Classic & Modern

This afternoon I visited HSBC to open an account. Sitting in the century-old building, I cannot feel the age of it from inside. When looking out through the window, the classic outlook & modern interior combines and amazed me.

Cloudy & Rainy Morning

It’s cloudy & rainy in the morning. When driving to work, rain falls at some places in the city. Hard to imagine there were hot & skin burning weather just few days before.

Tower Regency Hotel Opened

Finally, the building construction is completed since its groundbreaking on year 1996. Abandoned for about 10 years due to the 1997 economic crisis, the building has changed its owner last year to resume the work. Last month the hotel is officially opened. The hotel is currently Ipoh’s tallest building, although it is only a 17-storey building due to the restriction by the nearby airport.

Limestone Hills

This is a typical but amazing scene in Ipoh. Limestone hills with mountain range as background forms a beautiful picture. This is taken from Bandar Sri Botani, one of the major residential developments in the city.

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Wash Away the Heat

Well, it has been long waited for a rain fall that would wash away the heat accumulated after so many hot days. Dark clouds formed in the afternoon & did not disappoint us; it started rain about two hours later & continued until the night. Cool!!

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Torch on Kledang Hill

This is a moment where the sun just meets the top of Kledang Hill (location of the signal transmission tower that every Ipoh citizen sees everyday). It simply looked like a torch was lightened up on the hill top. Kledang Hill is one of the highest peak of Kledang Mountain Range.

Flower in the Sun

It is still hot & humid days. Just stay a few minutes under the sun, sweating would make me feel very uncomfortable. By the way, the flower seems to be livelier.

Standing Tall during Crisis

To survive in the economic crisis, something needs to be done to maintain the reputation of a brand in order to keep the consumer confidence of its product. Standing as the tallest signboard along Kuala Kangsar Road, Honda successfully attracts many drivers & to prove that it is still one of the most popular cars in Malaysia.

The Dragon Fountain

This Dragon Fountain is setup few years ago in the Paloh Old Temple to commemorate the 134 years anniversary.

Frozen in Time

These shop lots in Cockman Street (Jalan Dato Onn Jaafar) still maintained as how it looked like many years ago. It is lucky that these shops are still occupied, although is just partially. I always worry about there are many building reconstruction nowadays that would damage the identity of the city. Renovation should be a better way to resurrect the building & grant a new life to it while maintaining the masterpiece that created by our ancestor.

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Paint the Sky

I was out for dinner. Rain falls at north east of Ipoh & atmosphere become a little cooler. The sky looked like painted with red and yellow before it gets dark in another half an hour. The actual view is many times more beautiful than my camera able to capture. For many years I always thought such a nice scene is always appears elsewhere but never realize it can be, in fact, so close to me.

Closer View to IPOH

Well, it’s the same thing I snap, just because I did not go many places today. As usual, on my way home along Kuala Kangsar Road, I got a closer look on the letter blocks. I am wondering will there be a similar one built at the southern gateway to Ipoh. Probably at Gopeng Road, the hilltop that previously stood the mighty Mercedes Benz logo is a good location. With only four roman characters, I think Ipoh is the least costly city to have one more…haha

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New Landmark

There is a giant crane attracted me since few days ago at the limestone hill near Gunung Lang Recreation Park entrance at Kuala Kangsar Road. Today I realized it is actually working on putting up giant alphabet blocks. The “H” simply give me an idea where they are going to form the word “IPOH”, and I have confirmed this in the evening. This new landmark just a mile away from the North South Expressway (North Ipoh Exit) & it should be well seen when driving from north towards south.

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Sunset at Tasek

Yes, this is a photo of sunset again. I just can’t stop myself to capture this scene while I was on my way to dinner. It has been several times I observe beautiful sunset at this location, nearby Tasek Square food court. It is due to the sufficient open space at the housing construction site to capture the free-of-barrier scene. More importantly, I choose to dinner at Tasek Square quite often… :-)

Hazy View of the City

The hazy environment is quickly formed usually after few hot days. We can see the city start to be covered by haze from Ipoh Parade shopping mall’s forth floor car park. The Kledang mountain range at far is still visible but if the weather maintain hot for longer, it will be hardly seen in the hazy atmosphere. Sad to say that, most of the Malaysian is not concern about this unhealthy phenomenon and still practice open burning.

Unpredictable Weather

The weather become very unpredictable over the last few days. Sunny, cloudy & rainy could be the weather for any day now. The moment I pass by Town Hall, it was sunny. What would it be after few hours?

