Beautiful View on The Valley

It is undoubtedly the view from Klebang Hill (some called it Menglembu Hill, 万里望山) is the best location to overlook the entire city of Ipoh. You can enjoy a great scene of sun rising at dawn, or a clear view of the city during sun set. Unlike the previous photos of hazy valley that was taken in June 2012, today is a nice sunny day for capturing the detail of the city's man made structures but I just miss the beautiful Titiwangsa Range at background due to the cloudy condition.
 

Ding Ding Candy

I thought it was a mistake when I see a young man in New Town selling "ding ding candy", which had been missing for years in Ipoh. I am sure many of us who born before 1980's know what is this. There must be someone out there still making and selling this, but I just couldn't find any in Ipoh, until today. Look at the old bicycle and broken umbrella, it is completely nostalgic where it seems not belong to modern day. I believe he is peddling around dim sum street (Leong Sin Nam Street) and beansprout chicken street (Yau Tet Shin Street). Try your luck to look for him and you may be able to regain the taste of your childhood.
 

Flight Path Above

I love to look at the great blue sky in sunny days. And I often see aeroplanes flying across, sometimes not one but few at the same time. Ipoh is not a bright spot in aviation map because the city's airport only serves very limited flights (probably just one or two). However, the sky above Ipoh seems to be busy with many commercial jets passing by. Even if I don't see it directly, the passed by aeroplane would draw lines in the sky just like the photo below.

Evening Storm from North

The sky turns dark in the evening and I was chased by the rain which from north while on my way to an appointment. When arriving Kinta City, I found the storm has drenched the northern part of the city and approaching rapidly. Anyway, this is going to cool the earth down and bring us a refreshing night for a nice sleep.
 

Greenhouse Morning

Wake up in a cloudy morning, the atmosphere is warm and humid. The heat accumulated for days is captured under the layer of cloud making the environment so uncomfortable. Objects near the horizon are seen to be blur because of the polluted air that could not escape. We are now feel like living in a giant greenhouse.

 

Fish and Fish

This is something funny I saw in Old Town this morning. I wonder whether the real fish (salted fish?) or the fish kite (koinobori) is more popular. Anyway, it could be a little weird to hang the fishes on pedestrian walkway and it doesn't seem to be hygiene to do so.

 

Battle of Flags and Banners

The nation's 13th General Election is just around the corner followed by the dissolution of Parliament on Wednesday. Each political party is now competing to promote themselves on radio, television, newspaper, social network, and so on. Apparently flags and banners on the street are also one of the most popular ways to remind voters about their existence. This election will be the toughest in Malaysia history because of the close equality in supporting power from the people making it the most possible time where switch of ruling party in Federal Government would take place since the country gained its independence 56 years ago. The great desire of change is a result of "absolute power corrupts absolutely".
 

Multi-Purpose Shop House

Rental of downtown shop houses could be a burden for those who wish to run small business. However, there is always an opportunity if alternative way is found. Instead of picking up the cost of renting entire shop house, it can be shared among few occupants. So far this prewar shop at Osborne Street is having the most occupants that I have seen. This is a brilliant idea and it could provide more varieties of food & local product for visitor or tourist at one spot. It can even become an uniqueness of Ipoh city to improve the tourism industry.
 

View from Seri Kinta Building - Part 2

From the rear window at east wing elevator access of Seri Kinta Building, part of Old Town is seen when looking towards south, and Kinta Heights appears to be the most outstanding building. However, it's a drawback of blurred vision at background due to the hazy atmosphere. Anyway, I still manage to recognize a huge building from far despite heavy haze, the Aeon Station 18 shopping mall (in second photo). When shifting my view to southeast, part of New Town (Hugh Low Street, Chamberlain Road) is in sight. Soon we will see twin towers of The Majestic rise from the middle of third photo.
 

View from Seri Kinta Building - Part 1

I am always searching for a nice spot to shoot Ipoh skyline from higher location. Today I reach top floor of Seri Kinta Building for the first time. As I am using the east wing elevator, it has restricted me at the east side access and the angle of view is pretty limited to north-northeast (from front window) & south-southeast (from rear window) of the city. These are some photos shooting towards northeast which see part of the New Town, Greentown at foreground and Bercham (MH Hotel, Bougainvillea Club), limestone hills at Tambun in background.

It's Gone In Front of Me

So finally it's gone right in front of me. It stays for another 3 months after my last post last December about this shop house when it was still in one piece. Since the day when metal sheets covering it, I know this moment will come. Looking at the scattered bricks, wood and iron beam, I can imagine how hard it was built during those days when heavy machinery still not available in town.
 



A Congested Day

This is a congested day, or probably a busy weekend in Ipoh because many Chinese are back in hometown for the annual worship of ancestor, Qing Ming festival (清明节), which fall on 4th April. However, many would choose to visit the grave during weekend, right before the school holidays end this Sunday. Ipoh downtown is flooded by cars in the afternoon and parking lot become most desirable thing that people are looking for. However, soon it will be back to normal in the evening while the congestion will then transfer to the interstate expressway.
 

Wall Art of Ipoh

The street art of wall painting that brought in by a Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic has become popular in Penang, it also emerges in Ipoh since few months ago. Paintings on the wall created by local artist appear at back lane of Hugh Low Street and Hume Street, the block nearby Kinta River. The paintings are mainly illustrating local culture and history, such as folk dances, tin mining, traditional games and so on.

 

So happen that there is an art exhibition held by art studio at the back lane and had attracted quite a number of visitors. Apart from the wall painting, the studio also present many student art works and it certainly keeps the visitors' camera busy for capturing the masterpiece. It did not stop the people from attending this exhibition despite the warm weather in this afternoon.

 

I believe this street art will continue to proliferate to other streets in the city. I am also hoping there will be more talented artist from either local or overseas could embellish the city by putting up more beautiful paintings which would be an add-on tourist spot and could enhance the cultural development of Ipoh.

 



Old and New

New hotels are mushrooming in Ipoh where most people don't understand how could the city's economy could feed such a surge in guest room capacity. While big & small new hotels are competing intensely, there are some old hotels survived until this day. Perhaps with some appropriate restoration to upgrade the old hotel's facility and hygiene, it could stand out to be more attractive especially for tourist who like to experience the true local lifestyle.