33rd entry - Trip to S's Hometown in Ipoh, Malaysia (part 1)
Wow! Feels like its been ages since I wrote a blog entry ... Life has been busy but fulfilling, especially ever since I moved in with my partner, S. S was busy with studies while I had my gym and church fellowship. We celebrated our birthdays at two different restaurants – Olive Tree at Hotel Intercontinental and Palm Restaurant at Copthorne Orchid Hotel – and I made S a special “durian cake” with fresh durian paste and decorated it with M&Ms chocolates and Glico chocolate-coated biscuit sticks.
S and I recently went on a trip to Ipoh, where S was born and raised. When S spoke about the place, I imagined that it is a rather quiet town in the northern part of Malaysia. All I knew about Ipoh was that it was 9 hours bus ride away, and it produced "beh teh soh", a Chinese pastry with malt/wheat candy filling, which S bought for me and my parents to try on the last visit. S told me that Ipoh was famous for its caves, too.
I was pretty excited about visiting S's hometown. The trip is another major milestone for us - a memory that I would definitely cherish forever. S booked us AirAsia plane tickets on the internet at a super low price, but we had to take the flight from Senai Airport in Johor Bahru.
The journey to Senai was a little nerve-wrecking. We set off slightly behind time, but to make matters worse, I caused a delay at the Malaysian immigration because I didnt prepare the Malaysian immigration forms beforehand. Our journey was also rather convoluted - we had to take a train to Kranji station and change to a bus to the checkpoint, clear immigration, wait for the bus at JB side to bring us to the bus interchange at Larkin, and transfer to another bus from Larkin to Senai Airport. In the end, we took a cab from Larkin because the airport bus was not even in sight and we had only 30 minutes before boarding gate closes.
We arrived at the airport just when the airline counter was about to close. Fortunately we had no check-in baggage, and we quickly proceeded to the gate-hold area on the second floor of the airport. My first flight on a budget airline was quite nice. The flight was only for an hour and the plane was surprisingly comfortable. I was told by friends who had experienced budget airline flights that it was horrible etc etc but I felt that service standards were acceptable.
At Ipoh, S's dad came to fetch us at the airport in his car. I was a little nervous but S's dad practically ignored me throughout the 15 minutes ride, as we only exchanged a few pleasantries. All I saw of S’s dad was his head, shoulders and a bit of his face from car’s the rear mirror. We were dropped off at Hotel Syuen, where S booked a room for us. It was really sweet of S to accompany me at the hotel instead of returning home to sleep during the trip – the last thing I wanted was to be on a trip with S but yet have to sleep alone!
The room was quite cozy. Toiletries were provided and the beds were quite comfortable. As the rooms were apparently fully booked, we took one with 2 super-single beds, but with a clever manouvering of the furniture, we "created" a combined "king" bed. We had not much time to enjoy the room, however, as we needed to make use of the limited time we had together to see many places of interest that were on S's itinerary.
We went on S's scooter to a nearby township where S knew a "Luk Luk" stall was operating. We gorged ourselves on more than 20 sticks of fishballs, cuttle-fish, beancurd-fish wraps, cockles and other delicious food, dipped in fragrant spicy peanut sauce. S then took me to the first place of interest, the Nirvana Cave. It was located in a quiet suburban area, behind rows of semi-detached houses.
The "Paradise Cave" (Ji2 Le2 Dong4 in Chinese) was relatively small, and used as a place of worship for Confucianists, Buddhists and Taoists (several deities were housed "under one cave"). A short walkway through the cave quickly led us from the entrance to the other end of the cave, which opened up to a scenic Chinese-themed garden, complete with a lotus pond and garden bridge, and rows of lovely hibiscus and other flowers. Steep cliffs surrounded the entire cove on which the garden was built, and a river flowed gently right in front of it.
A cool breeze greeted us as we approached the cove from inside the cave, but the air in the garden was strangely still, adding a mysterious aura of tranquility. S took the opportunity to take some beautiful photos of the flora at the garden. Unfortunately, we realised that we forgot to bring the camera’s memory card. However, I felt that it could have been a blessing in disguise, as we could concentrate on enjoying each other’s company and visiting the places of interests instead of being concerned about taking photos.
Next, we went to the largest shopping mall in Ipoh, Jusco. We bought a few pieces of clothes at a really great bargain, and went to the supermarket and Watsons (S's favourite store) to look for stuff on sale. For supper, S brought me to a well-known bean-sprouts and chicken ipoh hor-fun (thin, flat translucent noodles made with rice flour) stall where we shared 2 bowls of noodles, 1 plate of boiled chicken with soy sauce and 2 plates of bean-sprouts. The sprouts were thick and crunchy, yet did not have the strong "vegetable scent". The meal was absolutely sumptuous! We went to a pasar malam and a shop selling Malaysian souvenirs nearby before heading back to the hotel feeling really happy. Even the drizzle at the end did not dampen our moods at all!
