Ipoh Sights (Part 2)

This is a continuation from yesterday’s post. Go read it first. No, seriously, go!

Just one more shot Coronation Park (DR Park). Nice trees, my teacher calls them ‘cemetery trees’. I must say MBI is doing a decent job of maintaining this place. On weekend mornings, lots of people have picnics under the shady in the background.

Right, moving on. It’s the train station in town. This is the last scene in Lat’s book ‘Town Boy‘. He rushes he to see off his best friend Frankie, who leaving for the UK for studies. The station still looks imposing, but they’re doing some renovation works at the side and on the front. The road is in bad shape, and you can see the contractor’s cabin in the foreground. Hopefully, the works are for the better.

The front of the station. I really wish they think of a better place to put those air-con condensers.

This is the other side of the station, Hotel Majestic has been here a long, long time. I think they should replace the old signs with some elegant ones, to match the architecture of the building.

Then, we went all the way to Ipoh Gardens. Most of the [tag]Ipoh[/tag] people i know stay there, or in Canning Gardens. En route, I had to snap this building… Anyone know what is it?

It’s the Freemason building. I recognized the symbols engraved on the perimeter wall and on the entrance, when i passed here a few years back. I didn’t know [tag]Freemason[/tag]s had such a huge presence here, i always thought most of them were concentrated in KL, maybe some of the pioneers like GED Lewis came here one time or another. If you don’t know what [tag]Freemasonry[/tag] is… well, maybe you can wait for [tag]Dan Brown[/tag]’s next book.

I had to snap this next one. It’s the St. Andrew’s church. I’ve always liked it, even though i’ve never been inside. I think it looks a little similar to its name sake in KL. The place was locked up, so i couldn’t get a half decent shot of it, i need to come back another on a SUnday morrning when its open.

Okay, at least i know when it is open.

I really wished i had the time to take more photos. There were so many places i wanted to snap, but didn’t have the opportunity… Lat’s favourite haunt at Jalan Yang Kalthom, the ais kacang stall at the bus station, or maybe find Frankie’s parent’s coffeeshop in old town (that might be damn near impossible, i know), or visit some of my own landmarks, like that shoplot on Hugh Low Street, Batu Gajah, Kampar…

But as for the last shot, I managed to go to Kampung Sungai Rokam, Lat’s home when he’s family moved to Ipoh (he stayed in the hostel in the first few months). According to him, it was one of the first few public housing schemes in the country, and he and his family “had finally become town people.”

This isn’t his EXACT house, (I might have found it if I had bothered to come out of the car and asked the penghulu) but this is the closest one i could find to the original design drawn in Lat’s book. My apologies to this house owner…

And so i bid adieu to Ipoh… until the next time, i can still picture the dim sum in Foh San, the pomelo stalls along Simpang Pulai, Sam Poh Tong, the magnificent limestone hills…