episode I : missing the bus, walking under hot blazing sun, disappointing clock tower, dee-licious beansprouts chicken and fattening cheesecakes!

Presenting a new 3-episode drama:

The Adventure of the SUPERBLURS

Starring:

Fiona Tong Hui Ling

Hanson Chu Chun Hong

Jino Lim Jinq Sien

Thum Wai Yin

"FREE & EASY" IPOH/BATU GAJAH/GOPENG/KAMPAR/TELUK INTAN TRIP (12th - 14th DECEMBER 2007)

The path that we took across Perak Darul Ridzuan

Destination #1: KL --> Ipoh

My 2 bags

We were supposed to board the 8.30 a.m. Transnasional bus to Ipoh from the Pudu Bus Station. The tickets cost RM12.40 each. Due to damn traffic jam, I arrived at the bus station about 3 minutes before 8.30 a.m.!!! When I reached, I saw the 3 of them waiting at the Transnasional platform. I was relieved thinking that I had make it in time. But after waiting at the platform for about 10 minutes, we started to get confused. Neither of us had taken a long-distanced bus from the bus station before so we were not sure where we were supposed to go. Finally, Hanson went to the counter to enquire about the 8.30 a.m. bus to Ipoh. When he came back, he told us that the bus has left!!! We were like - wtf??? The bus had actually leave at 8.30 a.m. sharp without 4 of us in it!!! Upset and confused, we went to the sales counter and purchase new bus tickets for the 9.30 a.m. bus instead. We managed to refund our previous tickets, but only for half-price. *Sigh*

Our new bus tickets for half-price

So we sat around at the bus station waiting for our bus, discussing further about the trip. We decided to use as least money as possible for this trip, using buses as our main mode of transportation. About 9.15 a.m., we went to Platform 8 and boarded our bus to Ipoh. Even inside the bus, we experienced a few glitches. Someone else sat in our seats, saying that it was "free seating", i.e. don't need to follow the seat number written on our tickets. My damn bag cannot fit inside those narrow "spaces" above our seats so I have to squeezed it on the floor. Then a man came to our seats and asked us why are we sitting in his seat. We have to tell him that someone told us it was free seating. However, he did not believe us and say that there was no such thing as free seating. Finally, we managed to negotiate with him and he said that if anyone ask him to move from his seat, we will have to move and return his original seat to him. But luckily, everyone else bought that "free seating crap" and no one was made to moved.

Hanson and Jino checking the map at the Pudu Bus Station

The 3-hour bus ride was extremely boring. We just listened to music the whole time. Managed to catch a few winks. As usual, Jino, Mr. I-can-sleep-anywhere-anytime had a good nap. Gawd, that boy falls asleep as soon as he laids his head down. Finally, about noon, we arrived at the Medan Gopeng Bus Station. Feeling a little disoriented and blur, we decided to call a taxi to bring us to our hotel, Excelsior Hotel. He charged us RM12.00

One thing about taxis in ipoh - really old. And I mean it, the car models dated back to the 70s' or 80s'. Plus, there are no meters in the taxis, so we have to asked the price first before getting in, in case he tries to swindle us. Also, there is really no proof that they are illegible taxi drivers. Hanson even mentioned that a driver just need to place a taxi sign on his car and poof! It becomes a taxi. Honestly, nothing inside the taxi shows that our taxi driver is in fact, an illegible one.

Anyways, when we reached the 3 or 4-star hotel (I cannot remember!), we booked 2 rooms which costs RM133.00 per night (breakfast exclusive) each. The breakfast inclusive one is RM143.00 but we wanted to try the food outside so we took the former one. We asked for connecting rooms. The rooms were spacious, clean and comfortable. After settling in and taking some photos, we decided to start our journey in Ipoh.

The view from our room on the 13th floor!

The girls' room - 1304

The boys' room - 1305

Jino's new Sony camera - 8.1 megapixels, touchscreen and 4GB internal memory!!! I am so jealous!

Using the Ipoh map that Wai Yin bought from Carrefour, we embarked on our journey. But 15 mins in, we already got lost at a cross-junction. Unable to find any landmarks written on the map, we went inside a bank and asked for directions. Every 5 mins, we looked at the map to determine our direction. When we stopped at a spot to check the map again, a kind man asked us where we wanted to go and finally showed us the correct direction.

Ipoh Old Town

Oh ya, one thing I want to mentioned here is how WIDE Ipoh roads are. We had so much problem trying to cross the roads!!! The roads are usually 3 or 4 lanes. No wonder there is no traffic jam at all in Ipoh!!!

