Ipoh and George Town, Malaysia
Ipoh and George Town
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| Girl in Blue by Ernest Zacharevic |
Ipoh
Well it was a trek and a half to get to Ipoh! We weren't originally planning on travelling to Taman Negera before Ipoh so it wasn't exactly a direct route. The most common way to get from Taman Negera to Ipoh would be to go back through the Cameron Highlands and then an hour drive to Ipoh. But nobody could pay us enough money (Let alone us having to pay for expensive bus tickets 36AUD pp) to get back on that road to Cameron Highlands as it made us feel ridiculously car sick. Instead we went on a different really direct route...
- Taman Negara to Jerantut via bus = 2.50 AUD pp
- Jerantut to Kuala Lumpur (Pekelling Bus station) via bus = 6 AUD pp,
- Pekelling bus station to TBS bus station via train = 1.50 AUD pp
- TBS bus station to Ipoh via bus = 6 AUD pp
All up the journey cost us less than half price of the organised ticket. It did take us 10 hours, although it actually wasn't that bad. Mainly due to one of our fondest Memories occurring on the last bus.
Like I said in our earlier post, whilst we were in Malaysia it was Ramadan. This meant that most people were fasting throughout sunlight hours. When we were coming into Ipoh the song signifying the end of fasting played on the radio. What followed was complete silence apart from everyone tussling in their bags to get out food and drink to share. It probably doesn't sound like much but it was really beautiful to witness all these strangers coming together for this commune. It was a real, "hey we are definitely not in Australia anymore" moment.
Is Ipoh Number 6 in best Asian Cities to travel to as Lonely Planet suggests? Well it was off to a rocky start with our first nights accommodation at Starvilla Kinta Homestay. We didn't get in until 9.30pm so nobody was around for us to complain to about the hair in our bed, toenails on the floor, food under the bed, and the stale cigarette smoke smelling room. So instead lucky Luke and myself got to enjoy the room for the night. We ended up getting in touch with the owner the next day and she gave us a nights refund and switched us to an immaculate room for the following night, so all was well in the end.
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| Thinking about the free nights accommodation, meaning that I could eat more food = stoked with life |
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| Entire street had street art on every second building |
As you can see we weren't off to the greatest start on the accommodation front. But with what the rest of Ipoh had to offer - we well and truly fell in love. There is so much street art around Ipoh. With most marked out on maps.me (our favourite app) we got to see the majority of it as some can be in quite random locations.
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| Art is rubbish is art by Ernest Zacharevic |
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| Paper plane by Ernest Zacharevic |
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| Old Uncle with Coffee Cup by Ernest Zacharevic |
Ok the second reason we love Ipoh is due to the food. You know it is going to be a good place when majority of reviews of the location has the number one thing to do as eat. We had some of THE BEST FOOD. Which partly could be due to us having pretty average food in Taman Negara and we were just hankering for some tasty morsels, but honestly it was all delicious. We went to Plan B restaurant where we had real coffee and they actually had soy milk (and not the crappy kind). Whilst we were hunting for restaurants we came across Concubine Lane which has some real quirky stalls and again more food! We went to a vegan restaurant for dinner which was a bit out of town but with Grab (like Uber) everywhere it was easy enough to get to.
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| Luke super happy to be in Concubine Lane, Ipoh |
The town itself is the third largest in Malaysia but it has a smaller town vibe. I guess kind of like Adelaide (where I'm from) in that it has so many cool places to go but without being ridiculously busy or touristy as some larger cities can be.
George Town
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| Example of some of the heritage listed buildings found everywhere in George Town |
We went to George Town Penang after Ipoh which is the second largest city in Malaysia. The whole city is world heritage listed and is pretty darn beautiful. George Town is on Penang Island. To get there from Ipoh we caught a bus to Butterworth station 6 Aud pp and a public ferry for 40 cents Aud pp to George Town ferry terminal. This is where the main bus station (weld quay bus station) is so wherever you stay it's easy to get to and from the ferry terminal.
We were within walking distance to our accommodation at The Frame Guesthouse so didn't have to splurge a few cents on the bus. Our room was an four bed dorm with double bunk beds for 18.90 AUD per night. Luke's favourite part about the accommodation was being so close to the ceiling that we could hear what the people on the floor above were talking about. This was especially great late at night.
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| Boy on Chair Mural by Ernest Zacharevic |
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| The Turtle Rider by Ernest Zacharevic and Martin Ron |
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| Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur by Ernest Zacharevic |
Penang is known for the same as Ipoh with food and street art but it's a bit faster paced, very touristy, more expensive and hotter. We spent our days walking around the city again looking for street art and eating a lot of vegetarian food. The majority of the famous street art is by artist Ernest Zacharevic however there is also art throughout the city completed by unknown artists which is just as beautiful. Our favourite restaurant we came across was Pinxin Vegan Restaurant where we had popcorn mushroom (think popcorn chicken), laksa and sweet and sour vegetables- it was delicious. Sorry I didn't take any photos I was too busy eating.
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Mural down Art Lane
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People rave about George Town but it wasn't Luke and my favourite place. This is probably due to the fact that it was so hot but you couldn't swim anywhere - so it's probably a very biased review!
Well it's been over 3 weeks since we have seen the beach so we are off to Langkawi Island on the west side of Malaysia next.
Love always,
Claire and Luke (Luke was skimming stones as I wrote this so he counts as a co-author too right?)
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| Luke skimming stones, Kapas Island Malaysia |
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