Hello readers, I'm here again to continue updating my road trip part 2 ! If you have missed out the part 1 post, kindly click the link on the right. [KEDAH & THAI] ROAD TRIP PART 1 . So today, I'm going to share about the tourism places, food and some thoughts while visiting to Ipoh.

Day 3: Ipoh, Perak
Nam Heong White Coffee (南香茶餐室)
Ipoh, is the girl who names Lai Ling's hometown. This was not my first time to come Ipoh but I had never food hunting before. I only tried the chicken rice and also the tofu pudding, so I was really looking forward to this stop ! This kopitiam is very well-known for their freshly baked egg tarts, dim sum and white coffee and when we reached there, the shop was almost fully occupied. It was actually afternoon (about 1pm I think), so I could imagine how crowded was the kopitiam in morning.

We ordered egg tarts, dim sum (siew mai) and also glutinous chicken rice (lo mai gai) as our brunch. I'm a egg tart lover seriously and their egg tarts are really delicious for me ! Their tart shells are crispy and the tart textures are so warm and delicate when you start eating. Yet, my favourites in Penang are Ming Xiang Tai Pastry Shop's egg tarts and also Sentosa Corner's (Bkt Mertajam) Portuguese tart. 

I'm not sure whether glutinous chicken rice (lo mai gai) is famous or not but I love it ! Its tastes really good and their rice is mixed well with the ingredients inside together when you taste it. The texture would not be separated and I like the aroma of the mushrooms. 

This is called as 蛋治 for Mandarin, directly translating should be half-boiled egg toast ?  I'm also not sure about its name haha. Most of my frens love half-boiled egg but for me, I totally can't accept any half-boiled to 70% boiled egg, my limit is only 80% to 100% boiled. 😂😂 I trust my frens' tastes, they recommended this and said delicious, so you may order to have a try also !  

Concubine Lane is the most famous lane among these three lanes and there are many shop lots and some snacks to buy also. We also strolled around another two lanes also and I was actually surprised with the big differences with Concubine Lane. We rarely saw tourists in Hale Lane and Market Lane due to quietness without business or entertainment there. Therefore, I just took these two photos below as memories. 

Due to their shop's size, there are only some tables and chair. Normally customers would eat and try by standing outside their stall. I think it has became a trend for their customers? During peak time, you may queue up to buy and their tau fu fah can be finished at 3pm also. Next time I would like to try their soy milk and I believe it wont be disappointing also. 

Funny Mountain Tau Fu Fah  (奇峰豆腐花):
Opening hours: 10:30am until FINISH 
Contact no: 012- 516 1607
Address: Funny Mountain Soya Bean 49, Jalan Theatre, 30300 Ipoh, Perak.

There are actually two Onn Kee Chicken Rice, where are beside Lou Wong and also opposite to Lou Wong respectively. For local people's choice, we tried the first option. Ohh ya, one comment more about their chili sauces. Their chili sauces are not spicy and not so aromatic of chili. Yet, to match with chicken meat, chili sauces still play a very important role to make the meat taste good. 

I heard some bad comments on Onn Kee Chicken Rice before like the prices are too high, food
quality is not assumed or hygiene problem. I'm not sure which outlet but the outlet we tried I think their service and food were overall satisfying. Perhaps, their chicken rice are overrated on internet and can't hit customers' expectations? Anyway, everyone has different opinions and tastes, you can always give comments and try. 

We just ordered siew mai, har gaw and some dimsum like usual we ordered in other dim sum restaurants. Their I have no bad comments as their services were quite good. They would push a trolley that had a lot of dimsum coming upstairs to serve us. 

As overall comment, I think dimsum there tastes good (3.5/5 of rating) but not that delicious like websites recommended. Out of my expectation, I like their char siew pau ! Of course, I still crave for Ming Court's dim sum, definitely I will try it next time. 

Each price of ingredients is stated clearly and there are many choices. The price is not expensive but affordable and we just took some. I ordered one bowl of laksa as my brunch as we were going to next state after that. I felt disappointed with the laksa soup actually, its soup was quite sour and it was not the taste that I ate before. Yet, if you mix the fried yong tau fu together with the sour laksa soup, it was indeed delicious. We also ordered the famous ice kacang drinks there and you may try also. Recommended !

Finally my article post of Ipoh road trip is finally updated ! Stay-tuned for my last road trip post, which is road trip part III for Bukit Tinggi and also Johor ! More posts are coming soonn...

Before attending our degree's convocation in University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), we girls had been planning a road trip that we planned to go each girl's hometown and the tourism places there on few months ago. Thus, the states that we went were Penang, Kedah, Perak, Kuala Lumpur & Johor. Penang: Mainland & Island, Kedah: Alor Setar, Jitra (Include Danok Thailand), Perak: Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur (Bkt Tinggi), Johor: Segamat & Johor Bahru. It sounds crazy rite we traveled along Peninsular Malaysia, from north sides to south sides & lastly to East Malaysia. 

