Big Food Night in Ipoh

We spent one night in Ipoh, just before going back to Singapore.  Of course it was a big foodie night, where we had a huge dinner followed by supper.

For dinner we went to Restaurant Mun Choong (or Mun Zhong) at 57-65, Jalan Horley, Kampung Jawa.  It's also apparently known as Pusing Public Restaurant (or under this group).  It's one of the most popular Chinese restaurants in Ipoh, as attested on various websites including this one here.

Indeed, it was very busy on the Monday night we were there, so we were grateful that we had gone early.  We ordered a sumptious meal, befitting our last night on the road:

Shark's Fin (evil I know but just this once) - really flavourful

Roast Suckling Pig (pork fat is good fat!)

Qing Long (青龙) Vegetables (unusual, we hadn't tried it before)

Fried Prawns - big and fresh!  

Red Bean Soup - with that hint of orange zest

We also had some noodles to complement the dishes.  All in all, a truly excellent meal.  Indeed, Malaysia has so many good Chinese restaurants to visit!

For supper of course it was taugay chicken accompanied by oh-so-smooth-and-slippery hor fan!  There are many famous spots for Taugay Chicken in Ipoh but we went to Onn Kee.  As we were slurping down the hor fan and chomping away on the crunchy sprouts, one of my friends (a native Perak boy) suddenly exclaimed that one of the opposition candidates was walking towards us!  (Don't forget that this was during GE2018 in Malaysia).  Well, he greeted the candidate as though they were good friends, and introduced the rest of us as his friends.  We on our part nodded politely and the candidate walked on, probably guessing (correctly) that our lukewarm reception was because we were tourists.

Supper at Onn Kee

(After eating at Onn Kee, go over to Lam Fong Biscuit Shop around the corner, for traditional Malaysian Teochew biscuits.  I found the ark-am or duck's neck biscuit which I bought in Penang last year.  I really like the texture of the crunchy peanuts against the soft paste of the biscuit.  )

P.S.  For those interested, we stayed at another of those hip new hotels in Ipoh - M Roof Hotel  Residences.  Recommended. The hotel coffeeshop is run by Old Town, which means you get a great coffee for breakfast.  We went back to Singapore the next am, with stops at Bidoh and Seremban for our second breakfast and lunch respectively.

Malaysia Road Trip - Caves of Gua Tempurung

The Caves of Gua Tempurung

When you reach a milestone in your life's journey, you want to commemorate it.  My friends and I decided to celebrate our Big 50 by going on a road trip to Malaysia together.  If ever you want to pretend you’re 18 again, there is no better company than the people you were 18 with in the first place.  It was an adventure like no other, a chance to remember the years we have spent on the journey of our lives together, as we climbed through the highlands of Malaysia and into the limestone caves at their centre.

We departed from Singapore in two groups - one by car and the other by air, to meet in Kuala Lumpur where we would spend the night before our trip proper began.  Our plan was to spend two nights in the highlands, before moving to Ipoh for the night, then making our way back to Singapore.  Food, fun and friendship were all on the agenda.

But first, we drove off to Gopeng, the launch point for the caves of Gua Tempurung.  There's a pretty good write-up on the caves and their origins here, so I'm not going into all that detail.  Suffice it to say that these limestone caves were created many thousands of years ago, discovered by man and used to mine tin, hide during wars and during the Malayan Emergency period, before becoming one of the major tourism draws in the state.

Indeed, the caverns are magnificent.  Soaring caverns, stalagtites and stalagmites can be seen in this cave and I can confidently say I’ve been to the top and bottom of the caves.  There are four alternative treks, ranging from the easy one to toughest.  We were on the third option, considered "Exciting and Challenging". The first part was the “easy” part, where we walked into the huge cavern, bigger than any cathedral.   Stairs - lots of them - take us up to the top of the cavern, so near we could *almost* touch the ceiling.  Water drips slowly, and we see where stalactites/stalagmites are forming slowly, over millions of years and slowly meet, thicken and become massive pillars.

Then we walked down all the stairs to reach the bottom of the cave.  Here we squeezed through little tunnels, to where the underground river flows through the "caverns measureless to man".  We had to crawl through in places, on elbows and knees through the water-filled tunnels to reach the larger caves beyond.  And then we came to a point where we had to slide down the side of the cavern.  Shall we say that I was exceedingly grateful that the guide was there to catch me at the bottom.  We finally got through the last tunnel, to emerge back into the huge cavern from which we emerged back into the main campsite of the caves - wet, dirty, scraped and bruised, but with a pleasing sense of accomplishment.

We’d gone with Radak Adventures, and the guide took us back to their campsite near the caves to clean up before we went back to Gopeng.  The campsite is by a large river, where we rested and waded (and had a snack).  If you ever think of going to Gua Tempurung, some practical stuff to remember - bring a torch, wear old clothes, preferably a long-sleeved top and pants which cover the knees (I wore leggings) and shoes you don't mind getting totally soaked (and which dry fast).  I wore my Crocs sneakers and they were perfect.  If you want to bring a camera, make sure you have a waterproof bag.  I left my cameraphone behind - hence the lack of photos in this post; the one above was taken by a friend of mine.

More photos of our KL hotel, and of the caves here.