Before I will visit my hometown Amsterdam in May, I wanted to visit my (second) hometown Taiping. I booked hotel Furama for three nights and arrived on 1 April by ETS, where Lay Chun and Kar Seng were already waiting for me at the station. This time we had lunch in CRC, the Chinese Recreation Club. I had stir-fried pork with ginger, very nice.

A few weeks earlier, Lay Chun had noticed, passing the ruined Town Rest House, that something was going to happen, a “ground-breaking” ceremony, but for what? (left photo). If you have been following my blog, you know about my interest in, and fascination with the two ruined buildings along Station Road, see for example my report Taiping Bandar Warisan, written in 2019. So of course I was intrigued. On 9 March my friend Liew Suet Fun attended the ceremony and reported about it in the Friends of Taiping Heritage Society FB group. It’s a private group, just become a member if you are interested in Taiping Heritage.

The ambitious plan is to restore/rebuild the two ruins and transform them in a 4-star boutique hotel! Many VIP’s were present. See the right photo.

After our lunch we drove past the two buildings. The fencing of the Rest House, temporarily removed for the ceremony, had been put back. Note the remains of the right wing, destroyed by fire last year.

We also had a look at the other ruin, originally the Perak Railway Headquarters. Here I am standing next to the signboard with all the VIP’s. The plan is to keep the facade and add two floors. The “Taiping Boutique Hotel” is expected to be completed in two years.

Actually the building has already occupants. The fencing looks solid, but it has a “secret” entrance, Here it is, a small makeshift door to enter the building. The bike has been parked nicely next to the entrance.

Left the “room” , I thought it wise not to explore further 😉 . Through a small gap in the fence I could take a picture of another “room”. I wonder if the authorities are aware of this use by homeless people.

Here is my “own” room in the Furama Hotel.

I walked to the Lake Gardens, only a few hundred meters away from Furama.

My friends Grahame and Safina had invited me for dinner. Because she is Muslima, I expected a “buka puasa” dinner. But Grahame was the cook and he had prepared a very traditional English dinner with roast lamb , roast potatoes and veggies!

The next morning I had breakfast with my friend Foo. We often have Chee Cheong Fan at Tong’s stall in the Circus Ground, but it is now managed by his son and they have two weekly closing days on Monday and Tuesday. So we went to the Wan Li Xiang coffee shop, next to the Mall. Also quite good CCF.

After breakfast we had a look at the “rebuilding” of the iconic Taiping wet market. Here is the oldest part (1884), the fish, fruits and pork market. Making good progress, the “grapevine” rumours that it should be finished in autumn this year. I am missing the cast-iron metal structure parts, I hope they will be reused. The Taiping people are still a bit worried, read this July 2023 article in FMT: Mystery of the vanishing (Malaysia’s oldest) market.

The other part of the market (chicken, beef and mutton) is still barren, although the piles of wood suggest that work will start soon.

Foo also showed me the house where he was born, and told me interesting details about his life as a kid, enjoying the long stairs, leading to the first floor. It is now an electronic shop, I asked the lady if I could take a picture of the stairs. She must have been surprised, but did not object.

Detail of the first floor facade. Nice architecture, well kept.

Walking back to my hotel, I enjoyed Taiping as usual. I passed the Tsen Loong Association, it was open, I had a look inside.

A nice bungalow near to my hotel, built in 1915. Many street names have been changed in 1955, for example Birch Road is now Jalan Maharaja Lela. First time I noticed that a road near my hotel was originally named Jalan Speedy. Now it is named after Ngah Ibrahim. who asked Speedy to come from Penang and help him in the conflict between the Ghee Hin and Hai San.

One reason that I like Furama hotel is that it is a few minutes walk to the Lake Gardens. The gardens are beautiful any time of the day.

In the afternoon I walked to the Galeri Perbandaran, where I met Jamilah and Aiman, both very interested in Taiping Heritage.

Dinner at the Lemon Tree seafood restaurant in Matang. It has become a kind of tradition during my Taiping visits to have a dinner with a group of friends. They almost weekly join for dinner, this time was a special occasion because one of them had won a Tesla car as a lottery prize. Very nice dinner, as usual.

