Don't go to Ipoh

A co-worker (from KL) and her husband both from Malaysia had us over for lunch and education about Malaysia before we left.  I was fascinated by these pictures of limestone covered in green that were Chinese temples.  So, even through the husband said "are you sure you want to visit?" and the guidebooks questioned the value - Janet and I went to Ipoh this weekend.  To add to the adventure, we went by ETS (Electric Train Service) - think European style train service.  And to add, our travel in Ipoh would be taxis which all travel literature advised to not use. Not the first time, I ignored advice and wished I hadn't. 

If you ride the ETS train - dress in layers - still 34 (C) outside but about 20 (C) inside - Janet ant I had to stay close to keep each other warm. 

I'm glad we scratched it off our list (and CJ - I still want to know where those limestone hills were - they weren't in the "standard Ipoh tour") but our learnings are:

• Don't go to Ipoh - not worth the trip
• Don't use public transportation outside of major cities (KL)

Live and learn - no regrets - just don't make the same mistake twice.

Focusing on the Ipoh trip.

I found an official looking ETS schedule on a travel website - there was a train out of KL Sentral - 3 stops from a 10 minute walk from our condo via LRT - to Ipoh - leaving at 8:30.   As usual I cut if close but enough time.  We left the condo at 7:45, we trying to buy tickets (after several attempts at misdirection by helpful staff) at 8:15.  The schedule on the board said the next train was 9:00 - so a change but no worries only a 30 minute delay.

We go to buy tickets and rudely told to collect a ticket to be served  (so we got 122, sign said serving 121).  Two minutes later a person wandered out and sold us tickets (as rude as could be) - so much for service with a smile.  I guess government agencies are the same worldwide.  Turns out the next train was 10:45 - but it was gold service (less stops than silver service, more than platinum service - 10 RM difference between type of service).  So we waited - I bought Janet a newspaper and I explored and got the details on public transport in Malaysia.  First lesson - don't trust offical looking websites ........

There were plenty of signs that the ETS women had their hair done by a certain hair stylst (I should have gotten a picture) and you could too - attractive women - definitely trying to model after Singapore Airlines.  But service .......  actually not fair - staff was very pleasant in Ipoh.  By Sunday at 4:00, all trains on Monday had been sold out (Monday was national holiday) - I'm glad it was just a day trip for us.

Once we got on the trains - very nice and pleasant.  Amazing how rural Malaysia is once you get out of KL.  I can see why all the Malaysians want to come to KL.

Arrived in Ipoh - old rail station (a highlight of the things to do in Ipoh).  A bit of chaos but very manageable. 

Janet and I waved off the taxi touts and walked around.  Lots of potential but it takes money and so ....

the water level could use some work as well as trash pick-up but .....................

Ipoh is a mixture of new and old - there is a memorial to the World War's dead

Hard to read but - each name in WWI and everyone (in small white plaque in WWII).  Not sure if that was due to the volume of deaths in WWII (Japanese occupation) or closeness to Malaysian independence.  Always looking for ironies

An of course the universal pictures in Perak of the 80+ year old sultan and his young (30+ years younger) wife - smiling benevolently

We were warned about taxi's in Ipoh and while I'm sure we were charged the white man premium it wasn't outrageous. 

We made it to the southern (there are three Chinese temples in the complex) - we went to the origninal (Sam Po) and then wandered to the others - this is 5 KM south of town

Fools faces, you've heard this before

Then on to the wonderful world of multiple Buddha's.  I hate to sound jaded but these Chinese temples just didn't have the religious feeling of Batu caves.  More later but it seemed more like a begging and business opportunity.

Then there was the mini-me parody

I'm assuming these statues represent the earthly temptations to overcome (I like the green one)

 There was a turtle pond - some long necked turtles (or an example that I will photograph anything)

All these temples are built within limestone caves that were created due to porous structure in a rainy (daily wash) climate.  So managing water flow in a tourist attraction is a challenge and with typical Malaysian ingeniuity.

More impressed with the stone carvings

I love gongs and was very tempted to see how much it would cost to ring these bells (Janet said no)

The gardens at Sam Po are cool

 Almost a Christian birth story

Outside grounds of Sam Po

 Porcelin Buster - with a horn (for you Erick and Colleen)

 I love gargoyles regardless of origin

Then on to the next temple (repeat and rinse) - it started raining - (daily wash) but we just powered on - Janet with umbrella.

 I love climbing to the top of whatever tourist attraction (in Europe we averaged 500 steps a day or some silly number).  In this case we climbed up multiple stairs hoping to find something worthwhile to view.  We were climbing accidently with a Chinese family and their grandma or nanny (two elementary kids).  Steep steps

And these were the best - the rest were like in an old mine shaft.  Had to use a torch (flashlight for Americans) and at the top - nothing (but a rat Janet saw which freaked her out).  I guess in Buddhism - it's the journey.............

