Ipoh-Taiping Trip Part II

Day 3
We started off the day by having dimsum at Foh San Restaurant (there is a branch in ss2 but the last time I tried few years back, it wasn't good). The one in Ipoh is commendable in terms of price and taste, though the ham sui kok really need improvement. 

Personally, I think one should try their egg tarts, Malai kou, and naiyao pau. You can get dimsums everywhere nowadays, but I am comparing like with like (i.e. I won't compare foh san with my fav mandarin oriental).

Veng F joining us for dimsum.

After that, we said bye to veng f for what followed next was a series of 'strictly girls-only' activities, unless veng f was ok getting his nails done as liz pointed out. o.O

We went to a beauty parlour where the hair salon, nail salon and facial place are in the same unit. Elaine had already decided before she was in ipoh that she was going to straighten her hair. Liz went for a manicure while hui x pampered herself in facial. After trimming my eyebrows for RM 8(OMG in pj it is RM5 only!!) 
wei y, liz and I went to shop in the boutiques around that area for the rebonding would take at least 3 hours.
When we came back, I still had time for a new hair-cut while we waited anxiously for elaine's new hairdo.


We had a late lunch that day at Beacon Point, a cafe near wei y's house. The place is really cosy.

 


 

Left: Laksa Lemak. Right: Mars Bar Cheesecake. Yummy!

It was a pity that their famous chicken pie was SOLD OUT!! I resolved to getting it the last day we were in ipoh but when the time arrived, I was too full and too loaded with goods to get it. May be Ipoh wants to keep some of its goods to beacon us for the next visit! ^_^


'When in Ipoh, eat, eat, eat!' That was a line from a newspaper cutting seen at Tian Jin (which we went the following day only to find that it was closed on thursday, so we went back on friday morning). Immediately after the late lunch (or rather, tea), we proceeded to San Marco which was famous for its homemade ice-cream.

 
Left: Entrance of San Marco.  


In our chat later, we found that the owners ( a couple in their 50s or 60s) had set up the place after learning the trade from an Italian, whose shop was next to their chinese restaurant in Germany. They had toiled hard, earning money in foreign land for 20 years plus before coming back to Ipoh. They had come from a small town, Simpang Pulai, near Ipoh. Their only daughter graduated one year ago from Pharmacology and is now working with Novartis. 


We found pleasure chatting with the aunty, knowing her stories, and it was evident that the aunty was too happy to share her experience with us. Over the years, many chinese have had to bear to pain of leaving their loved ones behind to find a better living in overseas,
it is no surprise that there is a chinese sayings which goes 'where there is ocean, there will be chinese'

                

To order your ice-cream, you choose the 'style' first (e.g. banana boat, tutty fruity<--I made these up as I can't recall the fancy names) , then you choose the flavours for your ice-cream, with a maximum of three. The flavours include coconut, apple, caramel, chocolate, mocha, mango and something-which-I-can't-remember(but it means grape wine).

There you go-my new hairstyle.

Since we had late lunch, we decided to have the much-needed rest at home before we went for dinner. Meanwhile, Elaine met up with her cousin at jusco, acccompanied by Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth =P.

Kampar mee for dinner. It was at this Nam Fatt shop that we discovered some nice pineapple tarts, which we bought home.

The day ended with us in wei y's computer-cum-study room, chatting away on msn, uploading pics and watching 'Chasing Liberty' (which hui x rewatched the following day as she fell in 'like' with the male lead actor)


Day 4
The fourth day is Gua day, where we visited  most of the caves (non-adventurous ones though) in Ipoh.

     

Sam Poh Tong (literally translated as 'three treasures cave' Don't ask me why, for the history, google yourself ok!) The kids would like this as they could feed the tortoise!

A nice garden outside Sam Poh Tong.

 

Kek Lok Tong is a cave which will bring you to a beautiful garden. As the day was scorching hot, hui x and I merely stayed in the cave to enjoy the scenery (yeah, we admit we are puteri lilin); wei y and yin ching (veng f's gf) didn't venture down too. 
The ones who braved the hot sun were HRH Queen liz herself, accompanied by elaine and veng f.

 



   
See the two people sitting down? It was hui x and I. The stairs will lead you to a spectacular view, among which is a lotus pond shown on the left pic.

Yummy(and cheap!) chicken rice for lunch. This shop is opposite the place famous for salted chicken (take-away only, RM16 per chicken, very worth it!!). These shops are located at old town.

  
Wei y was obliging to hui x's request in bringing us to the railway station. We were almost melting thus we weren't featured in the photographs.

Day 5
In the morning, we went back to Tian Jin restaurant (at old town) for breakfast; remember, it is closed every Thursday. Tian Jin is famous for its caramel custard (which wei y and veng f know as 'tan tan'), if you go there on weekends, be sure to be early if you want to try the caramel custard as it is usually sold out by 12 noon.

The famous caramel custard at RM2.

Chee cheong fun (the signboard reads' G cheong fun' much to my amusement. I was imagining the foreigners not knowing the spelling is merely the pronunciation). Do try the ones with fillings-it has mushrooms and mengkuang.

 

After that, we went to Perak Tong. 

Lunch was at Greentown Cafe. I ordered a chicken chop rice as the pork chop rice was sold out. The chicken chop rice is good! Makes me crave for the pork chop rice even more. I was delighted to find ambera juice available there, for I was really thirsty and needed
something refreshing. However, always remember to try ambera juice in Taiping as it is the best!

Ice kacang-what Greentown Cafe is famous for.

A picture with the host before we said goodbye. Thanks so much for everything ^_^

*At 4.32 p.m. gw heaved a sigh of immense relief, for she finally completed her post on Ipoh-Taiping trip .She has been in front of the computer since 1p.m. plus, waiting for pics to be uploaded on blog while watching sense and sensibility*