The next morning I had breakfast with George and Jenny, George was in Taiping for Cheng Beng and to meet friends, quite busy, so it was nice that we could meet, I had very tasty pork noodles.

I walked back to my hotel. Passing the colorful Dobi Line and relaxing for a while at the Lake Gardens.

I skipped lunch, as I was preparing for a buka puasa dinner with my friend Halim. He had suggested that I could fast from noon onwards. Abstaining from food is no problem, but not drinking anything was impossible for me, especially as it was really hot in Taiping.

I didn’t know that my Singapore friend ST Lee would also be in Taiping. We have not met for may years, so we arranged to meet 3 pm at the famous Ansari chendol place.

I decided to walk, although it looked like it would start to rain soon. I had just started, when a car stopped next to me. The driver opened his window and asked me, do you need a ride, it will rain soon. Surprised by his friendliness, I accepted his invite. Andy was the owner of the Rainy Corner restaurant near my hotel. He was on his way to deliver some goods. When we arrived at Ansari, I asked him to join me for a drink. Malaysian hospitality on its best!

A few minutes later ST arrived and we had our cendol. It was in September 2017 that we accidentally met in the same Ansari Cendol!

Here we are standing in front of his Taiping house in Jalan Barrack.

I walked back to my hotel and decided to have a look at the Rest House, mainly to check if it was still possible to “sneak” in with the “new” fencing. And yes, that was still possible. Left picture shows the present condition of the facade, with the signboard showing how the
“new” building will look like. Right the gap in the fence. I do not understand why this has not been blocked

Some more photos, also of the interior. I am not an expert, but I think renovation or restoration is no longer an option, it will be rebuilding, hopefully keeping at least the original design.

Halim picked me up from Furama at 4:30 pm. We visited a Pasar Ramadan to shop for the dinner. Those markets are often crowded, we went early on purpose.

We arrived at Halim’s house around 6pm, I was prepared to wait until 7:30. But what a surprise, at 6:30 he and his wife said, come, let’s eat! It turned out that both were not fasting that day because of medical reasons! It was a nice dinner, too much to finish everything.

Halim is an accomplished amateur painter and was happy to show me his paintings, in the right picture pointing to his latest creation.

They drove me back and I asked them to drop me off at the Raintree Walk. Very scenic to walk back to my hotel.

The last day, my friend Yeap picked me up from my hotel, we had breakfast in an Indian restaurant.

One reason for my Taiping visit was to have a look at the graves of the Malay nobles who had killed J.W.W Birch in November 1875. Recently I came in contact with Sabri Zain, who is very knowledgeable about the Perak War. See my report The Battle of Kota Lama. He wrote a FB page about these graves. They are located in Matang, not far from Kota Ngah Ibrahim!. Even many Taipingites are not aware of their existence! Their location is indicated on Google Maps, access is easy. Here is the small cemetery just beside the road.

There are two graves, of Dato’ Sagor and Pandak Indut. The grave of Maharaja Lela may not have been preserved. I found another page about the graves Makam Dato Sagor Yang Terbiar, dated 2017 Since then the site has apparently been cleaned and is now reasonably well maintained.

Modern technology, click on the QR-code and you will get the English text. The right photo shows the (smaller) grave of Pandak Indut

The grave of Dato’ Sagor is a lot bigger.

Here are two interesting snippets from the Straits Times Overland Journal, 8 February 1877, about the hanging of the pahlawan-pahlawan Melayu (Malay warriors/heroes)

The road passing the tombs, ends at this massive rubbish dump. Probably a reason why the site is quite unknown.

On my way back to my hotel, a last look at the Lake Gardens, before checking out.

I had lunch with David Chiang at Lian Thong, one of my favourite restaurants, where I had roti goyang and coffee. David is a young energetic entrepreneur with an interest in heritage. He has lots of ideas about bringing back to life Taiping heritage sites.

Then it was time to take the train back to PJ

As usual, a rewarding and interesting trip.