To Ipoh

A clocktower in the harbour of George Town

We didn't have a strict plan for Malaysia, or for the whole trip for that matter, so we visited Internet cafés to find the next interesting destination. This time we read about Ipoh and it looked interesting enough so we packed our bags and left George Town.

Ipoh is one of the main cities in Malaysia and it takes only a few hours to get there from Penang. We checked out from our guest house in the morning and took a free(!) shuttle bus to the harbour. We had no idea when to get out and the driver wasn't too helpful so we just left the bus when we saw the sea and thought we wouldn't be far away. This time the plan worked and after asking for the way a couple of times we found the terminal where the ferry to the mainland leaves from. The greatest thing about this ferry is that it's free too! On the ferry some travelling couple approached us and asked what the covers of our backpacks are for. They thought that they're against pickpockets but mostly we're wearing them because of dirty cargo spaces and trunks in buses and taxis.

The bridge between Penang and the mainland

The ferry trip didn't take longer than fifteen minutes and at the other end we had two choices: to take a train or a bus. We visited the railway station first but the next train left only in an hour or so. We knew that we had enough time to walk to the bus station and check the situation there. At 18 ringgits bus happened to be cheaper this time and it left a bit earlier too so we took one although we hate 'em! Like almost always, there was once again a hassle with the buses. We asked to drivers what is the correct bus and entered it. After sitting there for a while people started yelling at each other in a language we didn't understand. Soon people started leaving the bus and we started wondering what to do and just before the bus left a man came to us and told us to hurry to another bus!

The small and boring district where we stayed in Ipoh

The sceneries around the highway on the way to Ipoh were amazing! Dense vegetation, almost like in a jungle, and beautiful small rocky hills just like in Krabi. Closer to Ipoh we saw a wild boar too! It was raining a lot but the bus kept us dry :). What we didn't know when we took the bus was that it wouldn't be using the bus station in the center. Instead we ended up in a small district somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We walked around the bus station for a while, hoping to find a map of some kind and asking locals about guest houses and Internet cafés. All the locals seemed to know the same hotel on the other side of the street and no one knew about Internet. One older man thought that Internet meant "international" and started explaining us that we wouldn't find such a café here :).

Eventually someone knew where the apparently only Internet café in the district was and we used it to print a map of Ipoh for us. We still didn't know how far the center was and it was getting late so we decided to give the only hotel a try. At the hotel the receptionist told us that the cheapest room is 50 ringgits. We asked if they had anything cheaper and suddenly there was a room for 30 RM! It seems like the cheapest isn't always actually the cheapest. Go figure.

The greatest lock of all times

The room was pretty dirty without any windows and looked more like a prison cell than a hotel room. The shower and toilet were naturally shared with other people. But the funniest thing was the lock on the door: I don't know if the owners had realized it but it was possible to open the lock just with your bare hands! We really didn't feel like leaving anything valuable in this one! Before sleeping we went to a shop to buy an adapter for electricity to be able to charge our phone. So far Ipoh hadn't offered us anything worth seeing. Maybe the next day would be better.

Our dinner for the day