan Taiping is the main road + Jalan Sultan Idris. Other than that its empty roads.

We were looking for a place to have lunch. Then we saw a foodcourt by the river bank. Should be good I think, eating good food by the lazy river..

How wrong could I be, the food there were NASTY.. urghhh blearghh.. I couldnt finish my pasembor and Marul's laksa literally taste like sewage.. Urghhhhh... Then we smsed Aziz.. his replied "Muahahahha, who come to KK for food?"

So viewers, if you want to go to KK, stuffed yourself up in Taiping/Kuala Sepetang, or the take away food from highway R&R are better... There's one KFC here though, but its not in the city center..

Anyway still hhungry, we moved upstreams. Perak river is the longest river in the peninsular's west coast. It started from Gerik, missed Taiping, slice through KK, missed Ipoh :p, then through Parit, Bota, Teluk Intan, Bagan Datoh and onto Malacca Strait.

Maybe because it missed the big towns (Taiping/Ipoh/Sitiawan), the river is clean and clear.

3 min up the hill, there's Ubudiah Mosque. We didnt go inside because its still early for prayer (11ish), the gate wasnt even opened.

next we drove uphill and went to the old castle (Istana Kenangan/IStana Kuning). Wanted to go inside, but it was closed for renovation until end of 2012. Grrrrr

Then we moved down to Istana Hulu (Sultan Azlan Shah Gallery).. Highly recommended and the entrance fee is RM4. The former palace, which was first occupied by Sultan Idris 1 in 1903, was restored in 2003 and named after the present Sultan whose personal belongings, documents, mementos, family photo-graphs, trophies and state regalia, among others, are on display for public viewing.

The main museum is two storey with multiple wings (10 wings I think). Its huge.. prepare to spend 1/2 day there if you inted to read/view everything.

On top of that there's four other buidings outside the main museum with more momentos such as the cars gallery, luggages (LVs everywhere - with minimum security, ehem ehem)

The displays are at par with those European castles.

Opss sorry, didnt know that youo couldnt take pic inside, only after were done and about to leave the guard told us :p

It was raining on and off the whole morning.. so its kinda perfect being in the buidling for hours...

Only when the rain subsided we ventured to the market area at the town center. I bought one labu sayong (water jar). After I went back I realised it was leaking.. eeeeee, have to go back there and buy another two or three. Its super cheap though, RM8 for small, RM15 for medium and 25 for large. I bought the medium one.

And i gave the pasar hawker food another try.. Still a failure.. Huhuhuhu Im hungry.. *nanges*

Perak: Ipoh & Teluk Intan

Somewhere in March 2011 I got the invitation from my senior in Shah Alam for her wedding.

At first she wanted me to be the best man for her hubby, but thankfully one of her relatives offered to be one. Otherwise I have to be there from morning till evening :p

Preferably I would like to go there by myself, spend a day in Ipoh and go back... but come to think about it, Ipoh for 2 days.. on new year's eve... Im gonna die man, Ipoh is one of my least favorite town. Sorry but I grew up in Taiping, and althought Ipoh was Perak's capital, Taiping is more close to Penang/Kedah language-wise and food-wise.

So, I invited Marul for the trip. because he's driving, I suggested that we made a pit stop to Taiping. and he wanted to go to Kuala Kangsor. Okay, thats doable. And Hailan would join us as well.

Come december, I made the booking for one night in Ipoh. I thought we're going to be long at the wedding, but we only spend like an hour or so... Should have made the booking in Taiping. Oh well. Its only 40 min drive anyway..

On Dec 31st morning we left KL and drove up north.. Hailan couldnt join..

Met Kak Rose and Hubby. By 2pm we made a move back to Ipoh city. Checked in and ready for Taiping.

Later that afternoon she texted me asking my whereabouts.. opppsss.. already left Ipoh.. She said okaylah, dont forget to visit me in Lisbon.

Okay....

-- The actual linguistic / food border is here at Bukit Berapit. Perak is actually divided into three:

1 - The orang utara - Kuala Kangsar, Tepeng, Bagan Serai, Selama

 Hang_aku + Hakka_Hokkien + Tamil_Telugu - kari mamak

2 - The 'proper' perak - Kinta, Sg Siput, Tapah, Kampar

Yong_Yoep_kome_mike + Cantonese + Tamil - tempoyak

3 - The jowo - Sabak Bernam, Tanjung Malim

Kakang_Mbakyu + Malayalam - tempe

Hihihihi.. dont quote me on that, its just based on my observations/interactions.

Taiping journey will be covered other entry.

So we're back to Ipoh around 10pm and headed straight to bed. Around midnight we did hear one or two fireworks around the hotel but thats about it. Woke up and Marul went for the breakfast. I had my biscuits from Taiping... and we checked out.

Ventured the city a bit around the train station/old town. Wanted to try the Chicken Rice, but couldnt find the place.. And we also wanted to to to the Kellie's Castle but totally forgotten. Me move up again to Kuala Kangsar (another entry).

This was like my 5th visit to Ipoh, but I still doesnt like the town. DOnt get me wrong, its a lovely quaint city, but it looks 'dead.

To compare

Taiping - Maxwell Hill : Ipoh - Gunung Lang
Taiping - Zoo : Ipoh - Lumba Kuda/Turf Club
Taiping - First Museum in Malaya : Ipoh - Muzium darul Ridzuan
Taiping - Lake Garden : Ipoh - Taman SM Noor
Taiping - Food haven: Ipoh - Old town coffee
Taiping - Convent Kota/Klian Pauh/Aulong : Ipoh - Malu nak mengaku convent... hihihi
Taiping - Bapuk Lake Garden: Ipoh - ipoh mali tatak sombong

After KK we went to Teluk Intan. That was my first visit to TI. It's more than 60KM off the main highway. We headed straight to the Leaning clock tower. I bbmed my friend Ritz, on where's the best place to eat.

She recommended mee rebus. But the place was closed on that day.

"okay, where else..."
"try the Laksa place in front of the red hotel somewhere down the road"

Fuh kinda tricky to find the red building, but luckily TI is small. Found the van...

and ordered a bowl of Laksa and Longan drink... and damn they were good. As good as the one in Ayer Itam (Penang). Yum yum...


Around 5 pm we went back to KL... that concludes our Perak's trip... TQ