Grand View Hotel Ipoh

... we had chosen the wrong hotel but would have to live with it - too late to change now! As well as these major buildings, Ipoh has a lot of the shophouses that we saw in Georgetown and these are in varying condition. Some of the earlier ones in the old town are in a very poor state but the later ones just in the new town seem to be faring better.<br><br>Our excursion around the town was interrupted by the customary sudden torrential storm. At this point we realised ...

... now about 8.30pm! So we sat about for another while and eventually at 11pm a new bus came for us!! So we set off and then stopped 10 mins later so everyone could get some food! Eventually we were on the way again and as we chugged up hill, something "popped" in the new bus and it became equally noise as the broken bus! However we made it into town at 2am, only 7 hours later than expected!<br>Luckily there were 2 Dutch girls looking for accommodation too and ...

... of us, I don't mean me. It was raining, certain people were tired and frustrated by carrying around their bags. We found a road with several hotels on it, so we decided we check them out and their prices. We went in Hotel Merloon, which wanted to charge us RM66 for one night. I protested, but we checked out the room anyway. It was luxury, PROPER luxury for us; it had air-con, hot showers, sofas, a TV!, duvets!!! etc etc. As per normal, it only had one single bed and a double bed ...

... graves, and most of them weren't British. (Tom: I also visited Galeria Sultan Azlan Shah on my own on the way back from the museum. The building was the ex-residence of the current Sultan of Perak state and was quite a monument to wealth and luxury. It was really interesting perusing the exhibited collection of expensive gifts that had been bestowed upon the Sultan throughout his life. The best one was perhaps a table lamp consisting of a solid gold base and an ...

... avec pas mal de courant. Monter et descendre des montagnes. Enfin, le calvaire dans la vrai jungle. Apres tout ca nous etions tres fier de nous et enfin voir notre fameuse fleur gigantesque. He ben, vous savez quoi, le guide nous a dit que c'etait un mega champignon. Une tres belle aventure. Nous avons marcher presque 4 heures au total , encore une fois le camion n'a pu venir nous chercher. On a descendu jusqu'au village a pied. Nous ...

A day of travelling today...... We scored a road with the hotels Limo to the ferry terminal After a quick ride back to the mainland we were waiting at the train station to catch our ride to Ipoh where we had to wait about 5 hours for our night train to Singapore. It was a pretty comfortable ride in the train and we had some pretty friendly pax in our carriage. Ipoh is a trip out of a city ...

... hills of one of the tea plantations. Some of the hills were so steep we couldn't imagine how they were able to collect the leaves from the plants. Unfortunately the tea plantation is closed on Mondays so we didn't get to go in for the official tour, but after talking to everyone it sounds like the view of the fields is the best part. After a stop in Brinchang for lunch we attempted to find the start of Path 2 to head back to Tanah Rata. When ...

... some beautiful jungle. At times, scrambling up tree roots, not daring to look behind us. Once we got to the top, there was another tower, and more clouds. Not to mention the people who took the easy way up, the road. We then headed down the road through the "mossy forest", and the many tea plantations that the area is known for. Stopping at a strawberry farm, a honey bee farm, where we saw them at work, and a butterfly garden, which also had lots ...

... villages. Apparently improved education has brought about awareness of the developed world and luxuries and the youngsters now want to get out and earn money rather than live off the local land. Was quite weird wandering round their homes but they were very welcoming. Then our guide took us through some traditional hunting tools, and we got to try our skills with the blowpipe. One of those things that looked a lot harder than it actually was ...

I was very fortunate to be in Malaysia during Chinese New Year, and brought in the new year with the Kan family on my way down to Singapore to visit my pal Anthony. Little did I know when I rented an apartment in Lumut that I'd get an adoptive family thrown in with the deal. From the first day we met, the Kans treated me more like family than a tenant, and hanging out with them was definitely one of the highlights of my time ...