Jalan2 Cari Makan @ Ipoh 31 Aug 2017

31 August Thursday is National Day, and so co-incident that 1 September Friday is Hari Raya Haji, so we have a long straight weekend from Thursday to Sunday, all add up are 4 days.

We had been contemplating where to go for this long weekend, anyhow it is consider quite last minute plan for us to decide to go to Ipoh.

Knowing Ipoh too would be crowded in this weekend too, especially after Ipoh had been announced from the Lonely Planet last year ranked number 9 in the Best In Travel 2017 list for regions, praising capital city Ipoh’s “bloom of vintage-style cafes and boutiques”.

We woke up early and departed around 6.00am. It is a smooth drive until we reached Rawang.

We can see a long queue of the cars on the road from afar. Daddy just exited from the North-South Highway from the nearest town at Rawang. We were using the old roads going up to Ipoh.

We stopped by a town called Rasa, and we had our breakfast here. It was around 7.30am.

We had a simple breakfast: Wanton Mee, Hokkien Mee, Loh Mai Kai and Fried Rice. After half an hour, we continued our journey towards the north.

It is really a lot of cars on the road, even the old roads too full of cars. It was almost 10.30am that we stopped again at Kampar town.

We went to a Malay restaurant and have a drink. We overheard the conversation between a Chinese old uncle with the Malay restaurant owner, that they were talking about so jam and so many cars on the road.

Finally we reached our Agoda booking stay at Fairpark Residence. It is a shop lot converted to hostel kind of place.

Once enter the room, we can see 3 writing tables with 3 power points each on the wall, the sleeping place is on the mezzo where we need to climb up through the stairs. It's ok for the kids and me.

It is cater for 3 adults room as there are cabinets and mattress for 3 adults on the mezzanine floor, but as we are 2 adults 2 kids family, we just put 2 mattresses together so we able to sleep 4.

The owner is really nice and friendly, as she recommends us where are the good foods that we can look for at Ipoh.

With the price, we have no comments as we are getting our basics: mattress, shared bath for shower, air conditioning for the hot weather, free Wi-fi even a little bit slow, and so many power plugs that normally you can't get in the normal hotel.

There is a self service laundry just down stair, and it make everything easier for us. A minimart across the street and a 24 hour Nasi Kandar Pelita just direct opposite the place. And, a gas station just next to the building we stayed.

Just the upkeep of cleanliness of the bathrooms and wash basins area need a little bit of improvement. Other than that, we got no complain.

After we settled down our things in the room, we drove out and searched for our lunch. Everyone was so hungry.

Ipoh is a hotspot for bean sprouts chicken “Ngah Choy Kai” (芽菜雞). There are 2 famous shops which are Onn Kee, which is opposite of Lou Wang (老黃芽菜雞).

We had our lunch at Lou Wang and we were lucky as once we approached the shop, we got a table just nice for 4 o us.

Honestly speaking, I think it tastes not bad from a tourist’s point of view. I like the “Ngah Choy” or the bean sprouts… so crunchy and succulent.

We were sitting just next to the back kitchen where they cook the Lou Wong’s steamed chicken’s skin had this slippery smooth texture and tender yet firm flesh.

They have the choice of having together with the smooth Hor Fun  or chicken rice.

We opted for rice as we were so hungry, together with the tangy chilli and tender chicken, makes it a perfect lunch.

Oh, this is also a good supper venue as they close at 12am.

After the chicken rice, we walked down the streets and found a not so bad soya bean shop – Lai Kee Soya.

There were full of customers as usual due to weekend.

We ordered a bowl of Brown Sugar Tau Fu Fah, as they do have 3 types of sugar: white sugar, brown sugar and ginger sugar.

We ordered a glass of black soya bean drink. The Tau Fu Fah tasted smooth and soft, and the black soya bean drink was not bad as well.

Surprisingly, Lai Kee Soya is not the best in town, there are still Funny Mountain Tau Fu Fah and Woong Kee Tau Fu Fah that are on top of the lists! We shall try both some other time.

After that we headed to the Ipoh Parade instead of staying around in the old town, because the weather is too hot!

We spent the whole afternoon at the GSC Cinema watching movie “Dive Cage”.

Around 6.30pm, we drove back to the old street, and looked for Restaurant Tuck Kee for our dinner.

Oh my… The shop were packed with people and queuing for the tables and chairs. Then, we just settled with Restaurant Sun Tuck Kee, which is just next door.

Restaurant Sun Tuck Kee is located same row with “Lou Wong Ngah Choy Kai”.

They serve Chinese Cuisine exactly the same menu like Restaurant Tuck Kee, which obviously more famous.

Their specialties are Wan Tan Hor, Baby Octopus, Fish Noodle, and Ipoh Bean Sprout.

The restaurant was full of customers as well, we choose a table just at the road side, and it is just nice as the weather is so hot today.

We ordered Wan Tan Hor, Fish Noodles, Moonlight Kuey Teow and Dumplings Soup.

Moonlight Kuey Teow is delicious and has the aromatic wok fried flavour. Wan Tan Hor is tasted good. The Soup is creamy and rich in flavour.

Overall, it is good dinner as the foods are delicious. I can imagine that Restaurant Tuck Kee should be taste better.

We did not manage to take photos as we were so hungry and slurped all the food into our stomach.

We have a walk at the famous Gerbang Malam, the famous night market at the streets of the Ipoh Old Town.

This night market started from every evening from 8.00pm till midnight 12.00am or 2.00am.

You could get your hands on almost anything, from clothes to shoes to bags to makeup beauty accessories and other fashion accessories, for cheap!

There are even foot reflexology services here in makeshift tents, and they seem quite popular too.

I noticed that most of the vendors are Malays. We did not buy anything as we did not see any interesting or capture our eyes.

We ended our day here and went back to hotel after a long day since 6.00am this morning.