Heat

June 30, 2015June 30, 2015Leave a comment

We are currently experiencing a dry period here in Ipoh. The sky is a hazy white and the hills around the city are barely visible, as in the photo above. There is no mid-afternoon downpour to bring a little relief. The day starts at temperatures in the high 20s and gets steadily hotter, so that at 7pm when it starts to get dark, the temperature is still in the mid 30s. For people like us used to the temperate climate of the south Pacific, these days are frazzling. I feel bad complaining when people have been dying in their thousands from the heat in Pakistan and India. They and many people here in Malaysia do not have the advantage of switching on a ceiling fan or air conditioner. As I write this at 8.30am, I have the fan whirring overhead and the air conditioners cooling down the whole apartment. Looks like I’ll be spending the whole day indoors. Good news is that there is a 50 percent chance of rain this weekend.

Moving on

June 8, 2015July 8, 2015Leave a comment

Readers of this blog know that we have been plagued by the noise generated by the theme park that Sunway developed adjacent to the housing estate that we presently live on. We’ve had enough! So we are moving to a condominium (which is a fancy word for what is really a flat) on a golf course in another part of Ipoh. We hope it will be quieter and more pleasant over there. We have a balcony that overlooks the golf course and the large trees that surround it. Although we will no longer be living in a house, we have two spare bedrooms and bathrooms. You are welcome to visit.

Red means stop …

June 1, 2015June 1, 2015Leave a comment

… not always, not if you don’t feel like it, and almost definitely not if you’re a motor cyclist in Ipoh. When you approach an amber light as I did this morning on my way to the supermarket, you should check your rear-view mirror to make sure you won’t get bashed by the car behind you if you decide to stop. I stopped because there wasn’t a car directly behind me but the motorcycles to my left didn’t hesitate – they went through the red light at great speed – and clearly never had any intention of stopping. When the light turned green for me, I took a long pause because four cars came through the intersection after their light had turned red and mine had turned green. The photo above is of a warning sign (‘berhenti’ means ‘stop’ in Malay) at our local petrol station. It clearly has absolutely no effect (and is nicely ungrammatical as well!) I made it to the supermarket and back unscathed as you know because you’re reading this post.

Car candy

April 11, 2015April 12, 2015Leave a comment

I find driving in Ipoh challenging because of the general disregard for red lights, lane markings and right of way displayed by many motorists. Motorcyclists are completely cavalier regarding the rules of the road, probably because if you knock a rider off her/his bike, it’s always your fault, even if they’ve come through a red light straight at you! However, the way people decorate their cars provides some light relief. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of little Malaysian-made cars on the roads of Ipoh, many with their back ledges richly decorated with cushions, soft toys, fake flowers and religious paraphernalia. One of the favourites is a row of brightly coloured synthetic strawberry cushions, which you can buy from any number of stalls in the Cameron Highlands where actual strawberries are grown. Alternatively you can have a worm (as in the pic above) which takes up most of the ledge. I too drive a Myvi but its ledge is disappointingly free of decoration!

Good company

April 5, 2015Leave a comment

I’ve had a lovely week in the company of my Kiwi cousin who paid us a visit. We spent a lot of time yakking about the vagaries of expat life (in my case) and doing business in Malaysia (in his). We took a day trip to Penang and had morning coffee at the cafe pictured in the photo above. We went out for delicious Chinese and Indian food and explored the old town of Ipoh, where he delighted in bargaining with local shopkeepers. It is great to spend time with someone you’ve known all your life and with whom you share a history. Back to my solitary days this week though!

Street food

March 28, 2015Leave a comment

There are scores (probably hundreds) of stalls selling all kinds of food along Ipoh’s streets every day. We drive by and are intrigued by the variety of food on offer, from whole or peeled fruit, to baked goods, to hot dishes served on rice or noodles – always in the ubiquitous pink plastic bags that you then see strewn all over the place. We’ve never bought anything from a street stall because we have sensitive antipodean stomachs that cannot even cope with drinking water straight from the tap! Hygiene standards are patchy and there is no refrigeration in sight. There is a vibrant night food market that we have been to several times. You choose your food from any number of stalls and the stall holder brings it to you when it is ready. It is easy to pick us out of a crowd but I am not sure how they find locals among the hundreds of tables that fill the area. It is a pleasant experience, eating outdoors in the balmy evening among crowds of local people. However, we’ve not been back since our last street meal had us running for the bathroom the following morning!

Weddings

March 20, 2015March 24, 2015Leave a comment

You see notices like this at many intersections around Ipoh. They may include arrows to show wedding guests where to go. This is one of the more elaborate ones I’ve seen. Often they are simpler (like the one below) and may or may not involve tinsel. But they always include the names of the bride and groom and some indication of where the celebration is being held. ‘Majlis perkahwinan’ means ‘wedding reception’ and this is followed by the names of the pair to be married, the date of the reception and where it is to be held. I presume that this practice has arisen because finding one’s way around the city is not easy. Locals often don’t know the names of the roads, many of which now have different names from the colonial names of the past. We’ve become like locals in that we find our way and give directions using landmarks rather than addresses.

Air Terjun Lata Kinjang

February 5, 2015February 5, 2015Leave a comment

It is really difficult to take a good photograph of a waterfall, which is why I’ve resorted to a commercial image for this post. We took a motorbike ride to this waterfall, about an hour south-east of Ipoh, last weekend. Confusingly for English speakers, ‘air’ means ‘water’ in Malay. As far as I can ascertain, the next two words ‘terjun’ and ‘lata’ both mean ‘waterfall’. It is a spectacular sight, even now when we’ve had very little rain, with torrents of water gushing over rocks, creating rapids and spray. There are also pools one can sit in and we did, fully clothed as is customary in Malaysia. Then we sat in the shade and ate our picnic lunch. There is plenty of shade because of the dense jungle that grows right to the edges of the waterfall. I lay back on a flattish rock and looked up at the canopy. There were hundreds of dragonflies and the occasional brightly coloured butterfly. It felt wonderful to be outside in the middle of the day without expiring from heat. When you visit, we’ll take you there (in the car, of course!)

Inspiration

January 31, 2015Leave a comment

…or lack of it! I have been back in Ipoh for a week now and haven’t once thought “I must write a post about that”. The photo above was taken at the Genting Highlands, which we visited before Christmas. It is rare to see skies like that in Ipoh. Although the city is surrounded by limestone hills, they are usually obscured by haze (a combination of heat and pollution) and the sky is more white than blue. But instead of moping, we’ve decided that 2015 will be the year of exploring further afield – we’ll go further north than Penang, over to the east coast and perhaps across to Indonesia. Watch this space!

Spectacled leaf monkeys

December 18, 2014Leave a comment

Just as I am about to leave Malaysia for a while (and feeling very happy about it!) I get reminded about its attractions. A troop of these guys is cavorting in the tree directly across the river from my writing room. I’ve got the binoculars out and can see their cute faces clearly. They always look as if they’ve just been surprised by something. They are also the most athletic of the three species of monkey we get here. The branches bounce and sway as they feed from the bright orange flowers of the tulip trees. While I’ve been writing this, they’ve moved away. That’ll be us in a few days!

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Category: Ipoh