We were in Ipoh for 4 days and taking into account that we spent 2 days travelling, (to reach Ipoh and to leave) we really didn't have a lot of time to explore the whole place.
The children usually start their mornings hanging around the house for a while, helping Sifu feed his fishes and just walking around the house till we're all ready to leave.
Sarah was particularly fascinated with the fish pond and feeding the fishes, so she hung out there every chance she had.
Caleb and Sarah roaming around outside Sifu's house.
Can you see they have the exact same expression?
The first evening that we were there, Sifu drove us round town to give us a brief tour.
According to him, Ipoh is divided into Old town and New Town via a bridge separating the Kinta River. The names are quite self explanatory. Old Town was where the people originally settled in and when the population expanded, they built up New Town. However in recent years, the Old Town got revamped and is supposedly more happening than New Town. And the Old Town is the place where he brought us to eat all the good food!
Some glimpses of Ipoh in the day. (It was hard for us to take photos of the town at night)
A view of the town
Very retro looking buses without aircon! Just like the kind that I took in primary school!
The mountains and limestone caves that Ipoh is famous for.
We didn't make it to any of the limestone caves coz we heard from Sifu that there were many steps to climb so we made the wise choice of giving it a miss this time round.
(Incidentally, Yeeyee and her family went to Ipoh for a family holiday as well after hearing our rave reviews and they bravely headed for the limestone caves. Apparently they gave up after climbing like 100 steps with Yeeyee slinging Nevan and dragging Nic and Nat and her in laws up the steps. And after giving up and walking back to their starting point, they saw a map and realised that they had only made it to the entrance of the limestone caves, and they actually paid the entrance fee of RM5 each just to do that!)
Our first "real" activity with the kids was to visit this park called Taman D.R. Seenivasagam. I had done some research on kids friendly places and this came up as one of the places to go. It's supposed to be the greatest and oldest garden in Ipoh where there are memories for all Ipohan. According to the site that I went to, it's the biggest and best developed park in Ipoh and there's supposed to be a recreation field, roller skating facilities, artificial lake with paddle boats, a carousel and a children traffic playground. Sounds great? I thought the kids would love it so I asked Sifu about it and he said, yes, he grew up playing there. Yes, he did go roller skating and there was a lake etc so that settled it. Off we went after our breakfast!
Well, when we arrived, Sifu kinda drove us round the park two to three times because firstly, the place looked very run down and pretty deserted. We were a little unsure whether we were at the right place. But Sifu said it looked familiar, just that it seemed much smaller than what he remembered it to be. We tried to look for the lake with the paddle boats. We did find one but it didn't look very big and the lake was drying up. We saw the children's traffic playground but the facilities were all falling apart. We saw the carousel but the horses were all gone. Only thing that was left was the shelter. We did find the kids playground though and it was the only thing that looked decent albeit a little rundown. Yah, I've learnt that when the information from the internet is not dated, I've to discount my expectations by quite a bit!
Anyway, we decided since we were already here, we might as well enjoy the playground.
The only part of the park that was still in working order.
Sarah having fun crawling through the tunnel at the playground
Taking turns to go on the slide
The slide is actually very steep but Sarah who's quite adventurous absolutely loved it.
Even ND went on the slide too!
Sarah sitting on one of the kiddy rides.
See the paint and structure are actually disintegrating.
I love this series of photos that ND took of the kids on the swing.
They really had fun going on the swing.
That's all for the "greatest and most developed" park in Ipoh.
Nevertheless, the kids had fun so I guess that's all that matters.
The next day, we headed to the Lost World of Tambun. It's a water theme park that was developed by the same developers as Sunway Lagoon. The concept and all are very similar as well. Only difference is that this theme park had a Mayan theme and had the limestone caves as it's backdrop. Thankfully, we were not disappointed and the kids enjoyed themselves very much here.
At the entrance.
The boys attempting to pose like cats.
The theme park had "dry" attractions as well as "wet" attractions. We decided that we'll do the "dry" ones first before proceeding on to the "wet" ones.