Tourist Spot#1 (written from a real tourist point of view;)

Note: All website info source is from http://www.ipoh-malaysiavacationguide.com/

Birch Memorial Clock Tower

Website view: The Victorian-style tower in Jalan Dato Sagor was unveiled in 1909. It was a dedication to the first British Resident of Perak, J.W.W. Birch, who was assasinated at Pasir Salak on 2nd November, 1875. The four sides of the first level of the tower exhibit statues that represents loyalty, justice, bravery and patience. Then, the four sides of the second level of the tower are colourful murals, which show a total of 49 famous professions of different eras. They include scholars, soldiers, astrologers and sculptors. Can't believe this: Jesus is one of them.

My view: This place sucks! Please do not go if you can. VI clock tower looks even nicer. The place was dirty and there were no tourists at all. Around the tower, there was so much rubbish littered around. It looks like an abandoned place. Although at night, the lights do a great job in disguising it. My advice is take pictures of it as you drive passed it, esp at night but do not waste your time going there. You will be as disappointed as we were. Memang char do!!!

Tourist spot#2: Ipoh Railway Station

A short distance away from the "supposedly clock tower", you can see lots of architectural historical buildings that have been preserved. E.g. The High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi Ipoh) and the famous Ipoh Railway Station.

In front of a really PRETTY building but I dunno what's the name;P

Website view: The railway station is one of Ipoh heritage buildings. This majestic building was designed by the famous government architect, A.B. Hubback and built in 1917. This about 90 years old building has three platforms, commodious offices, a hotel and a restaurant. The design is classical architecture, harnessed to the British "Raj" style, surmounted by "Moorish" domes and turrets. If you ever been to the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, you will be aware of the striking resemblance between these two buildings. Just in front of the station, there is a beautiful floral park where the "Ipoh tree" laids in the middle of it. On one side of the park, there is a memorial tomb for those who were sacrified in the war. This charming garden had proved itself by being chosen to be one of the shooting locations for the Hollywood movie - Anna and The King, which starred Jodie Foster and Chow Yuen Fatt.

My view: This place reminds me of the KL railway station so it did not really impressed me. Although, I do like the war memorial monument. It is always nice to see that some tourist attractions honoured those that have been sacrificed in the war. It reminds us how stupid war is, and how innocent lives are used to determine a winner in this bloody game.

"Memorial to the dead of the two world wars. Sacred to the memory of the men from the State of Perak who fell in the Great War. 1914 - 1918. And to those who died in the 1939 - 1945 War."

A funny thing happened inside the railway station. We wanted to enquire the prices of train tickets to Batu Gajah so we walked towards the counter but as we were about to reach the counter, they closed the windows! So we just stood there. Char do! There was nobody around that we can asked as well so we just look at the notices, which was not much help. We joked that maybe the person in the counter could sense Hanson's "babi aura" and quickly slammed the counter windows on us. Shit oh, they really do not want business! So we left the station joking about that funny and weird moment.

Along the way, we saw the Perak Tourist Information Centre so we decided to go in and ask about buses to Batu Gajah. The centre was also next to Ipoh Padang, which was a smaller version of KL's Dataran Merdeka.

Padang Ipoh

The people inside the centre were really nice and gave us a lot of info on how to travel in Perak. They also gave us a lot of pamphlets and brochures about Ipoh and Perak. They told us about the directons to Medan Kidd, which is another bus station that caters to buses travelling aroud the Perak state. Thanking them, we continued our navigation across Ipoh.

Tourist attractions in Perak

I was impressed by this framed photograph of Ipoh Railway Station back in 1993

Brochures, pamphlets and postcards that they gave us each!

After walking for almost two hours under the hot blazing sun in Ipoh town, we quenched our thirst in the famous Old Town kopitiam. This brand originally comes from Ipoh but now their branches can be found everywhere, esp in KL.

I had the Mocha White Coffee - They put some mocha powder inside! Yummy, tastes like chocolate!!

After our short rest, we make our way on foot again to Medan Kidd, checking the map and asking for directions along the way. Finally, we found it and we took a bus back to our hotel. One word of caution here: Buses in Ipoh are really old as well. Like the taxis, the models were like pre-war times!!! Inside is also dirty. But one thing I noticed as well is that there are many frequent buses in Ipoh so we do not have to wait long. Also, there are very few people inside the bus, so we always have enough places to sit. The bus conductors are also nice to tell us where to stop. Bus tickets are also cheap.

