Ipoh Trip (13 – 15 March 2023)

I’ve not had a chance to celebrate my birthday with my parents for the last few years because of the darn pandemic. This year the timing was right – It was Sherilyn’s last day of SPM and Cass still had a few more days of school holidays, so I booked two train tix and hopped onto the ETS for a short stay in Ipoh.

I’d wanted to visit my mum when she had a bad fall in early January this year and fractured her right arm. But I was unable to make a trip back to Ipoh as school had just reopened and Sherilyn had an important government exam to sit.

Cass told me that for this trip to Ipoh, she wanted to do the touristy thingy at the Concubine Lane vicinity. She wanted to visit the Harry Potter Cafe again (the last time we went for just before the lockdown in February 2020), Book Xcess and see all the wall murals in that vicinity. I was reluctant as the weather had been burning hot lately but I gave in to her request anyway.

I’ll let the photos do the talking here:

We started off with tucking into our favorite ‘kai si hor fun’ at the famous Thean Chun coffee shop. This is the best-in-the-world ‘kai si hor fun’ with a taste like no other and the super fresh, fat and juicy Ipoh bean sprouts. I also ordered some fish balls, meat balls and fried turnip cake.

Yummy bowl of piping hot ‘kai si hor fun’ in rich and flavorful orangy broth.

Luckily we got a table almost immediately when we arrived. Within minutes, people started to stream into the crowded coffee shop.

We passed by this quaint little coconut shake shop and I ordered a cup of cold and refreshing coconut shake to cool down after walking under the scorching sun.

Iced coconut shake from Baby Coco. So so good!

We’d passed by Lam Fong Biscuit many times in the past but never bought anything from the shop. This time, since we were doing the touristy thingy, I walked in and got some snacks.

Bags and bags of famous Ipoh peanut candies on the floor. I ate so much of these years ago till I needed a long break from them and now they don’t appeal to me anymore. They were only available in Ipoh back in the day and now they’re available in KL, as well as from Lazada and Shopee.

I bought a jar of lime and honey concentrate. I like mixing a spoonful of it with apple cider vinegar.

Delicious assorted famous Ipoh pastries and biscuits. I was very tempted to buy some to bring back to KL but the girls don’t really fancy them. I always end up giving them to Maria.

The famous Lam Fong Biscuit shop. They’re also available online on Shopee and Lazada.

We passed by this tattoo bar and stopped to have a look. Have I told you that it’s been my dream to have a tattoo inked on my arm or leg? ? But I have low pain threshold, thus always chicken out. And I always choose the kiddie way – patching tattoo stickers on my arm.

Gorgeous pastries at Chloe.Co yelling out to us.

Cass was intrigued by the revolving door at Chloe.Co

I ordered a matcha canelé and matcha biscuit.

I love canelés. They’re quite challenging to make, requiring patience, practice, attentiveness, and perseverance.

Cass’ goal was to check out all the wall murals in the vicinity of Concubine Lane area @ Ipoh Old Town. But I was not allowed to photograph her nor to post in on social media ?

Since I wasn’t allowed to take pix of Cass, we had reversed role. She took pix of me instead. Cass is a good photographer – just one take and she managed to capture me in the air.

I was born and bred in Ipoh but doing the silly touristy thingy in my own hometown.

Cass loved this alley with long tree fringes hanging.

We walked round and round the vicinity but couldn’t find Book Xcess. Suddenly I remembered my good friend, Barb wrote about this on Facebook a few years ago and I told my stubborn girl that the book store is just next to Thean Chun and there wasn’t any necessity to use GPS. This silly girl didn’t listen to me and used GPS and the silly GPS brought us walking a few thousand steps to God Knows Where.

Book Xcess Ipoh is housed in a shop house that was previously a bank (United Asian Bank Bhd). The books are creatively placed on Safe Deposit Boxes inside a vault.

These metal filing cabinets look all too familiar. The label here is dated 20 November 1982 – I was in Standard 3 that year.

My loot from Lam Fong Biscuit shop. This is the limit that I could lug back by train to KL. I didn’t want to carry too much weight and reactivate the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome pain on my right hand.

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