Landmark at Kampar Road

This is a view from Gopeng Road's Impiana Hotel towards south. The scene is dominated by the condominium blocks of Damaipuri and The Store Supermarket which are the landmark buildings along Kampar Road. The residential hiding in the green trees, Chateau Garden, is one of the best living environments in Ipoh.

Finally It Is Gone

In 2-May-2009, I asked how long would this corner abandoned shophouse would stand. The last image I captured on it would be its side view in 11-March-2011 post. It seemed the badly damaged building had stood for 2 more years before being torn down by the city council recently. The Ipoh City Council shall be criticized as it plans to further demolish over 60 units of old building in town rather than putting additional effort to get the owners to refurbish or renovate it. I personally have a feeling that the Malaysian government is trying very hard to wipe out the historical buildings existed since the colonial era, perhaps an effort to deny the history of colonization.

The End of A Busy Day

Although this is a Friday, it's a busy day for me. Apart from the heavy work load, the warm & humid weather at the valley also tear off a lot of my energy. When everything start settled down, darkness already covered the city & lights are on under the sunset.

Palace Restaurant

Palace Restaurant in Excelsior Hotel has been one of the well known Chinese restaurants in town. Despite tough competition in catering industry nowadays, the restaurant has gone through more than 2 decades. Wedding dinner is probably the most popular function for this restaurant and having such a dinner in hotel in those old days was considered grand & luxury. But with aggressive improvement in other local Chinese restaurants, luxurious is no longer Palace's advantage but it is even falling behind now. However the survival a restaurant should very much relies on the quality of food & service.

Excessive Floor Space

There are many shop lots in Ipoh having only ground floor occupied but vacant above. This is not only found in housing estates but even the most popular commercial areas such Ipoh Garden East & Greentown. Despite low occupancy rate, there are still many more construction projects coming up with more floor space created to be excessive. The trend of properties is kind of not healthy nowadays.

Oil Painting in the Morning Sky

As I always believe nature is the greatest artist. It creates the most beautiful & amazing artwork at a particular time and we have to appreciate as it just last for few minutes before faded away. This morning I was attracted by the pattern in the sky that looked like an oil painting. Although I can't tell what this pattern is but the colorful appearance simply caught my heart.

Before It's Gone

This row of shop at Clarke Street (beside ex Ruby Cinema) is being isolated. It makes me worry that it will be tron down very soon. The right most unit was still intact when it was captured in my snap shot of hanging street light on 3-May-2011. But today its roof tiles & windows are gone. Look like it will go missing any time from now. I can see the 5 shops were designed as one block and the center unit was added with special decorative features. As I glance through the front doors & windows, some inner structures have been brought down and I believe it is not just renovation but a complete rebuild project. What a waste to have a historical piece in the city going disappear. Before it's gone, I can only capture its last moment as an image to be remembered in coming days.

Football Match at Ipoh Padang

Ipoh Padang is a popular place for big event in the city, such as New Year celebration, outdoor concert, road show and sport events like cricket & football. I was passing by Ipoh Padang yesterday and got to know there were football matches here. It continues this morning & I just stop by watching for a while. Looks like this is a competition. Ipoh Padang is big enough to fit 2 football court & there were 2 matches running at the same time.

It's PC Fair Again

Yes, it's PC Fair again! This IT show organized by The National ICT Association of Malaysia, PIKOM, is getting more popular now and there are 3 rounds in a year being carried in major cities nationwide. The fair landed in Ipoh Indera Mulia Indoor Stadium & this 3-day event started on Friday. Despite the congestion seen today, I believe the crowd still not reach its peak but it should hit in Sunday.

The Two Towers Are Level

When the service apartment block reached top level early this year, the hotel adjacent to it was still at beginning stage of construction. After five months of intensive work, the 19-storey hotel is now also reaching its top and at same level with the apartment block. Somehow due to the location, these two towers though with highest floor count, still do not dominate the city skyline.

The Red 1931

My last post about this shophouse was 19-July-2010. The 1931 built shophouse is now painted in red matching the tenant, Red Boutique. Despite the good will of giving the building a new coat, I believe it can be done better if different color is painted to outline the decorative pattern & sculpture on top.

Empty Eyesore Building

Almost everyone in Ipoh knows this eyesore building at Cockman Street. It's a product of early 1990's where economy was picking up and new buildings & supermarkets were mushrooming. Ocean Supermarket was a big name at that time and it landed at Ipoh in this building. An office block is built on top of the 5-storey supermarket. An 11-storey car park is attached and this should be the tallest multi storey car park in Ipoh. However, the building was not well accepted and has low occupancy rate since it's completion. It is architecturally poor and with its age reaching almost 20 years, it's now an eyesore to the city skyline.

Timah House

This is a 6-storey building at Belfield Street. Although not a significantly large building but what has drawn my attention since I was young is the glass wall. It is called Timah House, I have no idea who own it and what the building occupies for. Anyway, back in 30 years ago, glass wall building is only seen in other major cities. And Timah House's partial glass wall was simply a pioneer of Ipoh's architecture in 1980's. I still remember among my brothers and friends we called it "the glass building" (玻璃楼).

