Income Tax Building Lighted Up

Exterior of Income Tax Building in Ipoh Garden was lighted up tonight. It is not fancy decorating lights but just some energy saving bulbs along the building perimeter. However, it does looked nice with such a simple setup. I believe other buildings in the city can put some effort to beautify the skyline by simple but creative ideas that would make Ipoh more charming at night.

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Saucers Line Up

Satellite tv is not a dream or something luxury for all. Kinta Heights, which known as a low cost residential flat for those with limited income, is seen to have saucers (signal receiver) lining up from lower to higher floors. This phenomenon may explain the change in lifestyle, where tv entertainment becomes one of the musts in our life.
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Tai Pee Sim Monastery

Tai Pee Sim (大悲心) Monastery located at Kampar Road, opposite to Perak Girl School, is usually known as Ne Zha (哪吒) Temple by the locals. It is not as famous as other old temples & cave temples in the city, therefore the monastery is seldom crowded. The temple displays Chinese traditional architecture with slightly mix with modern building style. Anyway, it is still a unique piece in the city.
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This is the rear view of the monastery, which is equally neat, tidy & good looking as the front building. I can also feel the peacefulness even I am not in the compound.

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Back to D.R. Park

D.R. Seenivasagam Park (usually mentioned in short as D.R. Park), was initially called Coronation Park, is the biggest green heart in Ipoh city center. It is named after the famous local politician who was the Ipoh councilor & MP in 1960's. It used to be the most popular public park in the city. I believe almost all Ipoh citizens who born in 1960's & 70's visited this park and have sweetest memory on the beautiful lake & the zigzag bridge. There were also landscaping, plants that cut in animal shape, fountain, manmade streams & the bicycle track that complete with traffic signs. Although some of these had disappeared & replaced with new structure, the park is still a relaxing & refreshing place to ease the busy life in city. Visitor coming to D.R. Park nowadays is getting lesser compare to 3 decades ago. People are migrating to the suburban & there are new parks established around the city. Yet this park is not kept in tiptop condition to serve the best facilities to visitors. Nevertheless, D.R. Park still presents its beauty by nature with the plants & lake.

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City Skyline is Changing

The consrtuction of Kinta Riverfront Hotel & Suites is progressing. I can see the second tower crane is also working on the hotel block while the apartment block has reached 16th floor. The city skyline is changing and soon we will see these two new landmark buildings (apartment & hotel)standing at the height of 19 and 20 floors respectively. Despite the number of floors is surpassing all high rise buildings in the city (except the 20-storey Kinta Heights), it's height above sea level is most probably still not a breakthrough due to the building height limit set by Department of Civil Aviation, DCA.

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My Flowery Morning

"Hey, how are you doing there? It's a nice and flowery morning to me!!" says the little grasshopper.
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Yes, this is a sunny & refreshing morning. I found a little grasshopper enjoying the breeze on a blooming flower. I feel lucky that it being cooperative to be my model of photography by not jumping away when I snap this photo :-)

Bring Your Umbrella Along

The sun shine penetrates through the clouds. The scene in this evening looked nice and simply impress us. However, the tropical climates is just so unpredictable & changing fast. An hour later, it's already totally a different scene. Dark clouds are covering almost the entire sky & feel like going to fall anytime. Downpour is following ten minutes later. It's better to bring umbrella along during this raining season.
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Here Come the Giant

A giant signboard post is put up at Tasek. The main post has been lying here for weeks & welding work to fix the frame was carried out for few days since last week. Finally it stands up and it looked really outstanding in this area that has no high rise structure. Anyway, its owner is also a giant of worldwide fast food, the KFC and Pizza Hut. Soon, the restaurant will be opened & I believe it will attract a lot of people from the surrounding since this is the first of its kind in Tasek neighbourhood.

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A Wet Day

To many people that do not own a car, it is quite inconvenient to travel during rainy day, especially when going to and fro working place. However, today's weather is just not so favorable to this group of people where downpour at almost the entire city in the morning & evening. It overwhelms the drainage system that cause flash flood at lower grounds. Some roads are covered by several feet of water and even 4-wheel vehicles find it difficult to move. Many drivers would certainly pay the price for crossing the flooded part of the road & some even suffering lost by caught in road accident.

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Up, up and Away!!

This is an unexpected discovery. But what is so special? It's indeed just a children playground at Cherry Garden, an old residential area behind Maxwell Road. However, what attracted & surprised me is the playing gadgets that stand still right here are hardly seen in Ipoh nowadays. The number of gadgets that survived in a single playground is totally out of my expectation. It recalls so much of my childhood memories where some of these were my favorites. To me, the most significant one is the rocket. There was one I used to climb on at Anderson Road Children Playground in city center, which had been removed decade ago. Flying a rocket to reach the outer space was a dream of almost every kid during 1960's-70's. So this was an iconic piece in many playgrounds at that time.

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Although the arc ladder is just a simple gadget but it does stimulate the kids' creativity. They might climb on top, hanging at the middle span, squeezing in between iron bars & many other funny posts. However, as to mention commonality, swings must be one that cannot be denied. Again, there are many different styles are available, sitting on the wooden patch is not the only way, but standing on it & cross-sitting side swinging like horse riding are equally common.

