We wanted to get out into some nature so we started at the Gunung Lang park. There is Lang mountain, a waterfall that descends from there and a small lake (really a big pond) that one can take a boat across to a recreational area with a park and trails.
We planned to take the boat to the recreational area (which is the only way to reach it), but learned that the last boat went at 11:00am… and the next wouldn’t go until 1:30 (as it was a 2.5 hour lunch break, which is pretty nice for them, worse for us, as it was only 11:15). So, we looked around and saw the empty boat and lake, some big monitor lizards and small monkeys wandering too.
We decided not to wait the two hours for the next boat, and visited the nearby Muzium Darul Ridzuan, which was a well presented museum with the history of the Kinta district, which is in the Malaysian state of Perak. It was housed in a 1926 Colonial-style building, and lucky for us, had A/C.
There was a lot about the tin trade, which brought great wealth to Ipoh and the area, as it is situated at the crossing of two rivers, the Kinta and Pari. We learned about the Orang Asal, which is the name of the indigenous people of Malaysia, who later assimilated within the Malays.
Oddly, there was a room with upside down umbrellas, and interestingly we have seen more than a dozen installations across our travels over the last eight months of upside down umbrellas, usually in an alleyway (but not always). Luckily, Jessica had our trusty multi-color umbrella for the photo.
After our museum visit concluded, we headed to the other, much more popular, outdoor attraction in Ipoh, named Mirror Lake (or Tasik Cermin, in Malay). There are actually two lakes, one that can be accessed through a small cave tunnel, and the other that requires a boat and hardhat to reach. We decided on the cave tunnel, which was a short walk to the platform where we could see the small lake (another pond) surrounded by limestone cliffs. There was 8-person raft that we chose not to take, but many of our fellow tourists did, purchasing an entrance ticket and then another one to take the raft.
It was a very popular place for photos (and photoshoots), so we took our pictures and then found a seat on a bench to enjoy the view. As you can see, there was no mirror reflection, as the boats created waves, and one wonders when this would not be the case? We heard early in the morning, but even though we didn’t get the mirror view, it was still a cool place to see.
On the grounds there are lots of tourist activities to do here: a petting zoo, a cave entrance in the shape of a snake, even ATV rentals amongst all the limestone cliffs. Jessica put our multi-color umbrella back in use on the rainbow stairs.
We were preparing to leave, but had noticed a big temple complex on the way in, and figured it wasn’t far and we like exploring temples. We were treated to a very cool one, the Da Seng Ngan Buddhist Temple. As we saw so many people at Mirror Lake, we expected to see a lot there, but it was just us. Stone Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were the primary statues here, and there were a lot of them, and many quite big. They looked even cooler with the limestone cliffs as a backdrop.
We found Lady Buddha and our Chinese New Year animals as we often do.
Then we walked down the road with the many, many gold leaf Buddhas.
This was all outside and then we decided to head into the cave temple. We had to remove our shoes (and, as this temple was built into the cave, the ground was very dirty) and then we could look around. There were two guys who motioned for us to explore, and we did. There were many shrines, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We went through the cave, and up and down small staircases to see even more shrines.
This temple was our favorite of the cave temples in Ipoh. One more post of Ipoh to come, full of street art and we visit an abandoned castle!
