When you’re traveling everyone is so keen to help you out. This is something we’ve found whilst traveling but also whilst in the planning stages. My friend Jenny of @travelynnfamily and I sat in my kitchen back in October 2019 and talked about the ins, outs and options of travel in Asia. Everything she told me has been immensely helpful but one particular direction she pointed me in was that of the Facebook group, Our Tribe Travels. It’s a private group for families who love to travel whether it be for work or pleasure. It allows them to connect, communicate, advise and offer recommendations and I’ve never come across a group like it before! It was set up and is run by another single mum and it’s been a fantastic resource for information on all of our destinations. In my early planning stages I put a post on about Malaysia and it was responded to by a lady called Sharon who now lives in London with her husband and son but whose parents live in Ipoh in Malaysia.
Sharon and I sent some messages to one another and then spent over an hour on the phone talking about Malaysia and I can’t tell you how informative it was. Little details like which mobile phone company offers the best coverage and where to get a local sim card from. How long it should take to travel between places and what the best travel options were. Even what is the most effective mosquito repellent. Sharon answered this by picking some up on her next trip to visit her parents and then posting it to me when she returned to the UK! She also gave me lots of recommendations for places to visit, one of which was the home town of her parents, Ipoh.
Our first sight of Ipoh was as we passed by on the motorway travelling to Cameron Highlands and I kept saying to the boys “Look, look! Look at those limestone cliffs!”. The topography of the area is so striking and either side of us loomed rocky outcrops dripping with jungle vines and I loved it. The limestone actually reminded me of home in the peak district.
I’d booked for us to stay in Ipoh for 4 nights however I hadn’t made many plans for what to do during our stay. I knew that I wanted to visit some of the numerous Buddhist temples in the area as many of them are set within limestone cliffs and caves and are very impressive. On our first day we went straight to the Sam Poh Tong Temple which was down a quiet side road to the south east of the city. There were some elderly beggars at the entrance who we gave a few ringgit to and some dogs roaming around the area. It was obviously a bit run down but the gardens and koi pond outside were still very striking and of course, with a beautiful backdrop.
Inside there was an opportunity to leave a donation and buy some fresh tomatoes to feed to the numerous turtles in the garden! As you walk through a narrowing in the cave it opens out to a sort of natural courtyard. There a beautiful temple looms over a small garden and a fenced area that contains a murky pond and around 100 terrapins and turtles in every shape and size! The boys enjoyed feeding the tomatoes to the turtles et al and it was hard to tell whether it was the temple or the turtles that drew the few visitors there the most!
From here we went to another nearby temple that is much more well known and therefore receives many more donations. It is called Kek Look Tong and it was very well tended to. Inside it is literally cavernous with lots of side areas to explore where smaller shrines have been placed around stalactites and stalagmites.
You can barely spot the boys below the entrance! 
As you move further into the cave there’s a relatively small opening at the back where light streams in and draws you ever onward. As you approach and your eyes adjust to the light you’re greeted with what you might imagine a Garden of Eden to look like. Birds are singing and swooping as you look out over a beautiful zen Buddhist garden where you can walk barefoot on a reflexology path, take a peddlo type boat along a small waterway that runs along the base of a cliff, sit and look out over the lotus pond or just meander, which is exactly what we did.
Something that I don’t think the initial creators of this part natural/part man made work of art had considered, was that someone might later put a mine smack bang at the end of the garden, but indeed they have done just that. It was a surprise but actually the place is so beautiful and consuming that you don’t really notice it. The area of Ipoh had a boom in the late 1800’s due to large tin deposits being found and so mining is a large part of its heritage and history and went on until 1970. There’s quite a few lines still in operation in the area.
On our second day we walked around the town and familiarised ourselves with it, we decided to join a scheduled tour of the tin mining museum which is set within the Hakka Tin Miners Club.
A Japanese prostitute who was very well known in her day! 
