Final Days in Ipoh

On our final full day in Ipoh we ran errands and picked up all of those little items that one can not find while living in China.

Once again, we were up nice and early and off we went to a small food stall so that we could have a great local noodle dish.
After breakfast we went to the local mall and supermarket. We picked up some books and magazines, since English texts are near impossible for us to find, some deodorant (still hard to find), some wine, shandy, sponges, tomato sauce and paste, and of course some cheese.

From the shopping mart we were given a quick tour of the old side of Ipoh, which has got some great old architecture. It's a great mix of Chinese and Muslim with a good sprinkling of British colonial style.

A lot of the older buildings in the old downtown are all from the early 1900's, it really is nice to see and walk around the area. They are working on revitalizing this area, with a lot of little shops and coffee shops and restaurants, which should be a really nice area to spend a day relaxing.
Their driver, Rafiv took us to a snack shop that he goes to over on the Indian side of town, we filled up with 4 big bags of snacks. Then, since they are now in season, we stopped at the local durian stand.
The durian here is just as stinky as in China, but it has a slightly nuttier taste. Tina and I quickly switched to eating the pomolos. Ipoh is also known for their pomolo, and both the sweet and sour versions were very tasty - we are looking forward to them coming back into season here in China so that we can enjoy them again.

Our last day we were once again up nice and early, as we said earlier this was not a trip where we could catch up on our sleep, we had a quick breakfast and then were off to the bus station for the 3 hour ride back to Kuala Lumpur for our flight home.

The bus ride itself was an adventure, as the bus was really in need of some new shocks, and would start to rocking like it was out in the ocean every time the driver would speed up, pass someone, or even go around a corner. It took an extra hour for the bus trip because this, there were times that it really felt like the bus was just seconds from tipping over - Tina kept bringing up our boat ride when we were in Cambodia.

I took a video at one point when the bus was rocking somewhat, but it doesn't really give a good feel for how it was - you can notice how much the curtians are moving to kind of tell....

From there, a short 3 hour wait at the airport and we were on our way home. It was a great trip, and we were able to see a lot more sights then we ever expected to see. The whole family was incredibly friendly, and really welcomed us in more then we could have expected. Just all really good people, and they were nice enough to invite us to come back again next year for mom's birthday. We may just have to take them up on that invite.....