We returned to the hotel, tired and exhausted. Everyone took a bath, change our clothes and took more candid shots.

Jino finally gave Hanson and me's belated bday presents which I had forbid him to bring because I did not want any excess luggage. Alas, Jino did not listen to me, as usual. He gave Hanson and me matching mugs. So cute!!! Mine is in white and Hanson's in black.

Thanks very much to Jino and Khor Kah Loong!!!

My roommate striking a model pose

An adventure begins...

We wanted to go and do some shopping in Ipoh Parade Parkson Grand which was along the same road as our hotel but when we reached the lobby, it started raining heavily so we changed our plans and went back to our rooms. But when we reached our rooms, we could not get in! The thing was, since both the girls' and boys' rooms were connected, we decided to just bring one key out. We did not trust the boys with their key, so WY and I took our room key. However, when we left the rooms, we went out through the boys' room, forgetting that we had chained our room from the inside. So, with the boys not having their room key and us girls' room locked from inside, we had to go down again to the lobby and asked for another key. Paiseh betul!

With nothing to do in the room, we joked around and took a nap, waiting for Suz C's mother who is bringing us out for dinner. We hung out in the boys' room because ONE, we do not want them messing up our room and TWO, our TV is spoilt so we could only watched the TV in the boys' room:(

The two boys getting a gay-pose sleep

Wai Yin fast asleep

A funny Hanson-Jino moment happened during this time.

Jino went to the toilet and shouted from the toilet:

Jino: Chuchunhong! Berani tak flush toilet!!!
Hanson: Not me-lah. The flush is not working.

Silence for a while before we heard the flushing sound.

Jino: Mana ada? Cepat datang sini dan mari saya tunjuk how to flush toilet

Hanson goes inside the toilet with Jino inside. Jino waits for the tank to refill and then pulls the flush and "miraculously" the flushing sound appeared.

Hanson: TAK MUNGKIN!!!!

Hanson tries to flush this time but because the water has yet to refill, there was no flushing sound.

Hanson: Tengok! I said cannot flush one!
Jino and us: *Sweat*

Jino teaching Hanson how to flush the toilet

About 7pm, Suz C and her mom came to picked us up from our hotel. We wanted to eat Ipoh specialty dishes so Aunty recommended the "nga choy kai" or Ipoh beansprouts chicken"芽菜雞". She brought us to a restaurant that is well-known for its nga choy kai called Kam Hor Restaurant which is situated at Canning Gardens, Ipoh.

Eventhough we had to wait a long time for our chicken and our mee, the reward was excellent! The chicken was very tasty and the taugeh was juicy. But sad thing was Jino and Hanson because they sat facing the chicken's ass so they ate a lot of the drumstick part of the chicken. By the time they reached the middle part of the chicken, all the breast meat was eaten by us girls. LOL.

Later, Aunty took us on a tour around Ipoh, bringing us to the 2 flyovers in Ipoh, around Ipoh Old Town, Canning Gardens, Ipoh City South, Ipoh City East, Tiger Lane (where Michelle Yeoh lives!), Kinta City (the Jusco there was huge!) and Kek Lok Tong (where we got lost because it was so dark). Aunty also showed us where were the best spots for Ipoh specialties like salted chicken "盐锔鸡", beef noodles "牛腩粉" and heong peng "香饼".

The many pomelo “柚”shops that we saw in Ipoh

Wai Yin wanted to buy pomelos because she likes them but they were way too troublesome to carry around.

Finally, Aunty dropped us at a Pasar Malam near our hotel because we wanted to experience the night activities of Ipoh.

The small Pasar Malam with sadly, nothing much to see

Wai Yin at Jalan Sultan Abdul Jalil, the road in front of our hotel

We walked back to our hotel, returned to our rooms and slept since we were all dead exhausted. I was in the boys' room watching the TV when I heard Jino snored. So loud wei - Louder than the sounds from the TV!!! After the Chinese movie ended, I went back to my room to see Wai Yin fast asleep.

The end of Day 1 - Places we went on Day 1 of our trip

TO BE CONTINUED...

~15/11/2007~

Went to Leisure Mall with Mom to watch Enchanted again!!! Had McDonald's and then bought delicious Secret Recipe cheesecakes. Had been having a craving for cheesecakes lately. Sales were everywhere but I still cannot find that dress of my dreams for CNY. *Sigh*

My two times watching Enchanted!

Caramel Cream Cheesecake and New York Cheesecake

Damn! I am so going to be fcuking fat!!!