After my stay in Taiping (click here for the report), I took the ETS to Ipoh, where I would meet Aric and Rodney. The famous railway station of Ipoh was designed by Arthur Benison Hubback and built in 1917.

Waiting for Aric and Rodney, I had a coffee in the railway cafeteria, a nostalgic place, but in a rundown condition. There is an ambitious plan to develop the station and its surroundings. Hopefully the heritage elements will be preserved.,

For lunch, we had the famous Ipoh chicken rice, but this time not in the popular eateries in New Town. Aric had found a positive review about a chiken rice shop Sam Ma, quite far away from the town center. Very delicious, tender chicken..

Next we checked in at the Travelodge Ipoh and had some rest.

Aric and I have visited quite a few cave temples around Ipoh, for example the Gunung Rapat Cave Temples. , but there are more. This time we visited the Tung WahTong, a taoist temple in the Ulu Kinta neighbourhood of Ipoh, built on the steep slopes of Gunung Layang Layang. So a lot of climbing.

There are three halls. Here is the first one.

Climbing further up, we reached the second hall. Good that there was a place to rest..

A steep climb followed to the main hall, dedicated to the Jade Emperor.

The entrance gate and the main shrine.

Two times nine Arhats on both sides of the altar.

This hall is huge, with many rock formations and artworks.

The caretaker showed us a gate, leading to another path next to the altar.

It brought us out of the cave, where we found tables and chairs to rest. Would have been a great place for a kopitiam 😉 .

A very interesting temple, relatively unknown. Aric wanted to take drone pictures, but it started to rain, so we decided to come back the next morning.

We had dinner in the Sun Kong River Fish restaurant. Upmarket and pricey, specialising in fresh water fish, for example this 9-course menu at RM 2388 for a table of ten. This menu contained one pork dish, that appealed to Aric. He called the restaurant and asked if it was possible to order only this crispy pork roll. That was possible, so here we are with a huge plate of pork. The idea is that you take a bun or a wrap and stuff it with a slice of pork and veggie. .An interesting experience, we managed to almost finish the (delicious) crispy pork.

Feeling very full, we decided to go for a walk, although there was some drizzle. We went to the Kinta River Walk.

Quite disappointing, desolate. Maybe we were too late.

The next morning we had dim sum for breakfast. There are many dim sum restaurants in Ipoh, What I liked about the one we visited was that they use trolleys to present the various dim sum at your table.

After breakfast, we went back to the Tung Wah Tong temple where Aric used his drone to take pictures, and a video.

You can not visit Ipoh without trying its famous white coffee. We drove back to the old town and had our coffee at Sin Yoong Long , established in 1937, one of the oldest kedai kopi in town. I liked the traditional atmosphere.

We walked around a bit in the old town. I had read negative reports about Concubine Lane, how it had become a tourist attraction and lost its charm. Before reaching COncubine Lane, we walked through a parallel lane, the 2nd Concubine Lane. Quite attractive and quiet.

The lane has nice mural art. Many years ago, I wrote a report about the Iph Murals. Some of them have been created by my favourite mural artist Zacharevic.

Here is Concubine Lane.. Souvenir shops, food stalls, eateries. More information about the history of Concubine Lane can be found here.

We had a look at the Birch Memorial. Birch was the first British Resident, , murdered in 1875 by Dato’ Maharaja Lela and Dato’ Sagor. I told Rodney how the two streets at both sides of the memorial were named Post Office Road and Station Road. Now they have been renamed, Station Road became Jalan Dato’ Maharaja Lela and Post Office Road became Jalan Dato’ Sagor!. Ironic 😉 .

We wanted to visit another cave temple, the Kek Lok Tong, a Buddhist Temple, but it was closed for renovation.

Insteda we visited the Perak Tong, one of the largest cave temples in the region. This Buddhist temple is a popular tourist attraction. A beautiful statue of Guan Yin, the goddess of Mercy, stands in front of the main entrance.

The main hall is huge.

Guardian statues.

Looking back to the entrance.

More statues.

Inside the main hall, you can climb up to the higher levels.

Further up, you exit the temple hall, and you can continue to the top of the hill, where pavilions have been built. Rodney and I decided that we had climbed enough.

Aric continued to the top and told us that the view was not really special.

After going down, Aric used his drone to take again pictures and a video. You can see the pavillions on the top of the hill.

Time to go back to KL, where we finished our trip with a dinner in Damansara Uptown.