Malaysia at the end of 2017: Temples, Street Art and Durian

From Singapore we went to Ipoh, Malaysia. This is the front of our hotel, a former goldsmith shop located in the Old Town.



Sarang Paloh hotel had beautiful tile floors and was quite comfortable.



Rooms in the hotel were named after different Southeast Asian birds, and we stayed in the jambu fruit dove room.

We liked these peacocks and colored tiles on the exterior of the hotel.



Ipoh city is the capital of the Malaysian state of Pera, and it's the third largest city in Malaysia. Originally a village, Ipoh grew rapidly in the 1880s, after huge deposits of tin were discovered. We went to the Ipoh railway station, hoping to get tickets to George Town, but they were sold out for many days. The railway station was designed by British architect Arthur Benison Hubback in 1917 and nicknamed the "Taj Mahal of Ipoh".



Also in the Old Town was the Hakka Miner’s Club and Museum in a historic 1929 building.

The discovery of tin caused a population boom in Ipoh and many Chinese people emigrated here. We were surprised to learn that Chinese women worked in the mines too, as dulang washers, which includes a process like panning for gold.

Most of the street art we saw in the Old Town depicted Ipoh's historical and cultural themes.



It was fun to wander around the narrow lanes, looking at everything.



Hale Lane from 1894 and nearby Panglima Lane were renowned for opium, gambling and brothels.



This mural of the three kids made us laugh when we noticed that the boy on the right is wearing a Doraemon t-shirt.



We liked this colorful shop scene with its kites and pomelos.



We visited Perak Tong Buddhist cave temple that was originally built by a Chinese Buddhist priest in 1926. At the cave entrance we photographed this 12.8 meter high sitting Buddha, the tallest and largest Buddha statue in Malaysia. 

When Chong Sen Yee and his wife Choong Chan Yoke emigrated to Ipoh in 1926, they were inspired to further develop the temple. It became their life work, and after 50 years they had created the best cave temple in Malaysia, complete with many wall paintings like this Guanyin.



Nearby flying apsaras, female spirits of the clouds, floated on a wall.



The temple has more than 40 Buddha statues. This photo also shows the limestone walls and floor of the cave that had been carved and polished.



On another wall was a painting of Bodhidharma, the first ancestor of Chinese Zen.



As we started to climb up, we walked past these statues. We believe the middle figure is the Buddha in the form of a Chinese Emperor, and on the right is Kobo Daishi, a Japanese monk who studied in China.



Behind Pete the Chinese calligraphy was painted by Chong Yin Chat, the son of Chong Sen Yee and Choong Chan Yoke. He carried on with his parent's work at Perak Tong after their deaths.



Up you go, Pete. In all there are supposedly 450 steps to the top.



Pete is in the double-storey pavilion at the top, which provided excellent views of the northern suburbs of Ipoh and the nearby industrial zone.



From Ipoh we took a bus north to George Town, the capital of the Penang state. Malaysia is a majority muslim country, so we saw many mosques. This is Lebuh Acheh at dusk.



Only about 7% of the population of Malaysia are of Indian descent, but we saw several Hindu temples, including Sri Mahamariamman temple that was originally built in 1833.



In Penang Chinese people constitute a plurality, but Malaysia overall is only 25% Chinese. We visited Han Jiang Teochew, a Chinese Taoist temple. 

We liked the restored roof tile ornaments and learned that they are called jian nian, cut-and-paste porcelain shard work.







Inside the temple were several altars dedicated to deceased Teochew ancestors.



We also visited Khoo Kongsi, a large Chinese clan house and compound. The clan temple had the most ornamented roof we have ever seen. It was built in 1906 when the Khoo clan was at its height of wealth and eminence in Penang society.



In addition to jian nian roof ornaments, there are also stucco sculptures, ceramic figurines and Jiao Zhi pottery, which form complex scenes. 

This is a “walking dragon” at the corner ridge of the Prayer Pavilion.

The Khoos were wealthy traders who emigrated from China in the 17th century. During the 19th century, the complex was a small clan village with its own government, schools and social organizations. This is the interior of the main hall.



In 2008 the historic city of George Town along with Melaka city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In George Town there are 86 cultural places that are included, such as the Lebuh Acheh mosque, and the Chinese temples in this blog. And even some storefronts have decorative porcelain shard ornaments and are considered historically important buildings, making it a delight to walk around. 

We walked to the waterfront area called Weld Quay that used to be a major port. Weld Quay was created as part of a massive land reclamation project in the late 19th century. These are some of the Chinese Clan Jetties that originally housed Chinese laborers employed at the port or who worked as fishermen.



Across the bay we spotted the Hean Boo Thean Temple dedicated to Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. This ‘floating temple’ was built in 1972.

It was hot in George Town, so it was more comfortable to walk around after sundown.



During the daytime we visited the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. Kristina is at the front gate, which was made in Scotland of cast iron.

The furnishings were a beautiful and eclectic mix of antique Chinese inlaid wood furniture, British ceramic floor tiles and Venetian glass, as the parlor shows. 

The mansion was built in 1890 as the home and office of a Chinese tycoon Chung Keng Quee. After he died in 1901, the house fell into disrepair. It became a Peranakan museum in 1990, filled with 1,000 antiques. This was the dining room.



The Peranakans were a prominent community of wealthy, acculturated Chinese and Malay in George Town and Melaka, who for generations didn't intermarry with non-Peranakans and developed their own culture. The house has a central two story atrium with Scottish cast iron railings. 

