AS our car pulls into the driveway of Ipoh Railway Station building, I can see K. Raja doing some stretching. He looks energetic and enthusiastic to start his day with the three of us.
We are not late. By the time we park the car and walk over to him, we will be on the dot for our 9am appointment. Raja is early. Perhaps he’s killing time by doing some stretching. Maybe to warm up for the walk.
I’ve never met him. I only found him on the Internet when looking for more information on the Ipoh Heritage Walk. A few phone calls and two weeks later, we finally meet face to face.
That guy, clad in a batik shirt, doing stretching exercises in front of the building, looks more like Raja than anyone else at the compound of the train station.
As we walk towards him, Raja stands still with a smile as if welcoming us to his home. The Ipoh Heritage Walk trail is his turf. He looks at ease and all ready to take us on a journey.
TALKING THE WALK
“You have to walk under the sun for two hours or so. You’ll be all sweaty and hot but I promise you that this will be fun,” Raja says as he leads us to the railway station building.
“And eye-opening to both of you,” he points to my friend Ani and her father, both Ipoh locals, who at the first mention of the walk gave me puzzled looks.
When we reach a noticeboard that has a huge Malaysia map, Raja starts his talk. Like a talking history book, the history of Ipoh unfolds in front of us — how a sleepy kampung became a bustling metropolis banking on the tin mining industry. The tin rush started around 1880 and lasted for 50 years until the 1930s.
The bustling city left behind by history is our destination today. The two-hour walk covers Ipoh old town, or what’s labelled as Ipoh Heritage Walk Map 1, the routes dotted with 24 historic buildings.
“But don’t worry. The buildings are mostly located near to each other. You won’t be walking too long in the hot sun,” adds Raja.
Map 2, on the other hand, covers the new town located opposite the old town, across Sungai Kinta. This will take another two hours to cover.
First introduced few years ago, the Ipoh Heritage Walk was a free guided walk held weekly on Saturday morning by the Tourism Malaysia Perak office to draw tourists.
There was no registration and booking. Tourists just gathered at a designated meeting point in front of the railway station building where a guided would be waiting.
“I was one of the guides. The response was very good and we received rave reviews for locals and foreign tourists,” Raja says.
The guided walk is now handled by private tour companies or individual tour guides at prices that start from RM350 per tour.
“It can be one-to-one or a group of 10 or 12. The more members in the group, the more affordable,” he says.
WALKING THE TALK
And the walk finally starts. We walk to a big tree in the centre of a small garden in front of the station. This is the Ipoh tree. Yes, the city was named after this tree that has poisonous sap which the Orang Asli dip the tip of the darts of their blowpipes.
From there, we walk across busy Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab to the beautiful Town Hall and Post Office Building. The main hall of the building is being decorated to host a grand Malay wedding.
“Once, my foreign guests got more than they paid for when they were invited to join a Malay wedding feast. They were even asked to bless the pengantin on the dias,” Raja says.
By the time we leave the white grand building, our tummies are growling for breakfast. Raja detours from Jalan Maharajalela to Medan Selera Dataran Dato’ Sagor, a favourite breakfast joint in the city. “Try the famous roti goyang,” he says.
But breakfast is not the only attraction at the square. There’s a beautiful clock tower — the Birch Memorial that becomes even more beautiful with Raja’s engaging, tongue-in-cheek storytelling style.
We then continue our walk to Jalan Sultan Yussuf. With Raja’s wealth of knowledge and stories, it’s not a straightforward walk. At every other step, he stops to tell some tale or interesting story about something.
As we go along a small lane, he leads us to a small door that has hanging empty bottles as blinds.
The door takes us into an even small lane, heavily shaded with lush angsana trees. With roots hanging from the roof and coming out of walls, the ambience is intriguing,
As the lane opens to a big space, things get even more interesting. Walls with peeled paint, bare red bricks or covered with creepers. These are not abandoned buildings.
This is Khong Heng Square, the Artisan Market. It’s a complex of boutique hotels, hipster cafes and restaurants, fashion boutiques, souvenir shops and even a barber shop. All are housed in rows of pre-war shophouses.
Coming out of the square, we cross Jalan Bandar Timah to the much-talked-about Concubine Lane, a small lane flanked by rows of houses turned into souvenir shops and restaurants. It looks very much like Jonker Street in Malacca but on a smaller scale.
From Concubine Lane, we take Jalan Bijeh Timah to get to Market Lane, another favourite Instagram location made popular by the hanging umbrellas.
Not wanting to beat the youngsters for the photo opp, we slowly walk away to the main street. As we have already taken up an hour of Raja’s time, we decide to check out the other buildings on our own.
While walking us back to the railway station, Raja winds down but manages to squeeze us a promise to check out the new town, especially the charming Masjid Panglima Kinta and neighbouring Murat Arts Lane.
As our car moves from the waving Raja, Ani and her father swear that they have never seen Ipoh the way they saw it today.
Fast Facts
• Contact: K. Rajasegaran (Raja)
A member of Perak Tourist Guide Association
• Tel: 012-524 2357
• Email: k.raja8876@gmail.com
STORIES BEHIND THE BUILDINGS
2. War Memorial honours Perak’s war dead.
4. The High Court is a neo-classical styled building built from 1926 to 1928 to replace the older courthouses.
5. Royal Ipoh Club, the oldest club in Ipoh, was used by the Japanese Army as a laundry house during the Japanese Occupation.
6. Church of St John The Divine was the largest church in Malaya when it was built in 1912. It was converted into a noodle factory during the Japanese Occupation.
7. St Michael’s Institution was constructed over 30 years starting from 1922.
8. Town Padang Mosque, the Masjid India of Ipoh, was constructed by Indian workers in 1908.
9. Founded in 1906, F.M.S. Bar & Restaurant is believed to be the oldest restaurant in Malaysia. It moved to its current location in 1923.
10. Built in 1931, the neo-renaissance building of Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank was the tallest building in town until post-Independence.
11. S.P.H. De Silva Building, built in the Renaissance style, is one Ipoh’s oldest commercial buildings.
12. Chung Thye Phin Building was built in 1907 by Chung Thye Phin, the last Kapitan Cina of Perak.
13. With a corner tower, Straits Trading Building stands out in the Italian Renaissance style.
14. The Chartered Bank building dates from 1924.
15. Mercantile Bank was built in an Art Deco style in 1931.
16. Residence & Law Office of the Seenivasagam Brothers is housed in a row of pre-war townhouses that sit at the edge of the famous Padang.
17. Perak Hydro Building was the office to the company that was formed in London in 1926.
18. Birch Memorial clock tower is too beautiful to be kept away from the main road of Ipoh.
19. Jan Sahib’s Office was originally a block of commercial building built in 1930s.
22. Perak Ku Kong Chow Association was built in 1928 for the Cantonese community living in Kinta Valley.
23. Han Chin Pet Soo was founded as a miner’s club, the only club exempted from registration under the Exemptions Under the Registrations of Societies Order that dated back to 1895.