Ipoh, the capital of Perak State & the third largest city in Malaysia, is a greatly under-rated city. The well-planned, delightful city is one of Malaysia's most pedestrian-friendly cities, with a wealth of heritage and colonial architecture and pre-war shophouses, not to mention interesting cave temples in the area. Yet Ipoh is not on the main tourist trail and sadly, its charms are not well publicized. Such a pity because Ipoh has retained much of the charm and lavish heritage buildings acquired during its tin-mining heyday, most of them located in the Old Town & easily explored on foot. (The city is unofficially divided into Old Town and New Town by the Sungai Kinta (Kinta River).

I hope my Ipoh journals help to convince you to spend a day or two here. You won't regret it. If you do decide to visit, try to get a copy of the excellent pamphlet "City that Tin Built" published by the Perak State Government. The Ipoh tourism office should also have some. It has a great map of the Old Town, & good background information & photos of the heritage buildings.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this series to my Ipoh friend Jon Tan who graciously drove me around Ipoh & area for a whole weekend trying hard to find every place on my long list. I couldn't have done it without him. And his obvious pride in his home town urged me on and made me want to do a really good job of this series. Thanks Jon.