Except for a little confusion about which train to board at the Butterworth station; once we got seated and stowed our luggage at the front of our carriage, our travel from Penang to Ipoh on the KTM ET inter-city electric train service was very easy.

One advantage of our 7:25 AM departure was that we pulled into the very beautiful English Gothic/Moorish inspired Ipoh station around 9:00 AM ready to start our adventure. Complementing the beauty of the station is the Majestic Station Hotel, which is connected to the station and built in the same grand architectural style.

In colonial times, Ipoh was a great source of tin and that’s what produced the local wealth and grand facades like the train station and hotel and was the main attraction of the area for the British.

We were met at the station by tour guide Jeremy Toh (+60125127811 / Jereamie@hotmail.com). He would prove to be a very valuable resource and advisor and we would recommend his service to anyone traveling to Ipoh.

The downside to our early departure from Penang was that we hadn’t had a chance to eat before our train ride so when we met Jeremy, we asked if we could start our visit with breakfast.

Turns out, for someone wanting to show visitors the highlights of Ipoh; our question was like we were the straight man setting up our comedian partner for the punch line.

We headed straight from the train station to Chang Jiang White Coffee café. In doing our research for the trip we had read about Malaysian “White Coffee”, which is made from (black) coffee beans roasted in palm oil and served with sweetened condensed milk. Ipoh is the originating home of this style of White Coffee and it is a key element to Ipoh earning the reputation as one of the top coffee cities in the World.

For what it’s worth, while a bit on the sweet side, we really liked the caramelized flavor of the coffee and bought a bag of 3-in-1 instant mix packets in the restaurant’s gift shop to give as a gift to friends who have an affinity for this type of coffee convenience product. Note: what is served in the café is made fresh and not from the instant mix.

We also tried another traditional Ipoh breakfast treat at Chang Jiang White Coffee; Kaya and butter toast. Kaya is a sweet paste (or jam) made from coconut cream, palm sugar, egg yolks and pandan leaves. The jam and butter are spread between two thick slices of toast and usually served with soft boiled eggs. Again, as with the white coffee, it was a little bit sweet but really tasty. In fact before we left Malaysia, we bought a couple jars of Kaya at a grocery store to bring home as a souvenir we are still enjoying as this is written.

With our bellies full, we set off on an aggressive itinerary to see the city. On our next stop we drove out of the city to Kellie’s Castle and the strange sight of a Scottish style castle rising from the Malaysian countryside.

While the concept of the castle is purely Scottish, the architecture is described as “Moorish Revival / Indo-Saracenic”, which translates to something somewhat similar to the Gothic/Moorish style we saw near the train station in town.

Construction on Kellie’s Castle was begun in 1915 by Scottish rubber tree farmer and tin miner William Kellie-Smith.

He hired a crew of 70 craftsmen from Madras, India (now known at Chennai), which was also his source for the bricks and marble used in construction. The castle was to include an elevator to the top of a 6-story tower and a rooftop patio.

Unfortunately, his work crew suffered greatly from a flu epidemic and while that eventually passed, Kellie died in 1926 before completion of the structure.

Today, it is a tourist attraction for international and domestic tourists alike. On our visit, we had a lot of fun talking to the very friendly girls and boys there as a part of a school excursion.

There are quite a few cave temples in the area just south of the city but one that stands out as a favorite is Kek Look Tong, which was our next stop. After walking up a set of stairs visitors enter a high ceilinged airy room with a large opening at its opposite end creating a natural breezy atmosphere. Worshipers leave offerings at the base of the numerous bronze Buddhist and Taoist statues inside the room.

Off to one side of the entrance is a garden with a small pond full of turtles. At the opposite end of the cave is a second set of stairs leading down to a small lake and garden.

On our drive back towards the city we stopped at a small pomelo farm along the main road. Pomelo is a citris fruit very similar in appearance and taste to grapefruit. The place we stopped at had a nice nature walk trail with labeled plants behind the fruit stand/gift shop. We bought a small container of the fruit and enjoyed our snack at an outside table while listening in on a Chinese tour group getting a lecture in Mandarin.

