Malaysia: Ipoh, the city of cave temples
- Where To Go Next By I&P
- Jan 3, 2023
- 3 min read
After a 2h-ride from Butterworth in a fairly modern train going up to 140 km/h, we arrived at Ipoh's European style train station.
Ipoh is the third city in Malaysia in terms of population, and is the midpoint between Penang and the capital, Kuala Lumpur. It is also renowned for the number of cave temples around the city.
After you scan your ticket to exit the station (keep your train ticket until the end!), you can see the mountains where the caves are located, surrounding the city.
Ipoh itself is divided between a new town and an old town. The new town seems to have been a great lively city before it lost its glory as its very colorful buildings were now a little decrepit, and some of the shops in the area were closed. It was also impossible to find a coffee house in this area. Imagine yourself roaming unsuccessfully though town searching for a doughnut or a pain au chocolat in the morning. 😩
In the evening though, there is a night market called Gerbang Malam where you can buy cheap clothes and accessories, but still no doughnuts 🍩!
The old Town offers a more colonial/European style buildings, like the train station, and sometimes resembles Penang (but with more sidewalks!). It's a nice, walkable town with its mosque, its riverwalk and its clock tower called Birch Memorial.
The most interesting part of the old town is certainly the Concubine Lane. It used to be the street where rich Chinese men would meet their mistresses. It is funny to see, what was probably once a very shabby street, is now a very touristic, crowded street selling very enticing sweet and savory snacks.
Around the town, you can also find some nice murals, similar to the ones in Penang
The following day, we had a white coffee at Kafe Panglima Dua Lima. The white coffee is a speciality of Ipoh, and it's a coffee made from margarine roasted beans and served with condensed milk.
We then wanted to visit one of the famous cave temples of the area. The tourist office helped us decide which of the numerous temples we should visit and they recommended Perak Tong Temple, as it was the closest and also had a beautiful viewpoint from the top.
We got a Grab to get there instead of the bus 35 due to the bus hourly frequency and because of its cost vs Grab made it less attractive.
On the way, you could see tall limestone mountains mostly covered with trees except on the side, as if part of the mountains had recently been washed away of their trees.
It is a shame that so many ugly buildings were in front of those beautiful mountains though.
The entrance of Perak Tong temple is located 15 min north of Ipoh under one of those limestone mountains. As we got closer, we could see our destination, a small structure all the way at the top. 😩 We wondered how we have not lost all of our excess kilos with all the steps we've climbed during these trips.
You enter the temple through a gate guarding a vast cave where you can already see a seated golden Buddha. There are 40 Buddha in the cave, as well as many beautiful frescoes representing Chinese Buddhist Gods and characters. The cave itself is majestic and a spiritual aura emanates from it especially when a lady hits the gong. It reverberates in the whole cave!
This cave continues with 450 steps to ascend to the viewpoint. It starts in the cave until you reach the jungle and the several small rest areas on the way. The viewpoint lets you see the incredible mountains around the city and, unfortunately, something like a sawmill or a plant of some sort. You can stay a little longer if you are not bothered by the usual mosquitoes and families of monkeys.
Midway down, there was another flight of stairs that brought us to see a hidden Buddha on an elephant facing the city. It is the luckiest Buddha of the forty, as the other ones are in the cave. 😊
That's it for Ipoh-Perak! Next stop,the beautiful capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur!
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