Map of the theme park. Looks like there's a lot of attractions but actually the theme park is not very big. It was a comfortable size for us to cover the whole park in a few hours at a leisurely pace.
Of all the "dry" attractions, the kids only dared to ride on the carousel so to make our monies worth, we went on the carousel 3 times! As there weren't much of a crowd, we had the whole carousel to ourselves. That meant that we could take our time to hang around, take photos and try out different seats on the carousel. Btw, there were so few visitors that the carousel and two other rides were operated by one person so we also had to wait for the guy to be free before he could run back to the carousel to start it for us.
The other "exciting"ride at the theme park.
There's also the viking which Caleb kept staring at but didn't dare to get on.
ND posing with the kids on a stationery train
Walking round the theme park, exploring the surroundings.
The theme park is surrounded by lush greenery and limestone caves
There's a natural hotsprings here which we didn't try out. I think we kinda missed it out. Anyway, since I'm preggy, I wouldn't be able to get in so no big loss for me.
The water play areas.
Caleb posing outside the tiger feeding area.
I find it a little odd but within this water theme park, they actually have an area where they keep four tigers.
The kids trying to give me a "cool" pose outside the tiger feeding area.
The tigers roaming within their enclosure.
They do look quite pretty and were very active.
There was a mini limestone cave for us to explore. Caleb was very reluctant to go in at first and we had to try very hard to persuade him. He was clinging to us initially and kept telling us he was afraid coz the cave was quite dark.
After hanging around in there for a short while, some malay boys entered the cave and started climbing up some steep steps within the cave. Our boy was very fascinated and watched them very intensely.
Then, he decided that he wanted to try too. So ND helped him along.
But he got scared halfway up so he gave up and ND was the only one who made it to the top.
Caleb attempting to look "macho" and brave in the cave.
After we were done with the "dry" attractions, we changed the kids into their swimsuits.
Sarah with her famous pouty lips. Within the family, only she and ND has the ability to push out their lips so far out to pout.
The kids striking funny poses in their swimsuits.
And a nicer one for the camera
ND brought the kids to the wave pool while I relaxed in the shade.
When we were done playing in the water, we walked around the park a bit more whilst waiting for Sifu to come pick us up and we saw that there were swan paddle boat rides. Caleb asked whether he could ride on them so ND went with him. ND and Caleb were given 15min to go on the paddle boat. Somehow after going for one round around the lake, Caleb insisted on making his way back and getting out of the boat even though the 15min wasn't up yet. Yup, that's my son, don't really know what's he's thinking but sometimes he'll play and have fun and all of a sudden, he'll decide he's had enough and just wants to stop and go home.
So, that's the end of our time at the Lost World of Tambun. I think we all had fun there even though the attractions weren't very exciting but for kids as young as our kids, it was good enough.
We took a family photo before leaving.
That's about all that we did in Ipoh.
The next day, we bid Sifu farewell and thanked him for his hospitality.
The kids giving Sifu his farewell hugs.
We stopped over in KL for 2 nights after leaving Ipoh coz we thought that the great Malaysia sale was on. Unfortunately we were a little early and it hadn't started yet. After all that great food in Ipoh, KL was a little of an anticlimax. We did the typical Singaporean thing. Eat and shop before making our way back to Spore. Coz KL paled in comparison to Ipoh for us, we took very little photos. The only significant thing was that the kids were just stuffing themselves silly with food everyday. Here they are in the hotel room feasting on bread and cake.
Ok, we did end our trip by having lunch at ND's favourite Bak Kut Teh place. Everytime we come to KL, he'll attempt to make a stop here to eat the bak kut teh. Best part is, he usually can't remember the shop name or the street name. He'll just drive towards Sunway Lagoon and then based on his instincts and memory, bring us to the shop. Thankfully, we always manage to find it. I decided to take a photo of the shop's poster so that we can remember the name and address next time.
All in all, this was a very enjoyable and relaxing family holiday for us.
Ipoh, we'll definitely be back again!
