Residents Moving Away

This is a shophouse at the white coffee district, nearby Kinta Heights, which is probably reaching a century old, or may be more than that. Although it is just an ordinary old terrace shophouse in town, the appearance was made delicated. Its ground floor is selling kitchenware & household stuff during day time while the upper floor seems like a store. Likewise many shophouses in town, residents are moving away and leaving the city center empty like a ghost town at night. If the century-old building structure is strengthened & interior is restored to better condition, making it like a modern townhouse or apartment, hopefully it will create reflow of population. I believe this can be done & may even create a new trend of living style in Ipoh.

Utilize the Space for Plant

This is a mini market (convenience store) that occupies a corner shoplot. Since it has additional five foot way at its side, the owner simply make use of it for growing some plants. For whatever reason, I believe this is a good idea provided the cleaniness, safety of pedestrian & maintenance is well kept.

Paloh Mosque since 1912

Paloh Mosque (Masjid Paloh) at Datoh Road is one of the oldest mosques in Ipoh which located near the junction of Leong Boon Swee Road. It was built by Wan Muhammad Saleh in year 1912. That means the mosque is almost a century old now. Nonetheless, the mosque remains its original exterior although its structure has been extensively renovated. Unlike typical mosque architecture, Paloh Mosque does not have dome but appeared in traditional Malayan style. An old Muslim cemetery is loacted behind the mosque and there is a tomb of a nobleman of early 20th century.

Heavy Smoker

I believe there was a heavy smoker either having his breakfast or tea break at this table. Well, this is still a bad habit of most Malaysian, littering. Also, according to my observation, number of smoker is increasing, moreover many are youngster & ladies. Perphaps they believe smoking is trendy, which I totally not agree & not encourage.

Sleeping Cat

Despite the crowd & noise at nearby restaurants, this cat is enjoying its sleep on the cement block. What a relax lifestyle that many of us, especially those living in the city, cannot afford to enjoy :-)

Charming Skyline at Sunset

There were some rainy days at large area in the valley during last few weeks and it becomes lesser recently. Scattered rain at certain spots while cloudy and hazy sky take over the last few days. The weather change is not drastic but we still can feel it starts to become warmer. Anyway, the clouds create a colorful & charming skyline during sunset.

Pigeon in Menglembu Town

Pigeons are lining up on a power cable at Menglembu town. It's normally seen when nearby shops are feeding them.

A Lively Saturday Night

As I just published few days ago, Ipoh at night is quiet. However, the scenario is different in Saturday night. To my surprise, parking lots around Ipoh Padang are full & there are many people having family outing right here. Those who have gathering with friends & buddies also fill the nearby restaurants up & I see an extraordinary lively pulse of the town tonight.

Ali Pitchay Road

Ipoh downtown was designed like a chessboard, where majority of New Town & Old Town is having straight roads interweaving each other. Nonetheless there are some curving streets. If we check the map of downtown, there are obviously two narrower curve streets appear almost in parallel, it's Ali Pitchay Road & Che Tak Road. Along Ali Pitchay Road, there are many travel agencies & budget hotels concentrated here. Although located in the city center, the street is not congested during day and night.

Appreciate It, Leave It or Forget About It

This is a common scene in Ipoh downtown; building in use, building abandoned & building gone. There are owners in town having their properties well-maintained although it's over 70 years old. However, there are many more have no interest to keep their properties in proper manner, or even simply tear it down. With lack of economic value, some of these shops are probably a burden for the owners to maintain the structure. Perphaps some of them already migrated to places with better opportunities and too busy to return for taking care of the shop. Due to the off-track economic grow in the past 25 years, Ipoh has lost few generations under the empty promises of politician. So many families has their youngster away from hometown. It is not surprise if you find, nationwide or even worldwide, many people are Ipoh originated.

Border of Old & New

I am standing at the border that separates Old Town & New Town. This is the first time I categorize this photo as both Old Town & New Town because I just can't tell on which part I should consider I am. Kinta River was the natural barrier in the past urban development of Ipoh. In the right of this photo is west bank where the settlement initiated. Around 1908~1909, the growth of the town crossed to the east bank and started a better planned township which mainly contributed by Yau Tet Shin. Although the city has only gone through a century, but there are many amazing stories to tell about it from the history of rise & fall. Many of us are busy crossing the river everyday. It will be certainly a different feeling if we take a walk slowly on the bridge and across the shop blocks.

No Time to Say Goodbye

This is an older image of the row of shop at Chung On Siew Street. There could be nothing special about these shops except being vacant for some time. But it's a rare case in Ipoh to have no modern building appear in between the entire block of prewar shophouses. Famous director Ang Lee has choosen this street for film shooting of the movie "Lust, Caution" (色,戒) just because of the nostalgic shops. However, the shops are no longer survived. As reported in blog of Ipoh World, they are being brought down today. What a sad news to citizen of Ipoh that, again, heritage building is giving way for modern development. The value of heritage that drawn the attention of famous film direction is not appreciated by the locals. I am so depressed of this latest news and yet to have a chance to visit the shops for saying goodbye....

Please visit http://www.ipohworld.org/blog/?p=2235 for more detail.

Sunset at Klebang Ria

This photo was taken from the field in front of my house at Klebang Ria during sunset. The beautiful color in the sky is a best gift to reward those that have spent their day for hard work. Hope the charming scene will bring them peaceful & refreshing mind.

A Leafless Tree

A tree is trimmed to have no more leaves & eventually could be brought down in order to prevent excessive falling dried leaves that clog the drain & dirtying the houses front yard.