Mini Escapism : Ipoh

Super short holiday deserve super short vacation. 

We went to Ipoh right in the middle of the week, when Af combined his Thaipusam + Federal Day holiday and decided that we need our random escapism. This time we opted for our favorite city, Ipoh. There weren't enough time to visit each and every tourist spots in Ipoh because we only have around 2 days to explore.

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1. Tempurung Cave

The first spot was the Tempurung Cave, because it was the nearest place near the highway before we arrived at the Ipoh City. We arrived around lunch hour and we already had our brunch in SK earlier so we just headed to the entrance knowing we were ready for our first activity.

Here are some things I found out :

• There are 4 stages of the Gua Tempurung exploration packs. 
• Stage 1 (40 minutes - dry - walk in) - RM 8
• Stage 2 (1 hour 40 minutes - dry - walk in) - RM 12
• Stage 3 (2 hours 30 minutes - wet - need : extra clothes, towel, head lamp) - RM 15
• Stage 4 (3 hours 30 minutes - wet - need : extra  clothes, towel, head lamp) - RM 30
• We didn't know what to expect, so we were wearing jeans and Af was wearing slippers, not suitable for outdoor activity. 
• So we chose the stage 1 package, a walk until Platform 3. I'm not sure whether we should be guided by the cave ranger or not (because it was stated on the board, but at the counter they just asked us to walk by ourself until Platform 3 and return back). So it was not a guided tour and we were free to roam inside the cave for as long as we wanted.  
• The view inside was magnificent !
• I don't think it is a suitable activity with really small kids and senior citizens because there were hundreds and hundreds of steep steps (even just to platform 3). 
• It was hot, I guess because there was no wind inside, sometimes it felt a bit claustrophobic. 
• I liked it, and I will definetely go again to try out the other stages 

Look at all the steps to reach the peak ! : 

The Map :

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2. Check-in at our hotel 
After our Gua Tempurung walk, we headed to our hotel around 20 minutes away. It rained heavily when we arrived at the hotel, so we can't go anyway. Af took a short nap while I played games on my phone and read my current book : Men without Women :F

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3. Dinner at Dataran Ipoh 
We decided to have our dinner at Dataran Ipoh food stalls. I ordered for delicious hot Bihun Soup Daging, it just rained so the weather was quite cold. So having hot soup was a bliss, I'm glad it tasted nice. There are also other food stalls mostly selling the same foods : Soups, Rojak, Yoong Tau Fu, Char Kuew Tiaw and Goreng2.

The Map :

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4. Gerbang Malam Night Market
We parked our car at Ipoh Parade soon after we had our dinner. We also booked for a late-night movie to used up all our outing time. But after we bought the ticket and went out to walk to our next destination, we realized that it was raining heavily again. We were stuck in the mall for several hours and we didn't know what to do. So we played at the arcade until the closing time.

By 10, the rain stopped and we can walk to Gerbang Malam. It was around 2km walk from Ipoh Parade. I didn't like to be out at night even though I have a huge bodyguard next to me. All shops were closed, and even gas stations were closing during that time. I felt a bit insecure :F

But there were many people at Gerbang Malam, it was a bit like walking at Jonker Street but without the colourful and beautiful old shops. Only stalls. 

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5. Ipoh Parade for late night movie

We bought the latest Maze Runner and I regret it. It was not fun, it was dreary and I wonder why did I chose that movie over and over again =.= We went back to our hotel around 2 am and that was the end of day 1 :D

There are several arcades on level 4 (if you want to burn some time).

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6. Breakfast at The New Hollywood Restaurant
AF insisted that we should try this place (note : he was the one deciding on each activity & destination this time, because it's his place. I just followed :D Usually I'm the one planning and deciding).

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7. Yik Foong Complex
Af said this was an old building selling mostly IT stuffs 'back in the day' when he was still a college student and a place to play console games with his friends. But when we went there, it was almost deserted especially the top levels. We did explored the whole building, some parts were even closed "for renovation".

We parked at the parking lot next to the building (one whole day for RM 4) and decided that we should just walk on foot to explore the city. 