A game of Mahjong being played 
An opium den 
I just love the tiles we’ve seen but particularly these peacock and Rose designs outside the museum. 
It was very difficult to understand the guide unfortunately and you weren’t encouraged to walk around unguided but what we picked up was that many Hakka, who are a kind of romany people from China, had come to Ipoh during the tin mining boom and had settled there. This members club has been left largely untouched from how it would have looked 150 years ago although now some of the rooms are set up as examples of how the tin mines, and the people who worked within them functioned.
On our third day we had a day off of sightseeing and instead visited the Lost World of Tambun which is a theme park, come water park, come mini zoo all rolled into one! It’s set at the base of the surrounding limestone outcrops and is only 20 minutes from the city centre. Ipoh is now classified as a city although it feels more like a large town.
As it was midweek the park was extremely quiet and I don’t think there were more than 100 people there with us. This obviously meant that we could explore at will and not have to queue for anything. Despite this we still ran out of time to do everything and didn’t visit the theme park area at all. This place is designed with adults in mind as well as kids and offers very popular night spa packages. Some of the water pools and cave pool have water set at 40°C which I can tell you is VERY toasty! We visited the animals in the ‘petting zoo’ area which is more interactive with walk through aviaries etc. There’s also a little stream where you can pick up a net and bucket and try your hand at fishing the very wily little fish from it before popping them back. This was a very calm and peaceful activity that kept the boys enthralled for a good 15 minutes.
I don’t generally pass too much judgement on zoos and have visited quite a few over the years. It’s never ideal to keep animals in captivity but when they are then surely the least we can provide them with is habitats where they can display some natural behaviours. At Lost World of Tambun they have a tiger exhibit that I just felt really sad about. It is literally used as an exhibition with a raised seated area for people to look over and into the enclosure whilst one of the exhibitionist, otherwise known as a ‘keeper’, shouts into a microphone that is then projected via a very loud speaker system into and around the tiger enclosure. The tigers are encouraged to jump and run to catch pieces of meat being thrown to them. This happens twice a day, lasts for 30 minutes (!) and must be very mentally distressing to what is naturally a very shy and elusive animal. The tigers here are used as circus performers being asked to do tricks and it’s very sad. I would also mention that right behind this stand of people is another enclosure which contains a notoriously shy and elusive little creature. I can’t recall what it was but perhaps an ocelot or a pangolin and whilst it was at least allowed some cover of branches and foliage in its enclosure, it will most certainly not have got any peace and quiet.
There’s also a new area with hyenas, crocodiles and a hippopotamus where you can go underground and view the water dwellers through a viewing window. Again it was so quiet and we were the only ones there. This area was a good 5 minute walk from the main area and didn’t seems to be on anyone’s radar. I have to admit that as we went down and saw a sleeping hippopotamus right up against the glass, just 3 inches away, my heart did melt. I didn’t have my phone with me at that point but we spent 10 minutes just sitting and watching her peacefully snooze along the bottom, gently push herself to the surface for a fresh breath every 2 minutes then sink back down. Watching every quiver of a whisker and twitch of an ear I fell a big bit in love whilst being sat there.
Just before we left some epic rains came and upped the excitement levels a touch. Of course when you’re at a water park you don’t care about getting wet!
Our last day in Ipoh took an unexpected turn when Sharon messaged to say that her parents would like to invite the boys and I to their house for tea and a chat. We gladly accepted their hospitality (which for the boys consisted of lots of biscuits) however, this rapidly developed into being invited to join them for lunch at the Royal Ipoh Club! We were also joined by another group of brits who had met with Sharon’s parents for the first time just the previous day as they share a mutual friend in the UK. 8 of us were treated like old friends and family and treated to the very kindest and best hospitality. It was a very lovely and yet unexpected way to end our visit to Ipoh.
Milo and her boys 
You write so beautifully, Mill. So proud of you and the adventure you’ve embarked on. Love you. Xxx
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Thank you angel. I love you too and thanks for the daily contact and support xxx
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