I'm a Penangite and basically our first stop was island and mainland areas. Too bad I couldn't join as well as I got involved in a car crash (nothing serious, just lodged a police report and paid summon) while driving to island from my home, so my first stop became Jitra, Kedah. We girls departed to there by ets in Parit Buntar train station which is nearer to my hometown, Nibong Tebal.

There are just parts of exhibitions and the museum is actually quite big. You may take about 20-30 minutes to have a look for each sections. Overall, Paddy Museum has its own values to be constructed for gaining more knowledge about paddy. For me, most importantly, we must be grateful to be provided grain rice easily or we can get grain rice everywhere by just purchasing. Not to forget about there are many positive and good factors behind, like the efforts of farmers who cultivate the paddy to grow, the transportation or logistics to distribute the packed grain rice and many more that we may not know and see. As the Chinese saying goes, one should know that every single grain on the plate is the fruit of hard work, so be thankful of every single grain. 

Then we headed to another place where was Ladang Madu Kelulut Ori DUKUN JAYA (银蜂园), Alor Setar. It's ranked No.11 on TripAdvisor official website among 21 tourism attractions in Alor Setar and it's actually a bee farm that sells various honey products. This place is actually worth to visit as there's a way to walk to the paddy fields which are behind the bee farm.

The colour of paddy field during November is still green (before the harvest season) and basically the harvest season for paddy field is June and December, so we were not able to see the gold yellow colour yet. While for the transplating period for paddy field, the period is the month of March and September. This is extra knowledge to gain during my first experience to visit paddy fields by searching more information about the paddy due to my curiosity. 

In next morning, we started our new day by hiking in Darulaman Hills (Bukit Nara), Jitra with the host's mom. There were quite a lot of hiking lovers coming to hike already, or even some of they finished hiking when we were warming up our bodies. We were not familiar with the hiking routes so we just followed the arrow marks as our directions. And of course, we hiked with a shorter routes. Within 30 minutes, we had reached the foot of hills. Yet, my body was still dripping with sweat. It had been a long long time since I joined hiking, oops.

Fresh air in the greenery forests always make me feel more alive. Although I seldom hiking, I really enjoy indulging in connecting with nature ! Nature is really priceless and always rewards with positive minds. 

After hiking, we continued jogging in Darul Aman Park, Jitra. Definitely, that day was a really healthy day for us haha. This park is ranked No.1 on TripAdvisor official website among 3 tourism attractions in Jitra. The park is actually the only one that it's a water and land theme park in Kedah. The walking or jogging track is total 2.4km and the calories burnt is about 120-150, depending on the speed of walking or jogging and also your own body weight.  

There is an information counter to join different recreation activities like Kayak, Paddle Boat, Buggy Ride, Pony Ride and Bicycling. The prices stated are different as well also.

The lake is skyline-silver, calm and peaceful. I started jogging with faster speed due to scorching hot sun as I walked initially but not to forget taking some photos. Girls always being girls. Feeling good to sweat profusely and luckily I was not roasted under the sun. It was good to let my hair down by exercising and inhaling some fresh air in the park. 

I think the uniqueness of Rice Bowl state which is also known as Kedah is its green landscape of the vast paddy fields and also the lush green rainforests. Let's love our nature together for not only for yourself and others, but also for our next generation !

Hmmm this is not our main destination of coming to Dannok I think ? We actually wanted to spare time loitering and hunting some must-buy-snacks of Thailand. As you all know, Dannok is just a stone's throw away from Border of Malaysia. Therefore, Enn Sin's mom just parked her car outside the immigration area there and we strolled around the streets.

Our data were still available that time due to nearer distance to Malaysia, so we searched the way to Asian Cultural Village. Google map showed time of walking to there was about 15 minutes, so we ended up visiting the village first. Yet, the map was actually not so accurate, we reached a hotel. After asking the worker, apparently the walking distance was more even longer that actually we needed to walk for more 10-15 minutes. Luckily, the worker offered us a free ride by their shuttle bus to the destination (the offer was actually for the customers who stayed in that hotel only). You may drive to there by own transportation or Thai auto rickshaw (Tuk Tuk).

We were so excited once we reached ! It was so beautiful with different small villages or gardens like Panda Garden, Pig Village, Rabbit Garden, Dinosaur Park, The Park of Eighteen Disciples of Buddha, Wishing Corridor, Road of Wulin and many many more.  Due to limited time, we had only 1 hour there so we chose Road of Wulin to have a look and take photos.

I think it's really worth to visit and one day trip is recommended especially staying until night. The Panda Garden and Wishing Corridor will be lighted up and just imagine, how beautiful the garden is. I probably will come back next time without rushing and enjoying again !