Escape to Ipoh...

I spend a lot of time studying these days... like all of it. Usually starts about 7am, and some days, like yesterday, doesn't stop until around 10pm. So when a friends SMS'd and asked if I'd like to spend a day seeing her hometown of Ipoh (about 2 hrs drive from here), I jumped at the chance. See, yesterday was Hari Raya, and a major holiday for most. I was feeling kind of left out of it all, but at the same time, really felt I needed to use the day to get my work done. So, this morning, my friend Toon came by and off we went.

Christine first took us to see Kellies Castle, built by a Scotsman in the early 1900's. Like the Taj Mahal, Kellie erected the structure for his wife. What an beautiful oddity it is, sitting here amongst the palm plantations, looking like a cross between an Arabian palace and a castle you might stumble upon somewhere outside of Edinburgh. Christine told us that when she was a kid, there was no bridge, and the structure was overgrown, and not tourist friendly. She said it was more fun then, because you had to wade across the river to get there, giving it a sort of Indiana Jones/ my mother doesn't think I should be playing here kind of forbodance. Yeah, it'd be cool to find in that state. But today it is pretty tourist friendly, though you are still able to walk, unfettered to the roof of the building, up poorly lit, narrow stairways, and basically, do whatever at your own risk, as here personal stupidity doesn't yet equal a 1 million dollar settlement in court on the behalf of the stupid person.

Anyway, had a lovely time exploring the castle, before moving on to lunch in Ipoh town. Ipoh, part of the state of Perak is a town of about 500,000 people. By the looks of it, a lot of Chinese folks. It was built around the tin mining industry, about 150 years ago or so. Christine took us to one of her favorite Chinese places that was absolutely packed with people. People who were eating, people who were waiting to eat, and harried looking people who were serving the voracious crowds. We had a phenomenal meal of spring rools, fried all-kinds-of-stuff and a specialty noodle soup, all the while sharing our table with a young Chinese man and his four young daughters, who were having a blast laughing at the foreigners eating with chopsticks...

Then, it was onto the Chinese temples built into a cave... This temple was a very obvious blend of Chinese and Indian Buddhism, with temples stretching about a half a mile along the side and up into the mountain. It was a little like amusement park meets temple in atmosphere. Particularly interesting was the pitch black staircase (Malaysia still obviously not entered the age of suing everybody for everything yet)you could follow to get a view over the valley (see pics below), the sometimes beautiful displays inside the temples, and the GIANT (like 4-5 feet long) eel like fish that you could just make out lurking in the dirty water of the ubiquitous pools around the temples.

After that, we went to Batu Gajah (lit. Elephant Rock)where we saw Christines church from childhood and the small militarish cemetary of mainly British and Australian soldiers who died fighting in wars on Malaysian soil. Some dated back to WWI, others to the time of the communist insurgency in Malaysia. The inscription on the last stone is particularly interesting, though you can't see it from the pic, so I'll have to put it in the captions...

And then, after all that, it was back to KL, back in front of the computer and the books! Three weeks to go... :-)