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8. A long hot walk to the Pos Besar Ipoh and Ipoh Railway Station
It felt like the longest and hottest walk ever T^T
Even though we walked for less than 2 km to the Pos Office. I needed to send all my parcels that I prepared for the week. So I thought walking to the pos office would be a great idea, plus the old Ipoh Railway Station was located right next to the post office. But when we arrived, we were already too exhausted and dehydrated, we just sat for awhile in the air-conditioned post station. Ha. I didn't take any pictures, I don't think we have the energy to do so after the walk.

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9. Random walk back towards our car

We found : Yasmin at Kong Heng Museum (opens only on Sat & Sunday), walked behind the nice Sekeping Kong Heng. walked until we found the Concubine Lane alley, saw the old Han Chin Pet Soo museum (but didn't wait until it opens at 3pm), and saw the Ipoh murals. I think we probably walked around 4-5 km, but it was so hot I felt like we walked farther.

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And that was our final activity for our short escapism !
Even though it was really short, I had a lot of fun ❤ I do want to visit Ipoh again (especially to go to Gua Tempurung and visit the Yasmin Museum), so next time we should probably go on the weekends.

Money we spent :

• Gas : RM 60
• Toll : RM 50
• Agoda : RM 100
• Foods : RM 40 
• Tickets : RM 16 (Gua Tempurung)

Mini Escapism : Gunung Rapat, Ipoh + Kek Look Tong

Kedah - Perak - Selangor - Part 3 :

It was our 3rd day of the road-trip. We were supposed to head to Lumut that day but there was another place that Af wanted to show me in Ipoh among other places he was so excited about but couldn't have enough time to explore - that is Mount Rapat. So we went there after our quick brunch at Stadium Ipoh before heading out to our next destination.

It was a Monday, the Chinese New Year celebration.  

What I forgot to expect was : it was CNY and people go to the temple to pray. Kek Look Tong temple is located right in the cave so to visit the mountains, cave and lake would mean to visit the temple as well. There were a lot of people, when I mean 'a lot' that means families, friends, the whole crowds were actually there. A team of Rela were taking care of the parking and crowds, some polices sat near by taking care of the place and all. There were only several tourists around, including us.

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The mountains were huge, tall and green. It was majestic, very beautiful. The cave was big, the unique naturally curves and formations were really impressive. I can't imagine how many years it took for the cave to form such beauties. T^T There were a lot of religious statues as well. 

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There was a huge garden with 2 big ponds, nice pathway, scattering monkeys, various flowers and mini statues. It was already mid-afternoon, so the place was quite hot, most people stayed in the cave but we went down to look around the garden. I noticed that people were hardly there out in the sun :p

I saw that there were several more temples around the mountains near the main road, but this one was hidden in a residential area around Mount Rapat. Use navigation application and you won't be lost in the way :)

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Here's the map for you :

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Mini Escapism : Gunung Lang, Ipoh

Kedah - Perak - Selangor - Part 2 :

The first place Af brought me after we checked in was Mount Lang not quite far from where we stayed. We used Waze  most of the time to shorten our time in finding ways and fast routes - so we used a lot of small roads instead of the city's busy road. The recreational park located at Jalan Kuala Kangsar, just Waze the destination and it will bring you there :D

The rocky limestone hills were huge ! Look at this one picture on the right where I stand right in front of hill. Tres petite compared to the hill, no? 

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We had to buy a RM 3 speed boat ticket to go across the lake and reach the other side of the park; between all of the mountains. So there's a park in the middle of all the mountains and the only entrace is the lake. It was so cool. It was also the spot where they shot the famous 'Sepet' movie, the one with Orked and Jason :D

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I saw one huge labi-labi taking its breath before it went down into the lake again. The hills, the birds, the big lake, the greenery, T^T I cannot tahan. This is yet another city in my wish list ! Perhaps when I'm much much older and a multi-millionaire, I'll make one mini 'The Banjaran' for my family and I.