A Warm Day

After releasing heat to the ground for the whole day, the sun is fading from our eyesight but it has created the warm atmosphere for the evening. I was driving on Tasek Road (Sultan Azlan Shah Road). When reaching the flyover that crosses over the railway, the scene of sunset is amazing & I captured this photo. You will find the Tasek Cement factory is also in the frame. Is this photo able to tell the heat I feel?

Yuan Xiao 元宵, 15th Day of Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year celebration ends today, the 15th day of the first lunar month. This day is called Yuan Xiao (元宵). It also known as the Chinese Valentine’s Day where at some places, events of love matching is held.... Decorations as seen in restaurants, hotels & shopping malls will be removed soon.

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Demonstration at State Secretariat Building

A demonstration was held in front of the State Secretariat Building this morning by Pakatan Rakyat. I can imagine such activities will become often in Ipoh for some time. Although we know there won’t be turning point for the previous government to restore power from Barisan Nasional but this issue will be carried forward to the next general election. At night, leader of the three component parties of Pakatan Rakyat gathered at Chief Minister Residence for another seminar (I didn’t manage to get in, therefore couldn’t publish any photo). All nearby roads had been closed & serious traffic congestion hit the city. As reported by media, the seminar had attracted a crowd of 5,000-7,000.

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Thaipusam

Today the Indian is celebrating Thaipusam. A decoration gate is being put up at Old Town “Little India”.

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Funeral of Democracy

A group of people gathered opposite to the Yuk Choy Primary School, where the Deputy Prime Minister has planned to attend a Chinese New Year function here that organized by Barisan Nasional (somehow he didn't turn up). The people is to demonstrate their unsatisfactory on the current political situation in Perak. They have conducted a funeral of democracy in peace, which just last for about 20 minutes. It happened that the Chinese New Year gathering in the school did not get good response from the citizen. Even the new BN Chief Minister’s arrival was greeted with loud boos and jeers

Board in the History

Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, has the right to dissolve the State Assembly & trigger a re-election in the state under the current critical & uncertain situation. Pakatan Rakyat leaders have request His Royal Highness to do so. HRH refused but allow BN to form the new government. This giant signboard located just few steps from the Chief Minister Residence put up by Pakatan Rakyat (the logo of the three component parties is seen at bottom left) to greet HRH Silver Jubilee of coronation as Sultan of Perak. However, HRH has returned with an unwanted present.

Day to Remember

5th February 2009, is a day to remember in the history of Malaysia politics. Earthquake hits the Perak State Government. In the last general election, 8th March 2008, the people of Perak have denied the ruling political allies at that moment, Barisan Nasional (BN) by electing the opposition parties with a slim majority. This unexpected defeat also stormed 4 other states & had shocked the country. However, this is a good & clear message to BN, where the people are very unsatisfied with their performance especially in tackling corruption & power misuse. The 3 opposition parties was then formed allies, so called Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Allies) & established a coalition state government in Perak. Before they can celebrate their first anniversary of victory, 4 state assemblymen are leaving Pakatan Rakyat, in which 1 crossing over to BN while the other 3 stay “independent” (but choose to side BN). It makes the state assembly seat distribution in a debatable situation, 28 Pakatan Rakyat, 28 BN & 3 independent (pro BN). Again, Perak become the national focus in this sudden collapse of government & this issue has hurt millions of Malaysian heart where the dirty political trick being used to overthrown a people-elected government without feeling guilty. Thousands of angry & disappointed supporters was gathered in the Perak Chief Minister residence to protest the immoral tactic of restoring power.

A banner in the Chief Minister Residence compound: "Dissolve the State Assembly. Return the power to the people".

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Mercantile Bank Building in Present

A part of the former Mercantile Bank building, which is now converted into an office of the famous multi-level marketing company quarter in Ipoh. This is one of few well-maintained heritage buildings in town. Most of others are either demolished or abandoned. I am quite sad to see this happen & hoping to see more preservation or utilization of these heritage buildings before more are being brought down.

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Ipoh Central Market

Ipoh Central Market located in the heart of New Town, the busiest spot in the day. Its top floor was Super Kinta Department Store, which was the most popular shopping complex in Ipoh throughout 1980's and 90's. No one had expected this giant at a time would close down lossing in the competition with modern shopping complex. The floor is still vacant at present, only the wet market at ground & first floor is still operating.

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A New Start

Today is my first working day in the new company. It marks a new milestone in my career life. Wish me good luck :-)

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Pet Shop

After few busy days of Chinese New Year, finally I find myself some time to upload new photo. This is one of the very few pet shops in the city, near Hugh Low Street. Unlike others, it sells mainly birds rather than cats, dogs & rabbits.

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