The Thompson Flora Tropika

The Thompson Flora Tropika is probably the most expensive luxurios residential project in Ipoh nowadays. It was unimaginable to have residence costs above million in this city few years back. But now a bungalow in The Thompson Flora Tropika could cost multi millions. Being located at the heart of Ipoh's most luxurious residential area, Polo Ground and Tiger Lane (Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah), The Thompson is born to be fabulous & exclusive.

Usual Queue During Weekend

Shopping is probably one of the most popular activities of Malaysian. Unlike Kuala Lumpur & Penang, Ipoh has only few shopping malls where these places are always congested during weekend. And the traffic leading to these malls would also packed by cars. Just like this road, Jalan Merpati of Ipoh Garden. It will always seen with long queue heading to Kinta City Shopping Center. I am sure the residents along this road are getting quite annoyed with the heavy traffic right in front of their doorstep.

Paragon City Hotel

When driving along Kampung Simee Road, you won't find difficult to spot Paragon City Hotel. It is an outstanding 6-storey building among the low rise residential houses of Simee & Star Park. It's location is quite a nice choice to serve customer whom like to gain instant access to Ipoh Garden, Canning Garden, Simee, Fair Park & Kepayang Village. Of course, it still compete with nearby budget hotels such as De Hotel and Fair Park Hotel. Anyway, the hotel should be pretty well accepted as I observe its car park is always busy. To know more detail, you may check out the following information.

Paragon City Hotel Ipoh
No.1, Jalan Dato Haji Megat Khas, Taman Bandaraya Utama, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Tel.: +605-545 0900
Fax: +605-545 1900
Website: http://www.paragoncityhotel-ipoh.com

Amazing Scene In The Sky

This is an amazing scene during sunset which is rarely occur above Ipoh. With the sunlight refraction, the rounded shape clouds are highlighted. I stop myself at road side to capture these photos at different zooming and I can see many people are pointing their sight upwards enjoying this beautiful scene. It lasts about 15 minutes before the shine faded away.

Hanging Clothes Like in the Past

When the downtown was still packed with residents back in mid 20th century, most windows at upper floors were always seen with hanging clothes. Living space was so limited & building design was not meant for comfortability. Furthermore, the growing population added pressure to the capacity of downtown shophouses and the building was fully utilized for all kind of living purpose. Therefore, window become the best place to dry clothes. Nowadays most shophouses in town are used for business & commercial. Even there are residents, the population density is far lower & space become sufficient. The scenery like this one at Lau Ek Ching Street is rarely seen.

Decorative Lamp of The Bar

An old shop house at Cowan Street has been converted into a bar. The renovation work was nicely done where the beauty of old building is very much preserved while new features are added on. One of it is the decorative street lamp stood at a small front yard. I like the simple but neat decoration of the bar and its color. It may looked even more charming at night when the lights are on.

Embedded Post Boxes

New technology has changed modern people lifestyle so much in a relatively short time. Nowadays post office handles many other transactions such as bill payments than only mails. The post boxes outside of the post office may not receive as many mail as in the past. Communication with people at distance no longer relies on paper mail but through electronic devices.

Morning in Pengkalan

It's already more than a month since I back to work in Pengkalan. Although it's at another side of the city from previous work place, the morning scene still charming & attractive. Moving from north to south boundary of Ipoh, despite facing heavier traffic on the way to work, the most I enjoy is to experience the life in this city.

Scene at Cockman Street North

Cockman Street is starting for the junction with Chamberlain Road at south and crossing two trunk roads of the city, Hugh Low Low Street & Brewster Road, ends at north junction with Anderson Road. Along the street, the two most happening spots are sections near Central Market & old cinemas at north side. Although the cinemas are no longer exist and replaced by restaurant & retail shop, but the supermarket, shopping complex & fast food restaurants around here still attracting crowd, especially foreign workers during weekend.

Another Old Hanging Street Light

I was thinking there is no other old hanging street light elsewhere in Ipoh, as mentioned in November 16 last year. But when I come to Lau Ek Ching Street, I am quite surprise to see a functioning hanging street light. There are two near the junction to Clarke Street but only one of it lighted up. This scene may looked quite similar to Ipoh's old days as I got the street light matching to an old shophouse at background which its appearance seems very little changed.

Little Wild Flower

In tropical countries, even a small piece of expose land under the sun, it would always grown with grass & some little wild flowers. They may not be very eye catching feature. But when these flowers come together, it looked like stars scattered above the green grass. The simple & humble wild flower would also create a nice scenery.

The Street of Dim Sum

Leong Sin Nam Street is famous with its many "dim sum" restaurants. The street is always congested in the morning especially during weekend & holidays where many visitors to Ipoh like to taste the famous Hong Kong dim sum here. This weekend there are not only cars lining up along the street but buses carrying tourists had occupied almost half of the driving path.