Holiday No. 4/05 - Part Ipoh

This is going to be a short one, as Ipoh was really just a hit and run.

The original plan had been to catch up with Boobjuicer, but seeing as she had a 2-hour appointment to be wrapped in chilli and baked under a heat blanket, we were on our own.

It’s an easy 1 ½ hour drive from Penang to Ipoh. Entering from the Ipoh Selatan toll, we ended up on a long straight road with Jaya Jusco on the left. At an intersection with Pantai Puteri Hospital on the left, turned right and drove and drove until we got to a roundabout.

I don’t know what happened after that. We just followed "Pusat Bandaraya" (it's weird that Ipoh, and Malacca for that matter, is considered a city) signboards until we hit towny civilisation, whereupon our simply tembak senses took over.

We were there for 2 things. First, Aun Kheng Lim salted chicken. We first stumbled upon this shop during the Secret Holiday. Didn’t know it at the time, but it’s apparently famous. One does kind of get that idea upon stepping into the shop, what with skyscrapers of cardboard boxes taking up 80% of the floorspace.

What do you get: a whole chicken stuffed with chinese herbs, wrapped in paper and baked in a salt-filled wok. One chicken per box, no halves. No worries about not being able to finish, the chickens are of the Nando’s variety. Tall, giraffe-gened lean chickens. Oh, you also get a piece of gizzard per box, thrown in almost as an afterthought. RM15 for a box of heaven.

Best part is; even if you’re mute, or if all you can speak is Swahili, you’d still be able to order, since all it takes is to indicate how many. You know you’re on to something good when the shop’s operating hours are stated as "from 10 am". Truly while stocks last.

Where is this place? Err… dunno the name of the street. We basically drove straight into town from that roundabout until it started to feel like we’d teleported into the centre of Muar (yes, the town in Johor), and turned right when it "felt right". Rest assured that I’m acutely aware of how unhelpful those directions are. I’ll mitigate by adding that I noted a Jalan Raja Musa Aziz signboard just before we parked.

3 boxes of still warm chicken safely tucked in the car, we started on our second purpose. To eat at Ong Kee Taugeh Chicken restaurant. It’s within walking distance from the salted chicken shop, on Jalan Yau Tet Shin. We’d been instructed by a friend not to be tempted to eat at Lou Wong, its competitor just across the street. Why? Dunno.

We arrived at OKTC at 4.30pm. The chicken chopping man informed us that they only open at 5pm and if we couldn’t wait, we should cross the street and go to their "head office" located next to Lou Wong and which would be open at the time. Bizarre. Couldn’t wait, so obediently, we trotted over.

Ordered a huge plate of steamed chicken for two (it had enough for 3), a dinner plate-sized mound of taugeh, two bowls of soupy noodles and a bowl of pork meatballs, all of which took up half the table. Heaven. The taugeh sauce tasted like caramel! What’s IN Ipoh water, really? The noodles and taugeh are really in a class of their own. All that came up to RM15.

Sorry, forgot to take photos. I blame gluttony.

While we were waiting for the food, I noticed the poster on the wall right in front of me. It was an endorsement of the shop by my Singaporean celebrity cousin. Given the popularity of his TV show with a certain demographic, I spared a pitying thought for Ipoh. It’s no fun having your town invaded by bargain-hunting Singaporeans.

5pm marked the end of our little hit and run. Tapau’ed some meatballs. I think them meatballs must be quite popular, the seller packed them in shower cap-looking handbaggy plastic bags that seemed custom-made for the purpose.

It was a happy-bellied drive back to KL, arriving at 8pm. Along the way Snowie decided to chronicle her past holidays and all our past and future vacations in - travel diaries. Real life things that have turnable pages and in which you’d have to physically write. Yeah. Whatever turns you on, baby.

Mindful that we forgot to take pictures in Ipoh, here’s a consolation. It’s also an indication of how much food we’d stuffed ourselves with over the 3 days.


Snowdrop: Hwaaaa, I feel heavier after all that food!

Spot: Me too. *Snowie's really gotten HUGE!!*

Snowdrop: Surely you're not thinking of starting on the chicken now??

Spot: Can wan!





Snowdrop: *Don't listen to me summorelah. Padan*
Spot? Can you breathe?
Are you ok?

Spot: Blek






The whole 2N/3D trip took us approximately 800-odd kilometres, at the cost of RM90 for petrol, RM90 for toll charges, RM346 for the suite and RM60 for meals, not counting the extras for bringing back to KL and the shopping.

Unless we do more minor trips in between, the next major write-up will be next year, when we finally go on that long awaited (and planned!) adventure - 2 weeks in Italy, May 2006.

Can’t wait.