Tell someone you are going to Ipoh Old Town, the first thing that comes to their mind are white coffee and kway teow. Yes, food and this particular trip will be evolved around food and heritage. Talking about food, smarties were always hungry whenever we are on a road trip. Luckily for us, they are open to trying out new food unless it looked really creepy to them. Our first stop was the kway teow stall. Ahhh… now you know why people think about kway teow when you mentioned Ipoh Old Town because it’s famous for that.
Smarties are used to coming to old coffee houses to eat and they love the happening and exciting vibes at such places especially in Malaysia. Here we were at the famous Hor Hee noodle store where it serves really nice noodle soup with not just fish balls but fish cakes and other ingredients too! Look at the store and you can roughly guessed what’s there…
Did smarties enjoy the food? You bet! Oops…realised we didn’t take any pictures of the food as we were very hungry by the time the food was served and we just started eating right away.
After filling up our tummy and fueled up ourselves, it was time for exploration. A few stalls away from Hor Hee, we found a pastry shop and we got to watch them bake right in front of us and try out their pastries right on the spot, fresh from the oven! Guess what were they making in this picture below? That’s the famous Ipoh Kaya Puff! Smarties were standing there throughout their preparation of the kaya puffs. The aroma at the shop that surrounded us made us hungry again!
Time to move on before we purchased more and more food here. Walking through the shop led us to the Concubine Lane, a historical street that provides a very nice heritage trail for tourists. It was extremely lively, not forgetting crowded too. Check out the crowd in the picture below. The place was filled with stalls and shops selling souvenirs and food on both sides of the lane.
So why is this place known as Concubine Lane or Yi Lai Hong?
It was rumored that in the olden days, the rich Chinese tycoons kept their concubines and mistresses in the townhouses here. This place was also a notorious opium den.
After a brief explanation on the history of this lane, as expected, loads of what and why from the smarties.
“What is opium?”
“Why people smoke opium?”
“Why this lane and not somewhere else?”
“Why hide them?”
“What happened to the children?”
But the main conversation that got me taken aback was as below:
Gor gor: “Why would a man want so many wives? It’s so exhausting to look after so many people.”
Mei mei: “Because the man want to make many babies”
Being a parent is really amazing because you never know how the kids’ conversation goes especially when you least expected it.
We didn’t manage to take many shots of the place as we were being pushed to walk. With 2 children in tow, it made it even more difficult. After walking through and exploring the Concubine Lane, we went on to the 2nd Concubine Lane which was almost empty as there wasn’t any shops or stalls except 1 shop selling souvenirs and there were umbrellas over your head to spice up the place.
Along the way, they have mural art on the walls that decorated and brought some life to the place. Smarties had a fun time posing for pictures with the mural art.
Smarties enjoyed the trail a lot as they got to see the colorful stalls and nicely painted wall art. They had an interesting time marveling at all the colorful decorations, unique signages, and souvenirs. Best of all, they enjoyed the good food at the famous street of Ipoh Old Town.
Do stay tuned to our next destination!