Diaphanous Memories: Chapter 3: Taiping - The Town of Great Peace (Part 2)

7 December 2007

This is, by far, one of the most eventful days in my whole trip around Malaysia, so I shall dedicate an entire post to it.

We began our day at 9.00 a.m. with yet another trip to Bukit Larut. Unlike the day before, though, we took the jeep up to the top of the hill this time.

The trip was longer than anticipated...about 15 minutes. The road was really winding. Luckily I came on an empty stomach, otherwise I think I'd feel dizzy after that ride. I wouldn't blame people if they felt like vomitting after reaching the top. Finally...the top!

Well, as we were on a tight schedule, we only had 30 minutes to explore the top. So sad...but anyway, here are some photos.

Ya...it was drizzling again. It sure rains a lot in Taiping.

Seems like the top of Bukit Larut is 1036 m above sea level.

After our time was up, we took the jeep down to the foot of the hill. I wished we had more time, though. The scenery was spectacular. Anyway, these photos were taken from the jeep on our way down.

A forlorn building...used to be a tea house

An incoming jeep! CRASH! Nah...they're not that dumb. Lol.

The surroundings are starting to get foggy

Lol...nothing better to do...

After finishing with our Bukit Larut trip, we went home and had some rest. We were meeting up with a friend from Ipoh at 1.00 p.m. at the Taiping Zoo. We brought her out of the zoo, so no wonder she looked like a monkey! Lol...

Jeremy brought us to the cemetery again, where we had a few decent photos.

Now then, we're on our way to lunch. Here are some sights of Taiping in day time.

The old clock tower

Makan-makan...Hehe

As soon as we finished our lunch, we went to the Kamunting bus stop to fetch Zen Yang. He was sitting on a bench there but we didn't see him. So, we waited for about 10 minutes before finally spotting him, swt...Lol...but partly it's my fault because I didn't hear his call.

Our next destination was the Perak Museum.

It was a pretty interesting place. Here are some of the exhibits that we saw outside the museum building.

An old jet plane

Some old trains

A statue of J.W.W. Birch (Trying to pose like him...Lol)

After exploring the exhibits outside of the museum, we turned our attentions inside the building.

Some weapons...

A saber

A 'katana'

A 'keris'

Trying to 'merampas takhta'

Next, we saw some exhibits of preserved animals or replicas of them.

These are just some of them. I'm not posting too many pictures of animals because we'll be seeing more later on. Haha.

After the animals, we went to the rear of the museum building and saw more exhibits of old vehicles and transportations.

Some canoes

An anchor

An old van

Some trishaws

The museum up close

Well, that was our trip to the Museum. Quite a decent place I should say. Our next journey takes us to a place where we got to admire the beauty of nature. It's this huge lake that Taiping is famous for and where you get to go boating. It's none other than the Taiping Lake Gardens. But before that, we passed by the Taiping prison. Haha. We were not allowed to go in so I just took some shots from the outside.

Finally, the Lake Gardens!

Lol...nah...we didn't take this boat. We took the four-person boat.

Making the boat move was harder than it seemed. When we tried to paddle in all directions, the boat was spinning around and around. But finally, we figured out how to make it go forward. We must apply equal paddling strength on both sides of the boat! Now then, the sights of Lake Garden...

Haha...showing some kung-fu...

Haha...that was my first boating experience. It wasn't all smooth sailing but at least we enjoyed ourselves, though our arms were sore and aching from all the paddling. Next, we went home for some rest before heading out for dinner. Jeremy's parents wanted to bring us to a place that serves great seafood. Unfortunately, we got lost and decided to stop at a seafood restaurant to have dinner. We were in a hurry actually to our next destination. No worries, the food is still good.

Whoops...hehe...this was after the meal. =)

Our final destination was the Taiping Zoo, where we went for the night safari. Well, it was pretty interesting visiting the zoo at night but it was pretty hard to take photos, especially of animals in cages. Sometimes, the cages reflect the flash even more than the animals themselves. =(

Despite this, we still got to see a number of animals.

Owls

Alligator

Deer

Pretty creepy, huh? Like animal spirits

Masked palm civet

Wild pig

Lion

A red and a green eye? A cool example of heterochromia

Sun bear

Snakes (many more actually, but I'll just show one)

The fishies

Ostrich

I was really praying that it didn't hit me on the head

Zebra

Introducing...

The camel!

Hornbill

Swan

Finally, we reached the elephant den. But as we arrived, the lights were turned off as it was near the zoo's closing time. This has its benefits too, as it allowed for more effective flash photography.

After seeing the elephants, it was the closing time of the zoo so we wrapped up our visit and headed back home.

The 3 travelers in Taiping

This was surely a very eventful day. We went home feeling rather exhausted but satisfied at how our day turned out. After showering, we played "Bluff" until around 3.30 a.m. Surprisingly, we didn't even get to finish one round of it, because no one could finish his or her cards. Lol. Seeing how the game would turn out, we called it a day and hit the sack. My trip to Taiping was almost over.

8 December 2007

We woke up around 8.00 a.m. and proceeded to have breakfast. We were in a hurry because Zen Yang and Jia Ji had a bus to catch at 9.30 a.m. to Ipoh. I would be leaving for Ipoh too, but in the afternoon.

On our way to the bus stop, we came across two motorcyclists. Dunno what they are doing there...

At the bus stop, we said our farewells. Jeremy and I saw the both of them off.

Well, after that, Jeremy and I went back home and had 2 rounds of DOTA. But as we were playing, both times ended in some "Memory Error". Sigh. After that, we just decided to have a rest. Around 1.45 p.m., we left for the bus station again and made it just in time for my 2.30 p.m. bus. As we said our farewells, I asked Jeremy whether he had been searching for the purpose and meaning of life. He said yes and I handed Jeremy a copy of "The Purpose Driven Life". That book changed my perspectives on life a lot and I hope that it would change his too.

Well, Taiping is a peaceful, yet interesting place. I've had a number of great times in Taiping.
I've always wanted to visit Taiping and I finally have. Getting on the bus, I was pretty excited about my trip to Ipoh. I would be meeting a friend who I have not met for quite some time. And that would surely open doors to more exciting times ahead.