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The first thing in my mind when looking at this would be cactus, iron cactus. But you may not be able to imagine I did consider this as a school bus. Yes, school bus, no kidding :-). When sitting one step higher from the round iron plate, I can "drive" the bus with this "steering". My passengers have to squeeze beside me and climb to the higher steps to "take the ride". Isn't it cool? Well, during our time, many students were travelling to and fro school with school bus. The bus driver was indeed one of our teachers that taught us discipline in social life. And I believe kids pretend to be teacher should be a universal behavior.

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The iron gadgets have been painted several times. Some are even having broken parts & getting rusty. To maintain the condition, it needs proper care & regular repair. In recent days, plastic gadgets are replacing these iron bars & eventually, I am sure we will see its extintion.

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Beside the iron gadgets, these concrete rings are also a popular item in the playground. Its maintenance should be less costly but the rough outer surface may cause injuries to kids.

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Before I took my step to leave, I found a clue of the age of this stuff from this ring. A date is carved at the inner surface. It's 9-Feb-1968, 42 years from present day.

Time for Dinner

The sun is disappearing from sight and street lights are turned on. It's time for dinner and the street is quiet in the housing areas. Saturday night fun is going to begin and hot spots in town will be packed by people.

Blooming Flowers at Ipoh Padang

This flower may be a very common species, but when blooming around Ipoh Padang is certainly enhancing the charm of the great field in town. Sometimes I prefer common species that is able to live & even bloom beautifully under poor environment, which represents humbleness & toughness.

Like A Water Color Painting

It was a cloudless & warm afternoon. However, clouds formed above the eastern mountain range during twilight & the refracted sunshine gives us a beautiful scene that looks like a water color painting. Mother nature always does the best painting in the world.

Kinta Riverfront at Eve of Malaysia Day

16-Sep-1963, Malaysia was established with the joining of 3 additional "S" states, Sabah, Sarawak & Singapore, whereby Singapore declared independence 2 years later. For many years, Malaysia only celebrates it's Independence Day on 31-Aug. But from this year onwards, 16-Sep is also a day to be remembered as Malaysia Day & declared as a public holiday. With this additional rest day, many are enjoying the eve & Kinta Riverfront is seen to be more crowded than normal weeknights. To make Ipoh city skyline much charming, Wisma Taiko is lightened up tonight.

Statue of Lord Guan

Lord Guan is worshipped by many Chinese especially in southern China, Hong Kong & South East Asia. Guan Yu 关羽 was his real name & he was a general serving warlord Liu Bei 刘备 during 2nd Century, the era of Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era of China. He is well known of his loyalty and righteousness. Many Chinese shops & restaurants are having small shrine or statue of Lord Guan.

We Don't See Many of This in Town

Yes, this shop house may not be significantly different with other shop houses in downtown. However, we can hardly find a corner unit with a balcony like this. I have no idea what this building is used for currently, but it seems to be still nicely maintained with the windows & doors, which are most probably still of its original set. What you can see now could be unchanged since 40~50 years ago. I hope I will find out more about its history.

Crowns by Rain Drops

It's downpour again after terrifying lightning in the afternoon. The surrounding is covered by the noise of rain drops hitting roof, awning, cement floor & tar road. I like to see the "water crown" that created by rain drops in static photo.

Clearer Sky After Rain

Raining in the afternoon is the typical weather recently. A downpour in northern region of Kinta Valley has just stopped before sun set & leaving a clearer sky in this evening. It also brings a cooler environment for the people to enjoy this weekend holiday.

Crowd in Foh San Dim Sum

Today is first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri holiday. While Muslims are celebrating their greatest festival, others are enjoying the weekend holiday. Ipoh, as one of the most population outflowing city, having many of those working outstation back in hometown. It also welcomes a lot of tourists that come for the Ipoh's tasty foods. Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant, the famous one in town is packed with crowd. Together with another few neighbouring dim sum restaurants, Leong Sin Nam Street is basically a large scale car park in this morning, vehicles are so difficult to move along the street that is full of cars & pedestrians.

Ipoh Welcomes You

A long holiday is going to start, Hari Raya Aidilfitri will begin tomorrow & the 2-day festive holiday falls right before weekend. Muslims are rushing back to hometown for celebration & reunion with family. Many others would either back to home or having a short trip elsewhere. Ipoh will be extraordinary busy in the coming few days.

Old Hotel Restored

Although this is not a unique building, but the restoration has shown a good example of how an old building in town can be utilized without demolition & rebuilding. As seen from the original signboard, this Cowan Hotel (or more like a motel) seems to be operating for quite some time. I believe many other downtown traditional budget hotels can do the same to upgrade themselves & offer its very own nostalgic environment for a truly old-time South East Asia living experience.

Moving Antique

This car should be approximately half a century old, but it is still in operating condition. I am quite amazed when I see the plate number (not seen in this photo) initiated with alphabet "AB". This should be very few that are still running on the road.

HSBC Building Lightened

HSBC building is one of the sexiest building in Ipoh, especially when its exterior spotlights are lightened at night. It is turned on only for special occasions, in this case, the Independence Day. The fountain at one corner of the great field of Ipoh Padang, though simple, somehow looked good in front of the HSBC building.

New Age Bakery

Bakery in town used to be serving take away only but recently many of them are managing just like a restaurant where customers can enjoy breads & cakes in the shop. At Chung Thye Pin Road, we may experience dining on the five-foot way in this bakery. Although it's not "cool" having it during day time in a tropical country but it should be relaxing.