Only thing I could see at the top was a Hindu temple (life is really funny sometimes)

So we made our way down and told everyone climbing up - only 1000 steps to go.  No real response from anyone.  They thought we were kidding ...........

Chinese are good at many things but it seems like Religion, they have outsourced to India

Raining harder - so we stopped and ate lunch (out of backpacks).  There was an old women collecting the trash plastic bottles but Janet wouldn't give up ours - so I gave the woman one RM (big spender)

A chance to admire the class of our surroundings

So this is where Disney gets character ideas

I never did figure out if this was a windmill or strange ferris wheel

We didn't bother going through the last temple (last of the three southern temples) - it was chitzier than the previous two - just a few outside shots.  Did see our first Indian beggars children - brushed them away.

 Dumbo in Chinatown??

 Chinese Buddha's in Toyland

 Up close

 What is with the earlobes???  More on this later

 I do love dragons

Incense everywhere (beggar in front)

 Zelig's twin will appear like in this photo throughout this blog (just don't tell her)

No taxi's around and starting to rain harder.  What to do??  Press on.  Cross the 4 lane highway and start walking back to civilization.  We got to an intersection after 10 minutes walking and stalled around enough a taxi driver came to our rescue and we drove to the northern temples (in a driving rainstorm) - it's good to have money.

Taxi driver agreed to hang for 30 minutes if we paid the white man's premium to the train station.

Nicest of the temples - but not what I was looking for

 What is it with the Nazi symbol - I need to check my Dan Brown novels

 Steve Jiran look alike

I do like a religion where the god is laughing all the time

And enjoys good food and drink (without worrying about the need to exercise) - sounds almost new age.  But what is it with the earlobes?  I met a man here in a business setting who had large holes wth a spacer in his ears.  Sorry, I'm new age as the next businessman, but I didn't take him seriuosly - now maybe I realize he was a Buddhist - sorry.

I did like the wall paintings - but very Japanese

Cool dragon

Dragon sneaking up her dress (or out of - she seems disappointed)

 Me in 10 years

The engineer in me really like jazzing up the support structures of the caves

One weird (at least to me image on the way out of the caves)

Who is being tortured?  And why?  Is that mankind?

Then the Western fascination with Eastern Calligraphy

That'sssssssss All Folks - now cool limestone caves, where are you?????? - - CJ - I'm coming to look for you

We made it back in less than 30 minutes (Janet was relieved) so we didn't have to find another taxi driver

Then it was back to the train station - 4:00.  I thought the next train was at 5:00 but no - 6:15 (5:00 only on special occasions).  But 6:15 was Silver - so saved 20 RM!  So we had some time to kill.

Wandered around - saw the Ipoh University (Zelig again with umbrella)

The St Michael's old school building (major site in Ipoh)

Funny thing - we were just wandering and walking up on a single female (maybe 20) she looked back and saw we were a couple and relaxed.  We talked for a minute and she asked what we were doing.  Just looking around and hoping to get some pictures (but the gate was locked).  Turns out her dad was the gatekeeper so we got a free pass to wander the yards.  Malaysians really are great people outside of the "official work"

Yes I'm still amazed by perspective

Never seen a track where they cut the lanes in the grass - much better than the cinders I ran on in junior high 

Then to the the Indian Mosque (another highlight for Ipoh)

 Weather made some good pics - my favorite was the birds waiting for the call to prayer (I said that to Janet and within 30 seconds the wail started) - the birds ignored it and stayed put

Some color in drab Old town

 Then some more shots of old buildings in Ipoh (weather makes it more interesting)

 Zelig in perspective again

Then the Birch Clock tower.  Birch was the first British citizen in the area, universally hated and eventually killed by the locals.  The Clock Tower was named after him when the British ruled but he streets from the clock tower were named after his killers. 

While we were looking at the clock tower we bumped into a couple of Asian females taking pictures as well - we kept bumping into them - just not that many picturees to take or places to take them - summed up Ipoh.

Then the mosque

 They have those spikes - to keep the birds off the domes

 Lots of parking at the mosque

 Same message, different language, different religion

Then killing time at the train station for an hour.  While on the train we did see people taking pictures for a Malay wedding.  Lots of bright colors and the guys wore cloth crowns and plastic knives - whatever it takes to feel and look like a man.

Total travel time - 14 hours - for about 2 (maybe 3 hours of interesting time) - I was able to sleep on the train and read most of a book - so not a total loss.

Lesson learned - rent a car on thes weekend trips - public transport is great within KL but outside of that - drive or fly.