At the beginning of this section of my trip, I only knew that I wanted to spend 3 months in Perak in Malaysia, and I had a hard time deciding between Ipoh and Taiping. I had read some very nice things about both cities, and saw photos and videos showing pretty places in both. I decided to stay in Ipoh only because I could find better and cheaper accommodation there. So I decided that rather than staying there, I would do a day trip to Taiping from Ipoh.
Now, that I have seen Taiping too, I know that Ipoh was an excellent choice. Taiping is worth visiting, but I think one or maximum two days will be more than enough for most visitors. There are nice places to see, and the people are generally friendly (this is no surprise, we are in Malaysia in South East Asia), but I wouldn’t call Taiping an extraordinary place.
Below, I will tell you how to get to Taiping, and what are some of the sights that you may want to see. This is of course a very personal point of view, so you may easily find Taiping an irresistible place where you want to spend a longer time – and I am sure you can fill that up with meaningful activities too.
How to get to Taiping
If like me, you want to travel to Taiping from Ipoh, there are two meaningful options. One is the train, which only takes an hour or so, and costs about 20 ringgits. You can check the latest information about trains on KTMB’s (Malaysian Railways) website. There are not many trains, so check if the departure time is good for you.
Another, perhaps better option is taking a bus. Buses run very often, every hour (or even more often), and take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on whether you use an express bus and, of course, traffic conditions. I used the Starmart Express, a direct bus, very comfortable and fast. And cheap: 10 ringgits one way. Be careful though: there are several bus terminals in Ipoh. One of them is in the city centre, not far from the railway station. It is called Medan Kidd, and is a very simple, shabby looking place.
There is a new and modern bus terminal in the north of the city: Amanjaya, which is officially called Terminal Meru Raya, but they refer to the same terminal. It is very far from the city centre, so if you want to (or need to) take a bus from there, you can either take a local bus from Medan Kidd (see timetable below), or call a Grab car for about 10RM.
Things to see and do in Taiping
When I arrived, I was a little disappointed: unlike in Ipoh, I couldn’t see colourful houses, and it looked like any uninteresting town in Asia (sorry, Taping people). I immediately walked from the bus terminal (quite in the city centre, luckily) to the famous lake, which used to be a mine, and it later got flooded with water. Now it is a wonderful place to sit and walk around.
As a side note: a story about how to always trust the locals. (Well, almost always…) When I arrived in Taiping, it was still very early (for me – just after 10am), so I badly needed a coffee. There was an open air restaurant just beside this lake, and I ordered there a copi O (O as “oh”, and this is black coffee without milk and with sugar), for take-away. No problem, they said. And when I saw that they were preparing a small plastic bag for my take-away coffee, I got a little nervous. I said to them, listen, I want to drink it right now, on the bench near the lake, so please give me a cup or a glass. If you don’t have a paper cup, then give me a normal glass, and I will bring it back. But there was no way I could make them do that. So this is what I got instead: hot black coffee in a small transparent plastic bag, with a straw in it.
It actually turned out to be OK. I couldn’t drink it all at one go, so I simply put it into my handbag to continue drinking it later, and I only spilled it out accidentally at the second sitting. A good “travel” hot black coffee, it was!
The Garden Lake and the Five O’clock trees in Taiping
But back to the Garden Lake in Taiping! One of the most famous sights there are the so-called rain trees. These HUGE trees are originally from South America, but at some point, they were introduced to South East Asia, too. In Malay, they are sometimes called “pukul lima”, which means “five o’clock”, and the reason is very interesting: the leaves of the tree close an hour or so before dark, i.e. at five o’clock (one hour later now in Malaysia – sunset is and has always been at about 7), and they open again an hour after the first light. They also close their leaves in rainy weather, that’s why they are also called “rain trees”. And how majestic and beautiful looking they are? Look at these photos:
Famous buildings in Taiping
My guidebook recommended a “heritage tail”, with quite a few historical buildings. Some of them were really pretty, so it is worth following the trail. I picked up the guidebook in Ipoh, at the Tourist Information Centre.
Inside the clock Tower, there is an information centre for visitors. When I was there, there was an elderly Chinese gentleman there, who invited me in when he saw me taking photos of the building, and gave me some tips on where to go and what to see in Taiping.
