Memories in Ipoh

It has been a long time ever since I traveled long distance by train. I remembered when I was at a very young age, my mother and I traveled from Kuala Lumpur to Tapah Road, to visit a relative there. The trains in those days were driven using steam, and thus the train needs water to be filled at almost every station it stopped. While on the journey, if you put your head out of the window to see what was around, you may felt sprinkle of water from the steam that might wet your face, or sometimes the dust or soot from the engine where they heat the boiler to get the steam from.

Our train systems nowadays have changed by time, and use either diesel or electric power to generate them. We have “commuter trains” that traveled short distances for the public to go to whatever their destinations, especially to those who are working in and around the Klang Valley. Since 2010, we are introduced to the new double-track Electric Train Service (ETS) that commute between Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. This double-track will continue to the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. There are also the Kelana Jaya Line (formerly Putra LRT), the Monorail Line and the Ampang Line (STAR) systems to commute the public from the city outskirt to and around the city.

Boarding the ETS

There’s no summons for speeding!

Recently I have the chance to travel using the ETS, traveling from Kuala Lumpur City to Ipoh. It was an experience that I have been longing to have. Travelling time took about 2 hours and it was a pleasant journey. The good thing is that my fare was given a discount and that’s the beauty being a Senior Citizen. This ETS trains were made in Korea and you can see the speed displayed on the screen.

I have been to Ipoh a few times, but that was years ago and I traveled by car then. At one time, I went there when I was attached to one of the government agencies under the Federal Government. I was given a room all to myself and, since it was a school break, I took along my family to Ipoh. We stayed at the Excelsior Hotel, and my cute curly haired girl enjoyed herself very much.

A lonely man with a lonely heart !

During this trip, I stayed at the same hotel, to recollect memoirs that have been haunting me all these while. I still remembered this cute girl enjoying herself at the breakfast table with the most hotdogs she could eat, which was her favorite dish. This was the first time I introduced her staying in a hotel, enjoying whatever she liked and advised her on how to take her buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner alike.

The hotdogs were really tasty …

At that young age, she was asked by her mom to get some “panadol” at the stall nearby. She did and with her mom worried restlessly, until she reached back at the room. She asked me whether there is a swimming pool at the hotel, and when I told her “No”, she enjoyed her bath at the bath tub, singing her favorite songs. I used to take her along on my other trips, and I would choose a hotel that has a swimming pool, just to please her and to fulfill her wish, or at least a room with a bath tub.

The next day in Ipoh, I took the chance to walk around to see whatever is new and remembering those days when we were together. I came across a group of people queuing at a stall. It was selling “Tau Fu Fa” and looking at the crowd, I joined in and it took me about 10 minutes to be served. It was one of the finest “Tau Fu Fa” I have ever tasted and I bought some with a small bottle of the juice back to the hotel.

Queue up for “Tau Fu Fa”

I took a walk along the “Memory Lane” where they sell whatever they have memories with it. I came cross a lot of those memorable items, such us the typewriters. Nowadays, many younger generations does not know the types of typewriters that were used in those years. I remember using a few, from the hard-to press keys of “Remington” to the much softer like “Adler”, or even to the electrical types using fonts introduced by IBM, to name a few. Nowadays, our children do not use these typewriters instead they use computers and print it to a printer. I assumed they does not know how to type using the “typewriting system” that were taught at those “typing class” in those days.

The oldies ...

and the faithful!

I have a problem looking for a muslim shop to have lunch or dinner in Ipoh. I found a few after asking around, but to get there, I have to walk and that was a little exercise for me as I am getting older. There are a lot of Chinese restaurant around selling “salted chicken”, “bean sprout chicken”, and not to forget the “chicken rice”, the “koitiau”, the “mee curry”, to name a few. The “bean sprout” is a bit different from what I use to see in other towns, it’s a bit special, germinated from a selected species of bean. No doubt about it as Ipoh is well known with the Chinese community ever since the early tin mines era.

One of the favorite’s foods in Ipoh

I did not planned to go to Ipoh but decided to do so only because my wife has to attend a course somewhere in Kuching, Sarawak. I left KL Sentral quite late in the evening that day, and luckily I got a seat. It was a memorable trip for me and gave me the chance to remember all the memories that I experienced.

I know that I could not forget all the memories with my cute, curly haired girl, but at least I could recollect it, with or without tears, and placed it at the right place for the right time. I left Ipoh at about 3.00 pm, with the same ETS and reached Kuala Lumpur at about 5.30 pm.