Being A Tourist in Taiping

I've mentioned earlier in my previous post that I'll be going to Taiping before my third sem starts and Wei Chyi would be the tour guide this time. Yes, indeed, 6 of us- Guat Shan, Ah Wei, Leon, Sito, Kenji and myself- went Taiping for a 2 days 1 night trip.

We got there by a bus from Kampar to Ipoh the we exchange bus from Ipoh to Taiping. The total cost for one way ticket was RM 9.70 and it was about a 2.5 hours long journey. But before I mention about Taiping, we, as in the Klang-ians left our hometown at 10 a.m and arrived at Kampar at 12 p.m. We packed a little and left for Ipoh on a 2 p.m bus. The weather in Kampar is so hot and dry that the once green healthy grass field now turned golden. On our way to Ipoh, we passed by a cemetery and it was fuming! Imagine how hot it was to the extend where the dried grass burnt on its own.

But anyway, we reach Ipoh approximately 1 hour later and met up with Kenji and Wei Chyi there (because we took separate bus from different locations). We then bought RM 6.45 tickets for a bus ride to Taiping at 3.30 p.m. After 1.5 hours in that utterly stuffy and hot bus, we arrived in Taiping dripping wet with perspiration. Wei Chyi's mom was there waiting for us. We were confused if she was Wei Chyi's mom or elder sister since she looked pretty young. Perhaps at Guat Shan's mom age. That's not the point. So anyway, we went straight to Wei Chyi's place, washed up, met up with Huay Wern and went for dinner.

Dinner.

Our dinner was quite feastful and it was quite cheap for such dinner. It cost us RM68 for a 5 dish dinner which consist of fish, chicken, veg, tofu, and pork. After filling our stomachs, the tour guide took us around Taiping's famous Lake Garden. We did not went down and walk, just looked through the car window since it was dark and that place wasn't very well lit. Wei Chyi even took us to Taman Eliathamby. In Tamil, Eliathamby means people who are borned with Kilnefelter disease (a polite term for 'pondans'). Then, we went to the zoo for night safari. The safari wasn't as interesting as the one I've been in Singapore but it was special since we can either choose to walk or ride on the tram. But it made the RM10 ticket worth the price when we heard the panther and tiger roared, hippopotamuses 'sniffed', put our lives in danger to snap a pic or two of rhinoceroses, screamed and jumped when we saw a tiny frog hopped, took illegal pictures in the safari and 'scolded' the animal to work OT.

The night safari venturers.

At 11.30 p.m, we've finished venturing the zoo and went for supper. Well, if you're from Klang or KL, you must have thought we went for mamak. But no. In Taiping, supper means Wantan Mee. To be precise, Wantan Mee without wantan. Weird as it is, it was delicious. That night, we slept in late at 3 a.m due to addictive card playing.

Wantan-less Wantan mee.

Early next morning, at 8.30 a.m, though it was supposed to be 7.30 a.m, we went to Lake Garden. We made a conclusion that Taiping people are just too hardworking and healthy. There were so many of them exercising. Anyway, we walked around the really wide garden. I did not counted but I think there were about, maybe 7 lakes there. Just walking around half the area took us about 2 hours. We went for some delicious carrot cake for breakfast then went back to washed up.

One part of the garden.

My favourite part in the garden. It's so ancient Greek.

One of the many man-made lakes.

Guat Shan being very happy at the lover's bridge.

The giants invading the children's slide.

The park. Feels like spring in a foreign country, no?

Delicious carrot egg plus egg for breakfast.

At noon, returned to the garden for boat paddling. We visited Wei Chyi's school and a really well kept cemetery of the English soldiers whom lives were taken during the Japanese occupation. It was hot as hell! Which was why our tour guide took us for erm.. ice. It's true! That stall serves all types of ice. I ordered 'leng chee kang' and I was served with ice. More like ice blended leng chee kang.

Credits to Wei Chyi for this photo.


Trust me, it wasn't easy to snap this picture.


Ice-blended leng chee kang.


Ah Wei's watermelon ice.

We were supposed to go for lunch and meet up with Wei Chyi's friends but we decided not to go since we weren't really hungry and well, we were pretty tired, especially the tour guide. We stayed at home, played cards for a while and then left for Kampar.

It was a short trip but it was fun and fulfilling to me. There were a lot of places and things to visit in Taiping compared to Ipoh. Not to mention, we have a really good tour guide who tried to to spent us.. but failed :D Thanks though, Wei Chyi! We also learned that Taiping people are not very good translators ^^;

Shouldn't it be 'Jalan Utama' or 'Taming Sari Road' ?

Shouldn't it be 'Jalan Air Terjun'?

P/s: This is a little out of topic but I slept at 5.30 a.m this morning. Why? Well, there was Newcastle vs. Manchester United match last night and heh, the latter, the better one won 5-1 *proud* Watch out Gunners, the Devils are coming! But the match ended at 3.20 a.m. My anime addiction is back and that explained why for the earlier question.