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Here is a panaromic view from the tower we hiked :

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We headed Padang Polo right afterwards to see the field and sunset. There were hundreds of people, kids, families, friends, they were actually having their outing session on public holiday. This is a huge field with many little stalls along the road. In the KL city, we can see this many crowds probably only in KLCC and malls :p And because I hardly go out to crowded places much especially on public holiday, that was quite new to me. 

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Mini Escapism : Kedah - Perak - Selangor

Kedah - Perak - Selangor - Part 1 :

It's a long holiday !  

2 months back I received a wedding card from my colleague, Sha. AF and I always find reasons to explore new places and go on a mini escapism, so we decided to go to her wedding in Kedah. Of all the places and all the wedding that I missed in my life, suddenly I chose to go :D

We started our journey early morning on last Saturday around 6.30 am thinking that we might be able to avoid the traffic, considering it's a festive season. We were wrong. Waze's time estimation was around 4-5 hours, but we arrived after 9 hours on the road. The traffic was really-really bad. There were 4 accidents along the way, by the time we arrived at the wedding, it was almost over. We greeted her father and he said that Sha already left for her outing photo-shooting. So we went to eat and left shortly afterwards :o

The wedding took place in the paddy field area near Mount Keriang, so we took the opportunity to visit the place after the wedding. We just simply visited the recreational park to see the place thinking that we might go on a hike the next morning because I was starting to feel my 'usual' throbbing pain in my head. That 'famous' head-ache that I still don't know the cause yet. So we headed to our hotel around 20 minutes away and checked in.

I slept in for almost 12 hours.   

The headache disappeared and we decided to head to Perak after breakfast instead. We were ready for our road-trip and planned to make several stops before arriving at our next destination : Ipoh. So it was a really short stay in Kedah. I wish we have more time to take nice sunset photos alongside of the paddy field but it wasn't in the season.

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To enjoy nice scenery and explore new little kampungs during our journey from Alor Setar to KL, we used old roads instead of the highway. It took a bit longer but I'm glad we did. 

My favorites are : 

• We took almost 360' circle around Mount Jerai in Yan because I wanted to stop by near the beach right at the mountain.
• The first time I saw ikan belacak (mudskipper) in pantai Murni in Yan. I've never saw one ever in my life until that time we stopped in Yan. 
• 10 years anniversary for Hot fm brought us all the famous songs in those 10 years, it's a perfect playlist for the road-trip
• The paddy fields along side of the road from Yan to Butterworth
• The hills and mountains on our way to Ipoh were magnifique ! I can't even write enough about the magnificent view we got along the road. There weren't even pictures big enough to show how beautiful they were. Lucky northern people, perhaps they don't even notice what they are missing.
• Chatty AF - when we visited all his childhood places while he was growing up.
• Mount Rapat + Mount Lang
• Sunset in Lumut

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Our path on the 1st day :

Highway - KL to Alor Setar > Gunung Keriang

Our path on the 2nd day :

Alor Setar > Gurun > Yan > Tikam Batu > Butterworth > Bandar Ipoh > Gunung Lang > Padang Polo. 

Our path on the 3rd day :

Bandar Ipoh > Gunung Rapat > Lumut 

Our path on the 4th day :

Lumut > Sg Besar > Sekinchan > Tg. Karang > KL > Home

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Summary :

• We travelled around 1070 km on car in 4 days 3 nights.
• 3 different 2-stars hotel booked on Agoda ranging RM 70 - RM 95 per night
• We spent around RM 250 - RM 300 per person for foods, accommodation, gas and tolls. 
• Total : RM 270 (accommodation) , RM 100 (tolls) , RM 130 (gas-return)

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Sunsets :
We missed the first sunset because we were both exhausted from the 9 hours ride. We had a nice sunset at Padang Polo, Ipoh on the second day. That was the field where Af used to train for parkour during his younger years :D We got a great sunset view at the beach in Lumut on the third day. 

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Note :

If you are an escapee like us, waiting for chances to explore on weekends or public holidays or any random time because of  your commitment to work/family/school, be a part of us. We put up a car sticker; 'Eskapi' on our car's window. Promised we use the car for a great cause of exploring new places, road-trips, new destination :) It's never too near to find new places to explore.

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