200 kilometre from Kuala Lumpur, a typical road trip to Ipoh will take about 2 and a half hours if you are using the PLUS highway.
Minus the hotel, the total cost for petrol and toll is about RM100, since we drive a Perodua Axia, we did fill-up our tank at the starting point ( Rawang RnR) and top-up our Touch N Go RM50. Toll rate; RM23.20 (Rawang – Ipoh ). We refuel again before heading back to KL and using 'jalan kampung' with no toll at all.
Here how's the trip goes :
Day 1
Start our journey from Rawang, make a stop at RTC Perak to buy some fruits and continue to Ipoh. We arrive slightly around 1 p.m and head straight to have our lunch at Kedai Kopi Yong Suan that are famously known for their Nasi Kandar Ayam Merah or 'Nasi Ganja'.
After that, we settle down at Kinta Riverfront Hotel & Suites. Although we come earlier, our room is ready, and as we are currently on RMCO, all guest body temperature need to be checked before entering the hotel.
We too a quick recharge before going out again to Greentown Dimsum Café the ONLY HALAL certified dim sum outlet in Ipoh.
Next, we head over to Concubine Lane but we arrive slightly late, around 6.30 p.m and all the shop already closes by that time. So, we decided to go to BookXcess @ Kong Heng instead and take a few photos and buy some books.
An interesting fact about BookXcess @Kong Heng is it's a former bank-turned-bookstore, decorated with witty neon light signages and home to the Yasmin Ahmad 'newseum'.
BookXcess Kong Heng offers customers unique shopping experience by building its bookstore within the bank's vaults and safety deposits!
After an hour at the bookstore, we make our way to Chokodok Reggae House Cafe & Backpackers at Jalan Sultan Iskandar (few meters away from Chekodok Reggae) to take a quick bite and enjoy the live music performance.
Before ending our day, we stroll around Gerbang Malam - a night market that sells many goodies at a reasonable price. Watch, shoes, bag or even souvenirs can be found here. They are open from 6:00 pm to midnight every day except for really heavy rainy days.
Day 2
We purposely didn't take the hotel breakfast, but they do have it for RM25 or RM35 per pax (sorry I didn't remember the exact price but it's either one) but we choose to drive to Taman Canning and head to Restoran New Hollywood.
Our favourite is the Cheong Fun, set of bread with eggs and of course, the Hainanese or white coffee.
After a quick breakfast session (and its rains), we drive to Concubine Lane again and this time all shops are open and there's is a lot of things to eat and shop. One of them is the colourful cheese toast. Since I already tried most of them previously, so we skipped all the street food and straight away head to Platf9rm Coffee & Brew Cafe.