![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6178.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nI decided to buy an umbrella in the Taiping Mall and just before I reached there, the first raindrops fell. When I continued my walk, with umbrella, it was absolutely pouring. As I was hungry, I managed to reach Casual Market for a plate of Char Koay Teow, but there I had to wait until the rain got less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6185.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Rain-001.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nI had booked a room in my favourite Hotel Furama and after taking some rest I went out to Prima for a light meal of Chee Cheong Fun. After the heavy rain the atmosphere was cool and fresh. I walked back having a look at the beautifully restored Shun Tak Association and the Silver Jubilee Jetty (1932). A nice first day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6191.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6188.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6192.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6197.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nTuesday, 26 March <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had breakfast with my friend Yeap at the Lian Thong restaurant. It is a popular eatery in Taiping. Yummie soft-boiled eggs on toast! The shop is housed in an attractive building, just forget about the ugly background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6345.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6200.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_E6199.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nNo blog about Taiping is complete without a few pictures of the Lake Gardens. The fallen tree at the Raintree Walk is very attractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6206.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6207.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6208.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6209.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nI hired a bicycle at hotel Furama, so I could explore a few places further away from the town centre. My first destination was the Kempe Club in Assam Kumbang. Built in 1922 as an alternative for the more posh New Club . In its heydays very popular with sport fields around the club. Now no longer an official club, but a group of (senior) citizens uses the building for their meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6210.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6212.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6229.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nThe caretaker invited me in and offered me teh tarik. More people arrived and a game of mahjong was started. The different races mix here easily like in the days of yore. Very pleasant atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6213.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6221.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6223.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nMy next stop was an abandoned pre-war bungalow, next to the official residence of the MPT chairman (who recently received in Berlin an award for Taiping being third in the Best of Cities category in the world). See my report About Taiping<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6241.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt must have been an impressive bungalow until it was abandoned about 20 years ago. It may have been occupied by government servants (KE VII school staff?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now it is an impressive ruine, you can just walk around and enter it (at your own risk). I must confess that I am fascinated by decaying buildings, but of course it is a shame that the authorities have allowed this to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6233.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6236.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6238.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6240.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6232.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6234.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6237.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6239.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nFor my lunch I went to the Casual Market, the Malay section, where I had a plate of popiah’s at Famous OMar Popiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6243.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_E6244.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nI had dinner in Prima with my friends George and Jenny, and I invited them for coffee and cake at Yinn’s Patisserie, next to Yeap’s shop. A few years ago beautifully renovated by the brother of Yeap. Thean Hock was in the cafe and happy to show us around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6262.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6253.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6251.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6266.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nWednesday 27 March<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A “social” morning. I went to Tong’s CCF shop for breakfast with George, who was in Taiping for Cheng Beng and , not surprisingly, met a former classmate ;-). After that I visited Suet Fun, who has closed the Nest bungalow, up Maxwell Hill, for one year, because she is going to write a book about Maxwell Hill. I wish her good luck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6274.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6277.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6280.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nMy next destination was the Taiping Municipal Gallery, which was now open, although still only partially operational. But at least there are several posters and banners about the things you can see and do in Taiping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I met the friendly manager and asked her if she had ever visited the ruined Railway building opposite the Gallery. She had not yet, because she was a bit scared of the squatter who had taken the building as his “residence”. I had a look, he was not there and , with me as a guide, she and her assistant were brave enough to have a look inside \ud83d\ude09 .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6281.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6287.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6291.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nIn the afternoon my friend Bok Kin and her husband Ng Teng Hin picked me up from my hotel to visit the tomb of Ng Boo Bee and his relatives. Ng Boo Bee<\/a> is the most famous tin miner, opium farmer and contractor in the history of British Malaya and Teng Hin is a great-grandson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The grave is located in the Hokkien Cemetery of Taiping. Cheng Beng was approaching, when Chinese visit the graves of their ancestors for cleaning and prayers. Ng Boo Bee’s grave is almost a fortress, very impressive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6320.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6316.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6294.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6297.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6296.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6295.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nMy friends told me that last year the grave had been thoroughly cleaned and repaired, they walked around and inspected it, but everything still looked in good condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6309.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6305.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6301.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_6313.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nThere are also graves of descendants, both around the main grave and on a separate plot. From left to right, the graves of Ng Boo Bee’s mistress, one of his sons, and a grandson (Teng Hin’s father).<\/p>\n\n\n\n