Sights in Ipoh
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A
Town Hall & Court House
Directly opposite the train station, the Town Hall (Dewan Bandaran; 1916) and the Court House (Mahkanah Tinggi; 1928) are suitably impressive white neoclassical buildings of grand proportions. All three were built by the government architect AB Hubbock.
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Masjid India Muslim
Near St Michael's, the green-and-white Masjid India Muslim (1908) was built in the Mogul style for the local Indian population.
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Royal Ipoh Club
The mock-Tudor Royal Ipoh Club (1895) overlooks the playing fields of the padang (field or grassy area), and is still a centre of exclusivity.
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St Michael's Institution
On the northern flank of the padang, St Michael's Institution is a neo-Gothic three-storey colonial school with arched verandas, founded by the Catholic La Sallean brothers in 1927.
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Town Hall & Court House
Directly opposite the train station, the Town Hall (Dewan Bandaran; 1916) and the Court House (Mahkanah Tinggi; 1928) are suitably impressive white neoclassical buildings of grand proportions. All three were built by the government architect AB Hubbock.
reviewed
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Chinese Shophouses
The Old Town features many rows of rickety Chinese shophouses, though those in the New Town area east of the river are generally in better condition. After Georgetown, Ipoh has one of the most extensive areas of later shophouse architecture in Malaysia.
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Sam Poh Tong
A few kilometres south of Ipoh, Sam Poh Tong is the largest cave temple in Malaysia, although it’s less popular than Perak Tong. The main attraction here is the turtle pond, where locals bring turtles to release in the hope of balancing their karma.
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Geological Museum
Rock enthusiasts might enjoy a visit to the Geological Museum, 3km east of town, although you'll need to phone ahead to arrange a visit. Hundreds of mineral samples and fossils are on display, including all the tin ore you could wish for. Take a Tanjung Rambutan bus from the city bus station, get off at the crossing of Jln Sultan Azlan Shah, then walk southeast for 10 minutes.
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Muzium Darul Ridzuan
North of the padang, the Muzium Darul Ridzuan is housed in a 1926 villa built for a wealthy Chinese tin miner. The less than inspiring displays recount the history of tin mining (downstairs) and forestry (upstairs) in Perak. The occasional temporary exhibitions are more interesting. There are two concrete air-raid shelters in the garden, erected in 1941.
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Perak Tong
Founded in 1926 by a Buddhist priest, Perak Tong temple complex extends back into an impressive complex of caverns and grottoes with amazing murals on the interior walls, including some interesting juxtapositions of Theravada Buddhas from Southeast Asia and Chinese Buddhas and Buddhist saints. A staircase and a security guard were crushed by a rockfall here in 2009, but the temple has since reopened.
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Kek Lok Tong
To get off the beaten path, you can visit the small and serene Kek Lok Tong. At the cave temple’s entrance, climb up to the Three Sages in the central cavern. At the back is a fat Chinese Buddha of Future Happiness sitting in the company of three other Bodhisattvas. Behind the cave is an ornamental garden with ponds and pagodas. To reach here, from Sam Poh Tong backtrack to the T-junction and turn right. Go on for 15 minutes, then turn right again before the first traffic light and follow the signs for Kek Lok Tong.
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F
Birch Memorial Clock Tower
The Birch Memorial Clock Tower (1909) was erected in memory of James WW Birch, Perak's first British Resident, who was murdered at Pasir Salak. The friezes on the clock tower are meant to illustrate the growth of civilisation, featuring figures such as Moses, Buddha, Shakespeare and Charles Darwin. A figure representing Mohammed has since been erased. Birch was not a popular man locally. The road on which his memorial stands has been renamed in honour of one of his killers.
It's a short walk from the train station on Jln Dato' Sagor.
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