(continued in Part 2)
S and I recently went on a trip to Ipoh, where S was born and raised. When S spoke about the place, I imagined that it is a rather quiet town in the northern part of Malaysia. All I knew about Ipoh was that it was 9 hours bus ride away, and it produced "beh teh soh", a Chinese pastry with malt/wheat candy filling, which S bought for me and my parents to try on the last visit. S told me that Ipoh was famous for its caves, too.
I was pretty excited about visiting S's hometown. The trip is another major milestone for us - a memory that I would definitely cherish forever. S booked us AirAsia plane tickets on the internet at a super low price, but we had to take the flight from Senai Airport in Johor Bahru.
The journey to Senai was a little nerve-wrecking. We set off slightly behind time, but to make matters worse, I caused a delay at the Malaysian immigration because I didnt prepare the Malaysian immigration forms beforehand. Our journey was also rather convoluted - we had to take a train to Kranji station and change to a bus to the checkpoint, clear immigration, wait for the bus at JB side to bring us to the bus interchange at Larkin, and transfer to another bus from Larkin to Senai Airport. In the end, we took a cab from Larkin because the airport bus was not even in sight and we had only 30 minutes before boarding gate closes.
We arrived at the airport just when the airline counter was about to close. Fortunately we had no check-in baggage, and we quickly proceeded to the gate-hold area on the second floor of the airport. My first flight on a budget airline was quite nice. The flight was only for an hour and the plane was surprisingly comfortable. I was told by friends who had experienced budget airline flights that it was horrible etc etc but I felt that service standards were acceptable.
At Ipoh, S's dad came to fetch us at the airport in his car. I was a little nervous but S's dad practically ignored me throughout the 15 minutes ride, as we only exchanged a few pleasantries. All I saw of S’s dad was his head, shoulders and a bit of his face from car’s the rear mirror. We were dropped off at Hotel Syuen, where S booked a room for us. It was really sweet of S to accompany me at the hotel instead of returning home to sleep during the trip – the last thing I wanted was to be on a trip with S but yet have to sleep alone! 
The room was quite cozy. Toiletries were provided and the beds were quite comfortable. As the rooms were apparently fully booked, we took one with 2 super-single beds, but with a clever manouvering of the furniture, we "created" a combined "king" bed. We had not much time to enjoy the room, however, as we needed to make use of the limited time we had together to see many places of interest that were on S's itinerary. We went on S's scooter to a nearby township where S knew a "Luk Luk" stall was operating. We gorged ourselves on more than 20 sticks of fishballs, cuttle-fish, beancurd-fish wraps, cockles and other delicious food, dipped in fragrant spicy peanut sauce. S then took me to the first place of interest, the Nirvana Cave. It was located in a quiet suburban area, behind rows of semi-detached houses.
The "Paradise Cave" (Ji2 Le2 Dong4 in Chinese) was relatively small, and used as a place of worship for Confucianists, Buddhists and Taoists (several deities were housed "under one cave"). A short walkway through the cave quickly led us from the entrance to the other end of the cave, which opened up to a scenic Chinese-themed garden, complete with a lotus pond and garden bridge, and rows of lovely hibiscus and other flowers. Steep cliffs surrounded the entire cove on which the garden was built, and a river flowed gently right in front of it.
A cool breeze greeted us as we approached the cove from inside the cave, but the air in the garden was strangely still, adding a mysterious aura of tranquility. S took the opportunity to take some beautiful photos of the flora at the garden. Unfortunately, we realised that we forgot to bring the camera’s memory card. However, I felt that it could have been a blessing in disguise, as we could concentrate on enjoying each other’s company and visiting the places of interests instead of being concerned about taking photos.
Next, we went to the largest shopping mall in Ipoh, Jusco. We bought a few pieces of clothes at a really great bargain, and went to the supermarket and Watsons (S's favourite store) to look for stuff on sale. For supper, S brought me to a well-known bean-sprouts and chicken ipoh hor-fun (thin, flat translucent noodles made with rice flour) stall where we shared 2 bowls of noodles, 1 plate of boiled chicken with soy sauce and 2 plates of bean-sprouts. The sprouts were thick and crunchy, yet did not have the strong "vegetable scent". The meal was absolutely sumptuous! We went to a pasar malam and a shop selling Malaysian souvenirs nearby before heading back to the hotel feeling really happy. Even the drizzle at the end did not dampen our moods at all!(continued in Part 2)
posted by sunshine wallflower at 10:41 AM
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