🚗Travelling Around Ipoh and the Places We Visited

At this point, in the couple of months that I’ve been married, my husband and I have gone on a couple of trips together. Sometimes, it’s just a half-day trip to an anime or cat convention, the nearest beach to our home, or a walk at the park (mostly I’m dragged to join these). If not for those brief trips, we’d spend our weekends indoors, winding down while doing house chores, playing games and watching TV. Standard introvert-friendly things, I suppose.

But there are the occasional lengthy ones too, like our recent family vacation last weekend in Ipoh, Perak. 

Given that everyone's schedules were free and we hadn't yet taken a family vacation together, it was the perfect opportunity to travel and see the vibrant city for two days.

Also note: Two days to explore Ipoh IS NOT ENOUGH. The town may be a lot smaller than most, but it just bamboozled me that whichever corner or new street we took, there was always something to explore. If you know, you know. 

Here are just a few of the places we visited that I have photos of:

🌄 Taman Rekreasi Gunung Lang

I truly think this was the location we spent the most time exploring, other than THAT bookshop you'll read about later. First things first, I would say that parking was rather straightforward; there was plenty of space available, with the exception that it was an open rooftop parking place. Our car felt very much like an oven after we returned.

The view of the surrounding mountains and contrasting blue sky felt surreal, nothing at all like the ones we see in Kuala Lumpur in the forms of skyscrapers and high-rise condos. I must have snapped dozens of pictures of this view, almost blinding myself from the late morning sun in the process. 

Before I go on if you’re planning to come here, try to arrive as soon as it opens at 8:30 AM because the weather can be blazing hot. Plenty of trees and other vegetation around sure, but some of the spaces are open to the mercy of the sun. So, get that sunscreen on (because I sure as heck forgot mine and thus, explains my sunburn), hat and water bottle at the ready. 

Entry tickets were only RM3 per adult for the boat ride that would take us across the lake, the actual space we could explore. One boat ride later, we came across this:

A series of winding paths leading from the lake to gazebos, replicas of traditional Perak houses (at the time we were there, there were all except for one under maintenance, too bad), a watch tower, children’s playground and a spot to rent bicycles to cycle around too. The weather may have been almost unbearable, but the view and places to take pictures made it all worth it.

🚶🏽‍♀️Concubine Lane

My first impression: “Wow, this place looked a lot bigger in the pictures.” and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought the same. 

True to its name, it really is just a lane except that it’s so beautiful with lanterns and street art, teeming with shops, cafes and stalls of food and souvenirs. This place was certainly vibrant with rich history and culture. Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures whilst exploring here because it was very crowded, people were squeezing past each other in two compressed lines. To fully appreciate Concubine Lane and explore its surroundings, visit it on the weekdays or even weekends when it’s not the school holidays.

I bought a souvenir for myself and my family: cute cat bookmarks for just RM2 each from a stall. I become weak with anything cat printed on it. We also purchased a variety of cinnamon rolls: classic, soft-baked apple and biscoff from a local-owned stall while we waited for the evening rain to subside (they tasted so good!). 

🛍️BookXcess Kong Heng Ipoh

Definitely one of my favourite stops so far on this trip. Unlike other Bookxcess stores that I’ve been to, this one is completely unique as it is built or integrated inside an actual historical bank. Books are laid out on shelves in preserved bank vaults and authentic deposit boxes. There were plenty of benches to sit and read, cosy spots for pictures and cheeky neon lights decorating the walls and staircases. I could have been left there for hours exploring each room and corner of this bookstore. If the books weren’t mostly wrapped, I would have stayed longer. It’s just one of the things I’m always not entirely happy about with Bookxcess.

On a brighter note, I couldn’t help myself and went to buy a book. So much for going through my current TBR first.

🥟Canning Dim Sum

We knew this place is something of a viral go-to eatery in Ipoh so we made it our priority to have breakfast there first thing in the morning. The earlier, the better since by the time we all made it to the entrance, it was swamped with customers. We reserved one table and while we waited for it to be available, we took a couple of pictures outside where there were props set up. Also, a great opportunity to drink up that sweet Vitamin D I so heavily lack.

Once seated, we had a very friendly and helpful waitress taking our drinks. We ordered two pots of tea: jasmine and chrysanthemum, and a couple of personalised dishes. Then a tray of many different dim sums, both of steamed and fried variety were presented to us and we could choose right there and then what we wanted. Fair warning, they didn't specify how much each of those dim sums were or how much we were to pay in sum (of course, the menu sheet would help if it was still on our table). They simply recommended a few dim sum options, we pointed to what we liked, the waitress placed ticks on our order sheet that was on the table and boom, later on at the cashier, the receipt was enough to make me stutter (it wasn’t all that bad). Then again, everything did look so tempting and interesting to try, and we did go a little above budget after finishing everything. It was so good, my favourite being the Sweet & Sour Beancurd Roll. Would we drop by again if we were at Ipoh? Definitely.

Other places we visited: Miker Food, Pasar Karat Ipoh, Restoran M. Salim