day 1
rise and shine! had our first breakfast at the hotel. the variety of food was rather limited and quality not exactly very nice. the best was probably the omelets! i first tried the cheese/mushroom and it was so yummy, i ordered another cheese/capsicum. ^^
after that, we set off for the day. some pretty sights...before we stopped for second breakfast!
kedai kopi nam chau 54, jalan bandar timah, ipoh
i think the curry noodles are somewhat famous here. SSD and i shared a dry one since i was still kinda full from the first breakfast. the portion was quite little but it was nice!! also ordered fried dumplings but i only ate the crispy skin. their iced white coffee is nice too!
after we were all full from the 2 breakfasts, we headed for our main activity of the day - temple caves. first one is
南天洞.
walked through a big garden and into the cave itself.
paintings on the wall!
stairs, stairs and more stairs. i have height phobia so we didn't climb all the way up. according to someone who has, it's just another small pitch-black cave right at the top.
climbed back down the stairs and headed to our next cave -
觀音洞. i think it's prettier than the first though there's not much of a cave. i also felt more at ease here. *shrugs*
giant chessboard! the pieces are movable. =D
the last cave we went to -
極樂洞. it's apparently more popular than the previous two, and we had to wind through resident houses (and losing our way) to get there.
those little towers lining the stairs up each contain mini statues that looked realistic. here are some of the nicer ones i took.
the main cave...
the stairs led us to another 'cave hall'. the natural cave formations there were even prettier than the outside!
and then you see this.
the view was breathtaking. of course my photo can't do justice nor can i adeptly describe how i felt there and then. but i think the name 極樂洞 fits perfectly! it's like another world on the other side of the cave, one that's calm and peaceful and relaxing. even more so with the breeze. i could sit there for hours!
unfortunately, there were other places to go so we had to leave. since all of us were tired out from exploring the 3 caves under the hot sun, ah soon brought us to a newly opened shopping mall for a short
rest shopping session.
aeon ipoh station 18 2, susuran stesen 18, station 18, ipoh
your typical shopping mall. kinda similar to suntec i think. they have quite a number of gift shops like our
more than words, which i actually like to browse. i guess rilakkuma is getting rather popular there too; they have so many rila items! =P then grabbed some fried finger food and onigiri/sushi for lunch. (criss-cut fries are yummy!) super like snacking like these cos it won't look like i'm eating a lot. lols.
made our way to the airport. the only local airline that flies there is firefly, in case you wanna know. sent the rest of them off before ah soon dropped SSD and I off at the last destination - another shopping centre!
ipoh parade off lorong menteri, ipoh
this one is slightly of a smaller scale and is similar to our neighbourhood shopping malls. i kinda prefer this one actually, cos the stuff are cheaper. lols. saw familar names like sushi king, marrybrown, and shilin (the taiwan snack stall)!
they also have many gift shops and it was in one of it that we found 我的美麗日記 masks! they were like, dirt cheap and not expiring soon, so we bought 3 boxes. we should have found it suspicious but the price was kinda hard to resist. they were selling at Rm 9.90 (Sgd 4.20) per box, which is like 42 cents per piece! for comparison, taiwan sells them for an average of 90 cents while locally it retails for $1.70 per piece. how to tahan you tell me!?! but alas, i think they're fake. lmao. i broke out after using one of it (although SSD didn't), so i guess i'm gonna be using the rest on my feet or body. anywhere but my face. -_-
i also got a henna tattoo! Rm 10 only! ^^ haven't done them for say, 10 years already? i used to just leave it for a few hours but in this case, she actually pasted clear tape over it. she claimed it would make the stain last longer, but it's almost half gone now already. tsk.
it was raining when we were leaving, but we still decided to go ahead to have dinner at the food street where we had the dessert the night before.
previously i said i didn't know the address, but i googled it today and managed to find! ^^ it's actually just a 5-10 mins walk away from ipoh parade.
tong sui gai (dessert street) jalan sultan ekram, 30300 ipoh
we were quite early so not all the stalls were open. apparently there are stall numbers, though i didn't take note of them nor the stall name. but there are so many yummy food there i suppose you'll be fine trying any of them. lol *promote*
肉骨茶, Rm 8 (Sgd 3.30). nice herbal taste plus soup refill!
kangkong w/ cuttlefish, Rm 6 (Sgd 2.50). cuttlefish is nice, kangkong not. sauce is quite nice.
SSD's fave - taoge, Rm 5 (Sgd 2). what can i say? ipoh's famous for their taoge what. lol.
炒粿條, Rm 4 (Sgd 1.70). i had craving for this after seeing kolics try this the previous night. so yummy! and got prawns even! seriously, how on earth they earn ar? =\
八寶檸檬茶+eno, Rm 3 (Sgd 1.25). this is SO GOOD!! when you add the sachet of eno the drink becomes fizzy. an interesting twist to the normal herbal 八寶茶.
and then it's cab back to hotel. fare was only Rm 6 (Sgd 2.50) by the way. loots for today!