These days there are only about 8,000 Peranakans left, but this small group still has a large presence, through Peranakan restaurants, food stuffs and cookbooks. There were many lovely Chinese porcelain sets in the display cases in the museum.





We spent a couple days exploring George Town, looking for street art and interesting sites.



This bicycle and scooter shop had some 'antique' bikes on display.



This is Children on Bicycle by Ernest Zacharevic. It was painted during a festival, along with five other street art murals in 2012. Children on Bicycle was the most popular street art we saw, and it was hard to take a photo without a bunch of tourists in it! 

Ernest Zacharevic was born in Lithuania but now lives in Penang. We liked his interactive piece with swings.



In 2015 Zacharevic collaborated with Martin Ron, a street artist from Buenos Aires, to paint a Malay girl riding a sea turtle.



Of course we liked seeing bicycles in street art.



This steel-rod sculpture entitled "Beca (Trishaw Paddler)" is by Tang Mun Kian. It celebrates George Town's trishaw paddlers, rickshaw drivers, who we saw pedaling the tourists around. 

The trishaws are often decorated with bright colored plastic flowers.



This trishaw is parked across from an ancestral temple, a good place to pick up a fare.



We noticed cat themed street art too.

These Chinese lucky cats were surrounding a tabby.



There was even a cat sculpture made of bike parts.



We were in George Town because we were joining a durian fruit tour here. In order to be ready, we were sampling durian fruit. We spotted this durian sculpture and had to get a photo.



Our tour guide had told us about Durian Haven, a cafe that specializes in durian desserts, so we went to try some. Kristina is holding durian chendol.



Durian chendol starts as a bowl of shaved ice that is topped with coconut milk, palm sugar, sweet red beans, pandan-flavored noodles and fresh durian. It's a delightful cold and sweet dessert. We liked it so much we went back two more times.



We joined our tour group and went to the durian forest on the west side of Penang Island. Here we are at our first durian tasting, yum!



Our guide Lindsay did a great job of teaching us all about durian.



Notice that she is wearing a t-shirt with durian on it as she lights the candles on this 'durian birthday cake'.



Kristina was happy to celebrate her birthday by eating lots of durian!



We spent two nights with the tour on Penang Island in the durian forest area. Our group took a bike ride.



Each evening we would have more durian after dinner. We took to calling it our After Dinner Durian or ADD.



The durian farm and resort where we stayed was called Karuna Hills. This was our lovely room.



This durian fell during breakfast, so we grabbed it for tasting later. Note the durian tablecloth and nice assortment of mangos, passion fruit, bananas and rambutans behind the durian.



We visited The Tropical Fruit Farm on Penang, which has over 250 fruit trees. This is the fruit of the giant passion flower.



Lindsay spotted some fruit high up this tree and climbed up to pick it.



Probably the most unique fruit we tried at the farm was the Miracle Berry. We each ate a berry then tasted a lime, and amazingly the flavor of the lime was sweet. Afterwards we googled it and learned that the berry contains a glycoprotein molecule called miraculin. The molecule binds to the tongue's taste buds and activates the sweet receptors. The affect lasted at least 30 minutes, until saliva washed away the protein from our tongues. You can see the red Miracle Berries on this bush.



We stopped at a durian stall to pick up fruit for our lunch.



We hiked to a waterfall and durian farm, seeing durian trees as we walked.



It felt great to cool off with a dip at the waterfall.

Then we enjoyed lunch of durian and cocos, and some cooked food too.

Lindsay showed us the butterfly pea flower, which is used in drinks and cooking. It will turn white rice this beautiful shade of blue.



Back at Karuna Hills, Lindsay's friend Nazlina gave a cooking demonstration of Malaysian foods that were vegan. Most of the people on the tour are vegan.



Nazlina used ginger flowers in a delicious salad.



You can see the pink color of the flowers in the upper right. The salad was made with dragon beans, coconut, sambal, lemongrass, shallots and ginger flowers.



Next it was time for ADD. This is D17. Durian varieties are named by a number by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI). 

This durian was named D2 back in 1934. We described its flavor as creamy, buttery, sweet, complex, slightly tangy, metallic and oniony. We got to eat D2 three more times on the tour.

The next day was new year's eve day and we had a full schedule. First we went to Peter's farm and saw these tiny durians just forming. Many will drop before they grow to full size, approximately 1-2 Kgs.



We went to a road side stall to sample durians grown on Peter's farm. This is Peter with Lindsay



That evening we went to a coconut farm. If you look up by the coconuts (click the photo enlarge it) you can see a 60 year old Indian man. He climbs the coconut trees twice a day to harvest the nectar from the flowers called toddy.



We were offered a chance to climb the tree. Hannah, who is a rock climber, didn't hesitate.



Since it was New Year's Eve we went to a night market to look around. David, Loren and Lindsay donned traditional hats and shawls. We told them to look serious for the photo.



They were not the only ones in costume. Back at our hotel we spotted this group of princesses, ready to celebrate the new year.



Since durian wasn't allowed inside the hotel (due to its pungent and lingering fragrance), we were relegated to the parking garage for our ADD. Kristina showed her displeasure at their 'no durian policy'.



It was the lure of more durian at midnight that kept us up late. As we toasted the new year in the parking garage, we ate Red Prawn, Horlor and D14 durians.



Our next blog post will have more about our Durian Appreciation Tour.