Shopping in Ipoh

Friday 21stOctober 2005.

Travelling to Ipoh today and to return to Alor Star tomorrow (Saturday). It takes about 3 hours to get to Ipoh from Alor Star. Surprisingly the journey is not tiring this fasting month though I keep well within the speed limit. Went to our usual shopping haunt that is Kinta City, and parking space is full! This is Friday and why is this place so full? Only much later when I bumped into an old friend that I know today is a public holiday in Perak because of Nuzul Quran. Managed to squeeze my car in a corner, not a designated parking bay, but looks big enough to park safely. Jusco is having a sale, lots of things cheaper than usual or seemed cheaper than usual, so bought a few things, clothes mostly. They are closing the store at 11pm tonight, normally they closed at 10pm. Two other shopping complexes have opened in recent years - Tesco, which is just next door and Giant, about 8 km away in Tambun. I wonder if the those places are equally crowded. After shopping went for teh tarik at the Silveritage complex in Gunung Rapat. There's a big projector TV screen in this particular stall to keep you occupied in case you're alone or not wanting to look at each other too long. Lots of people here - groups of males, groups of females, families, couples, all sorts of people - some having heavy late night meals, but most people are just having teh tarik, smoking and chat with friends. Many people came in straight from their Tarawikh, that's too bad for me, this travelling means I'm missing tarawikh.

22nd October 2005 (Saturday)

One of the houses near us was rented to a group of students from the polytechnic nearby. Don't know how many students lived there but I counted at least 4 motorcycles park at the front of the house. What attracted my attention was the state of cleanliness of the front of the house - totally unkempt and dirty. It's not wet, oily or slimy or anything like that, just rubbish strewn all over, used motorcycle tyres hung on the fence and other things haphazardly kept in the porch; totally untidy. That reflects the nature and the minds of the people living in the house. Those are not quality students.

Decided to go to Ipoh Parade at 1.00pm just to see if there are bargains here. Large crowds here too but not congested. One thing common with the other shopping complex we went to yesterday was the absence of festival decorations. Deepavali and Hari Raya are just around the corner and around this place there isn't much thing that welcomes you and reminds you of the festivals. We were not in the mood to buy anything either and so we left after about one and a half hours browsing around. Oh, we did buy a car-charger for my phone at RM13.20. Parking here costs RM1 so that's all the money we parted with in this place.

Went to see my parents in the kampung and it's good to see them ok, healthy and strong for their age - 80 yrs both of them. Father is going to haj next season, mother already went to Mecca 2 years ago.

At 4.20pm off we go towards the highway on the way home to Alor Star. Wanted to break fast in Butterworth and managed to find the Dataran Ikan Bakar (we saw the sign board beside the highway yesterday) and ordered our food, its already 6.35 pm. Asked for siakap bakar, sotong, sup tulang, kangkong and drinks. At 7.00pm, except for the kangkong, everything were delivered to our table. People who came later not so lucky because a few families turned up at the same time after us and the food couldn't be ready for them in time. Nevertheless, everyone seemed to be eating or drinking something at breaking time. The kangkong never came till the end & we cancelled it as we were finishing. This is our first time in this place and the large group of people here means this place in popular with locals. Most people have pre-ordered their food and quickly settled down with food already on the table. Food here tastes good, much better than the one we went to yesterday in Ipoh, we'll definitely come again.