We stopped at Pelita Restaurant for their Indian Halal lunch buffet. Jeremy suggested they had the best Indian chicken curry rice in Ipoh so that’s what we ordered while he had a bowl of spicy fried noodles.

After lunch we headed to Ipoh Old Town where we walked down Concubine Lane and a converted warehouse past modern cafés, little shops selling cookies, candies and cakes and others selling little trinkets, fresh coconut water and traditional taste treats.

Considering we had begun the day in Penang and had covered a lot of territory in Ipoh, we were ready to check into our room at Bedrock Hotel for a shower and a nap.

But later that evening Jeremy came by the hotel to pick us up and head over to Kedai Makanan Dan Minuman Taman Timur Food And Drink Stalls East Garden, a small hawker centre with a big name that he suggested was popular with the Chinese community.

Hakka mee is an iconic Chinese noodle dish in Ipoh and this place is known to have one of the better versions of it town. So that was on our menu.

Another stall here is known to have one of the better Chicken Rice dishes in town and it also was serving roasted pork that looked good so we tried both of those as well. We thought the chicken rice was pretty good but to be perfectly honest, we didn’t know it at the time but we would be enjoying an even better version of Chicken Rice the next night at another restaurant in town.

And our table happened to be right next to the chicken satay vendor and it was impossible to sit there and not eat a couple skewers of those before we had our fill and eventually made it back to Bedrock Hotel for a much needed night of sleep.

We had no firm plans for the next day and decided to walk back to Concubine Lane for lunch. On our quick visit the day before one of the restaurants that caught our eye was Plan B. At that point we had been traveling for over 2-weeks and were craving a Western meal.

Plan B is a clean modern space with glass walls making it a good spot to chill out enjoying the A/C and doing a little people watching. We shared a salad and a club sandwich, which were both good and a Watermelon Lychee Frosty which was great.

We had wanted to take a cab back to the hotel but were having a problem finding one. As we looked we walked in the direction of the hotel but saw very few cabs and the ones we did see would not stop. We guessed we needed to be at a cab stand but couldn’t find one of those either when a very nicely dressed lady walked up and asked if we needed help. She then walked with us for about 2 blocks out of her way down a side street where she delivered us to a cab stand.

For dinner that evening we had arranged to meet the new husband of our Bangkok friend Nook Tourguide. Nook had planned to be there but she had just booked clients in Bangkok for the week so it would be just us and her husband, a local dermatologist.

He picked us up at the hotel and we headed over to the Old Town area of the city for a visit to Medan Selera Dato Tahwil Azar Hawker Centre. This is a small center with a single strip of vendors down one side of a park like area with tables running parallel to the front of the booths. Our friend suggested Popiah S.S. Ali, a vender at this Centre served the best Popiah in Ipoh and bought us one order to eat there and another to take with us on our train ride to Kuala Lumpur the next day. Popiah is a type of spring roll that can be fried but ours was rolled in a soft egg white skin and came with a delicious chili sauce. It was one of the best things we ate in Malaysia.

We had one or two other small plates but our friend didn’t want us to fill up at the hawker centre as he had another stop for us. After a short walk of about 2 blocks we came to Lou Wong Chicken Rice Shop where the only dish served is chicken rice and bean sprouts. The restaurant was crowded and we had to wait for a table but one opened up between the edge of the covered space (there was a light rain that night) and the back area of the kitchen right beside where the chickens were being cleaned and prepped. A large wooden crate next to our table was half filled with chicken heads and feet setting an interesting ambiance but when the food was served, we forgot about everything else and ate the best chicken rice we had in Malaysia.

After dinner we had the pleasure of meeting our friend’s parents and other family in their home and learn a little about their life. The ancestors of the family were from Tamil Nadu, the Indian state where Chennai is located and a place we would be visiting a little later in our trip and to talk about their recent trip to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, another future destination for us.

The next day we would be boarding another KTM ET electric train for our trip to Kuala Lumpur.