Residences Growing in Vertical

High rise condominium is not Ipoh's mainstream of living style, but such concept is getting more popular in recent years. I believe this mainly comes from people's higher expectation in living environment, especially security, privacy and community facilities. These two luxury condominium projects running side by side are progressing aggressively on the golden land of Polo Ground-Tiger Lane area. Although we won't expect condominiums to mushrooming in Ipoh, demand of such property would, anyway, growing in the city.

Another Building Goes Empty

7 years after my previous post that published at 15-May-2009, this building has lost its last tenant, a home appliances shop. I am not sure this is due to the impact of economic downturn or some other factors, but I do observe there are many properties around the city are pasted with such yellow poster by property agents looking for occupants. It seems situation is getting tougher nowadays.

New Town Children's Playground

How many of us still remember the Children's Playground at Anderson Road? It used to be a popular playground and recreation park in New Town decades ago, which is still a sweet memory of many Ipoh folks. Indeed the park was directly accessible from Anderson Road, Brewster Road and Osborne Street in the past. Somehow its boundaries at Brewster Road and Osborne Street are now occupied by modern building and hawker stalls respectively. The landscape and structures in the park appeared to be poorly maintained, and we do not see children playing in the park.

City View from Aeon Big Falim

This is my second visit to Aeon Big Falim, Midtown Shopping Mall. The mall is currently partially occupied with only Aeon Big and some shoplots at north wing are operating. Aeon Departmental Store on its south wing will probably commence business this coming September. Finding parking is not an issue over here; plenty of parking lots available on the ground. Anyway, I choose to park at the roof top because I yet to experience the panoramic view from here. Its perimeter wall is pretty high, which I believe is to prevent any falling accident. It's not easy to grab a complete Ipoh city skyline but I am able to snap the skyline of New Town and Old Town. The above photo is probably an angle that could see most working tower cranes in one glance. Could you point out all the 9 cranes in this photo?

Close up view of New Town can be split into 2 portions; the city center which seen Ipoh downtown current tallest building, The Octagon and others such as The Majestic, MBI, Tower Regency Hotel, Excelsior Hotel and so on, whereas another snapshot focuses on city outskirt, which seen tower cranes of two new condominium projects (Kampung Paloh & Tin City), Impiana Hotel, Prima Ipoh Condo, Damaipuri Condo, etc.

Old Town skyline remains stagnant since the completion of Cititel Express Hotel. In my opinion, Old Town shall avoid intensive modernization in order to maintain low density of high rise building and minimize construction of new building for preserving its heritage appearance.

Construction of Pullman Hotel in May'16

The works were started pretty slow for the project of Ipoh Convention Centre (ICC) and the Pullman Hotel & Residences. My guess, it may be caused by the change of plan to increase building floors of the hotel & residence blocks. Anyway, the construction pace is recently gear up and one of the blocks is seen reaching 14-15 floors now, almost the same height with its surrounding high rise towers. Once it achieves full height at 24 floors (if the information I obtained is correct), Pullman Hotel will be a standout building in Greentown.

The Heat Wave is Going to End

It is constantly raining during late afternoon everyday. Although not heavy enough to cure the warm atmosphere, it prevents the heat from accumulating day-to-day. Since the begin of rainy days, I believe this heat wave, probably the worst in the history of Malaysia, will be over soon.

Food Truck - New Generation Mobile Hawker

Food trucks are no longer strange to Ipoh citizens. Some local and outstation food trucks often visit tourist hot spots of Ipoh to promote their unique and delicious food and beverages. If we recall the history of street hawking during 1960's, 70's & 80's, there were many mobile hawkers around the city, which appeared in much simpler setup, tricycle or three-wheel motorcycle.

Tough Job

It is really tough to work under direct hot sun. The car mechanic is trying very hard to put the car engine back in operation. Not just the extreme hot weather that he has to bare with, but the pressure to complete his repair job as fast as possible during this afternoon rush hour at one of the busiest trunk roads in the city.

Start of Hazy Days?

The visibility in the city seems reducing a little in recent days. Despite dry and hot weather, many irresponsible people still practicing open burning which worsening the air pollution. We could begin to see sign of hazy atmosphere when mountains and buildings at distant are slightly faded.

Grilled and Barbecued

When I am feeling like being grilled by the sun, I also imagine the pigeons are being barbecued. The effect of heavy rain yesterday has completed vanished after the sun rises for few hours. The Malaysian Meteorological Department has predicted the extreme weather due to El Nino will most probably lasts until April.

Finally Rainfall in the City

It is enough torture by the extremely warm weather that lasts for almost a month. I guess no one in the city is not wishing to receive a downpour to stop us from sweating day and night. Finally we have a half-hour rainfall in Ipoh this afternoon. Watching splashes of rain water become such an exciting moment while enjoying the cooler atmosphere.

Solving Public Parking Problems

The new building of Ipoh general hospital, Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun (HRPB) is progressing quite aggressively. It will provide additional parking lots for the public once completed. Currently many visitors of the hospital are taking risk to park their cars illegally at both sides of Hospital Road, as seen in this photo. It is sometimes causing traffic congestion during rush hours, especially the direction towards city center. Hoping that the new hospital building will solve this public parking problem.

Green Belt Turns Brownish

Well, I can't stop talking topics about the hot weather. This is another typical scene when hot and dry season prolonged. Grass at road side or on the divider would normally goes dry out first due to the limited soil, which means limited reservoir of water. When the situation worsen, we may see the "green belt" along the road turn into "brown belt" and eventually "black belt"; too dry to get ignited easily by any source of fire, most often caused by cigarette butts.

Flame in the Sky of Real Hot Days....

The unusual hot days have been prolonged for more than 2 weeks due to the effect of El Nino, which not just prevents rainfall in Ipoh, but limits the amount of clouds in the sky. When direct sunlight hitting Ipoh's ground all day long, everyone feels like being grilled alive....... Look up at the sky, it often appears only some cirrus clouds, which have no way to filter any heat from the sun, and turn out like burning flame during sunset. A very symbolic scene for the recent extreme hot days.