Go Travel and Living: TAIPING, Perak

We spent days together during last X'mas break...Dec 2011.
Something that I want to remember! :-)

Initially, my husband and I planned to drive out that Saturday morning...around 8am (Dec 24th)...it could be..:-); however, that Friday night after we had dinner, my husband, something just pops up to his mind, suggested that we just go back and pack our things and go. Yes, we did that...we drove soon we were done with our dinner. Soon we got things packed, we drove out from house around 3am..:-) This is fun!
Surprisingly, there were many cars on the highway. People never sleep nowadays I guess...and that is what we do too.

TAIPING

We took some rest and performed Suboh prayer at R&R Sg Perak. around 6.30am.
We reached Taiping around 7am...

Reaching Taiping that morning, before breakfast, the first thing we did is to look for hotel. It was a public holiday and we couldn't online book the hotel. So, we have decided earlier to just walk-in as we arrive. This is more "adventurous"...yaa according to my husband.

After some time that morning, hotel to hotel, finally, we got a room in Panorama Hotel Taiping. That was the only room left...YES..Alhamdulillah..:-)

It's clean...recommended!

The hotel lobby.

Famous food court for Taiping people. There are Malay, Chinese and Indian stalls in the food court. You can have varieties of ABC here.

Matang Food Court

We had "teh tarik" that morning for breakfast at Matang food court, Taiping.

Matang food court, Taiping.

Fried mee at Matang food court, Taiping.

TAMAN TASIK TAIPING (Taiping Lake Garden)

Right after the breakfast, we drove to Taman Tasik Taiping (Taiping Lake Garden). Many people were there with own morning activities - jogging, morning walk and etc. And some brought their food and ate breakfast there - picnic time.

Beautiful...

This can be a wallpaper...:-)

Place you can stay...SENTOSA VILLA TAIPING

Burmese pool

...can take your family there for swimming and relaxation... HOWEVER, it is not taken care of...I think so.. It is dirty. I'm so disappointed looking at rubbish everywhere.

Taiping Museum

DOLI Restaurant - Char Kuew Teow (Fried Kuew Teow).

A friend recommended this restaurant for so called GOOD TASTE of its fried kuew teow...HOWEVER, as far as its fried kuew teow that was served to us...another disappointing story.. To me, it is not tasty (we had to ask for extra soy sauce to taste...just to have some flavour..)...and the portion is very small. Additionally, the service is very ...VERY SLOW!
I don't know...probably they were lacking of staff or some problem with their kitchen staff that they have to cook very quickly without having a chance to taste it...Yaa.. perhaps..

MEE COMBAT at Matang Food court.

ABC special with vanilla ice cream on top for me.

Hot plain tea (even though it is served in a MILO glass) :-)- of course my husband's.

Mee Combat @ Matang Food court -

...also recommended by the same friend. And this is OK. Nice fried mee...Lots of fried tauhu/tofu (bean curd)...and "cucur udang" (a batter made of flour, a mixture of chilli and shallots, salt to taste, a teaspoon of sugar, prawn - then, use spoon to scoop and fry in medium hot oil).

This is 'rojak' / and people in the north call this meal as pasembur.

VERY TASTY...the stall is just 20meters away from Mee combat stall. You can order this from Combat staff- :-) ..they are very friendly and helpful.

Satay...OK..but the gravy is not that good. of course..yes...you can eat. :)

Popiah - I prefer more sauce but this one - very dry.

TAIPING ZOO - Night Safari.

My advice - check the calendar before thinking of going. It is OK if you can wait for hours. The line gets longer approaching 8pm. Long queue.

This is during school break + X'mas holiday.

We went on this tram/ so called mini train by children. The driver took us one round (about 15 minutes). I can't see any animals. It was so dark. Can't take pictures because the animals are very sensitive to lights/flash of camera.

And this is not satisfying as we waited so long yet no animals can be seen.

Another advice - go during day time.

Late evening, we had this...Yong Taufu. (Food court - near BOMBA -Taiping fire brigade).

The sauce is tasty but not the seafood / fish balls. (not fresh).

Located in front of this Yong taufu stall -This fried rice IS LOUSY.. TASTELESS!!!

As if it was fried two days ago (it was served cold..VERY COLD)...and as if it is fried only with oil and salt!!

The operator should be responsible when they plan to open a restaurant. Make sure people can eat the food they serve. I'm not very fussy on food BUT this fried rice really disappoints me.

In comparison to DOLI fried kuew teow, yes this fried rice is worse. The kuew teow is eatable.

AND another thing served is this SO CALLED fruit cock-tail with ice cream. This order was in the menu BUT it came to me another lousy ABC. No fruits at all. When asked, the guy answered - "Bahan dah habis" - no fruits left. BY RIGHT, HE SHOULD HAVE COME AND TOLD US that no fruits left for a fruit cock-tail as nicely presented on menu. I would have ordered ABC if i wanted it earlier..Courtesy wise, let the customer knows that the one ordered can't be served due to something. And let the customer him/herself decides what to eat..It should be the way.

It is tasteless too! No condensed milk in it.

Pasembor and CENDOL Ansari, Taiping.

YESSS...this is so much satisfying. I love it...so does my husband.

Creamy with its coconut milk and brown/palm sugar. ("gula melaka").
You can have a plain cendol, cendol with red beans, or with glutinous rice. The one in the picture is a plain cendol.

I highly recommend that you can have their cendol.

Nevertheless, we couldn't get a chance to have their Pasembur because we were just done with lunch. Hopefully, with some other opportunities...during our next visit to Taiping.
Or if anybody out there who may have eaten their Pasembur, I welcome your comments. :-)

Talking about CENDOL, Melaka Cendol is awesome. It comes with durian.