Ipoh travel guide

See

The heart of Ipoh Old Town lies on the west banks of the Kinta River and is vaguely bounded by the train tracks. A two- to three-hour guided tour of the Ipoh heritage trail starts at the Railway Station at 8AM every Saturday (as of 2015, RM30 per person). Rejuvenated Kong Heng Square on Jalan Sultan Yussuf houses buzzing small cafes and shops.

• Birch Memorial Clocktower
• Ipoh Railway Station
• Ipoh Town Hall and Law Courts
• Muzium Darul Ridzuan
• Padang Ipoh
• Han Chin Pet Soo
• Kinta Riverfront Walk
• Little India
• Uncle drinking coffee
• Paper plane
• Five packets of kopi-O
• Hummingbird

Do

• Royal Ipoh Club
• Caving at Gua Tempurung
• White Water Rafting
• Bukit Kledang
• Ulu Geroh
• The Lost World of Tambun
• Gunung Lang
• Golf

Eat

When tin mining died out, food sustained Ipoh and made the city bustle once more. Like everywhere in Malaysia, the local food is dirt cheap and sublime. Loads of people come from all over just to fill their bellies, creating a headache of congestion during weekends. Quite a few locals already avoid the most famous stalls, whether due to dropping standards or the unrelenting crowds. Some specialities to look out for include: chicken and beansprouts (芽菜雞), Ipoh kai see hor fun (怡保鸡丝河粉) and salt-baked chicken (盐锔鸡). Due to its Cantonese-majority population, Ipoh is also a very good place to have dim sum.

Drink

Ipoh has a small and still growing night scene. Bandar Baru Medan (behind the Kinta City Shopping Centre) has been the usual haunt for supper for the last decade or so, albeit with a large turnover of pubs and bars. The newer nightlife area is around New Town and Greentown, and also the revitalised Lorong Panglima in Old Town, a narrow alley once notoriously known as Concubine Lane, where rich businessmen used to house their mistresses back when the tin mines were booming. Ipoh white coffee was invented here: to reduce the bitterness of coffee roasted in the European style without adding sugar (as during the roasting of Kopi-O), beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine.

Stay safe

Ipoh is in general a very safe city, certainly by international standards. However, there are some irritants like beggars, especially at bus terminals. It is better not to attract any unwanted attention by giving money to the beggars as most of them are professional beggars operated by syndicates. Perhaps not so much a safety thing per se, but at the Central Market in New Town, particularly if you are an orang putih (white person), don't let the traders rip you off (which they are likely to do, if you let them). If the prices are signed clearly, hold them to it! Learning how to say "It's too expensive" in Cantonese, Mandarin, or Malay as the case may be, is also very helpful.