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Thursday, January 4, 2024

Busy day with a lot of stops between Kuala Lumpur and Penang Island

We were downstairs at 7:30am Wednesday morning waiting for Han and Michelle to pick us up. 

We originally met Han and Michelle in May 2019 in Singapore when we were on our way to Australia. They are originally from Malaysia, but live in Singapore. We kept in touch, and then we bumped into them again in Kosovo where we went out to dinner.

Han is a retired software engineer, and Michelle has only just retired from a career as an architect. They saw that we were fairly close by in Thailand, and invited us to spend some time with them here in Malaysia as they are here to visit family and friends. We like to keep our travel plans flexible, so we accepted!

They are also avid travelers. Han has a goal to visit all the countries in the world, and Michelle is along for the ride. They are currently at country number 107! And now that Michelle is retired, they will be able to add to the list quite a lot more.

They picked us up and drove to the popular Village Park restaurant for  a traditional Malaysian breakfast called Nasi Lemak.

Breakfast in Malaysia.

Then we got on the main highway and headed north...

Toll highway headed north.

Miles and miles of palm tree plantations.

Scenery along the way.




We passed this motorhome as we entered the city of Ipoh.


Turns out it's an older 1990's model that was built in Japan. Really good condition!

Entrance to the Kek Look Tong temple.



The temple is built into a big cave!



There are some magnificent cave formations.





Coming out the other side of the cave is this beautiful view!

Looking back at the opening.

What a pretty area!


From there, we went into the city of Ipoh to meet with an old school friend of Han.

Some specialty Chinese restaurants.

Oukoon, Han, HaiLing, Michelle, Ruth, and Kevin.

Lunch! I couldn't bring myself to eat the chicken feet.

They have some different snacks available here.

Older colonial building.

Concubine Lane.

Also popularly known as "Second Wife Lane".  The street has existed since 1908, and was a center for opium smokers, gamblers, and prostitutes that were owned by tycoons and millionaire miners in the area. They would come and visit their mistresses, drink tea, and socialize, then go back home to their wives.

Nowadays it is home to gift shops, souvenir shops and food outlets.

Ruth, Kevin, Oukoon, and HaiLing.

Ruth, at the famous Cocubine Lane painting.

Kevin, Ruth, Han, and Michelle.

Then we went to a coffee shop for the famous Ipoh white coffee.

We stopped at a pomelo farm.

Pomelo is like a big grapefruit.

They cover the fruit when very young, and it takes six months to grow big enough to pick, gradually outgrowing the cover.


Michelle with three of them.

This one is big!

The pomelo orchard.


Tasting time.

We like it. I don't think we've ever had it. A different taste than grapefruit. Very nice cold.

Then the lady prepared a ciku for us.


It was quite nice as well.

Back on the road towards Penang Island.

The city of Georgetown in the distance.

The south bridge is 24km (15 miles) long with a length over water of 16.9km (10.5 miles).


Arrived at Michelle's brother Peng and his wife MooiKuan and their 10th floor three bedroom condo where we will stay until Sunday.

What a great day! Oh, I better show you a map of our route...

Yesterday's drive.

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And in Canada...

4 comments:

  1. So what was in that Malaysian breakfast other than rice and egg?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kevin and Michelle both had coconut chicken and I had a beef stew that was a little spicy. It is the rice that is actually the national Malaysian breakfast dish because it is fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk with a pandan leaf, it is then served with some other type of meat or vegetarian dish. There were also peanuts on the plate.

      Delete
  2. What great scenery! Especially coming our the other side of the cave. It looks like it was a great day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The scenery is really nice, especially around Ipoh and yes, coming out of the back of the cave was beautiful with the pretty pond and the high cliffs all around. It was definitely a great day.

      Delete

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