Six hours in Ipoh

A friend woke me up in a Saturday noon (it's Saturday ok) to ask me accompany him to go to Ipoh. Minutes later we were already catching the KTM ETS bound for Ipoh.

While my friend might have considered the trip as work, I considered it a leisure trip to revisit the famed mi udang (prawn noodles) of Perak.

I had my first mi udang in 2009 during a school retreat to Perak. Apart from visiting a few schools and sightseeing in the towns of Ipoh and Kuala Kangsar, we were brought to Kuala Sepetang in Taiping to get a taste of what might have been the best variety of noodles ever invented. The succulent fresh, big prawns in savoury gravy served in a plate with noodles dipped inside could beat any dish we boarders usually had at the dining hall anytime. I recall myself devouring my plate(s) of noodles ignoring the chit chat the others were having ha2.

So from KL Sentral we took the 1405 hrs KTM ETS to Ipoh Sentral. Since it was also my first time on a train, I took the opportunity to wander across the cabins just for the sake of curiosity. I thought the cafe was grander instead of a bar and a simple menu offering of coffee, burger, and fried rice or noodles. I only bought a cup of coffee worth RM2.50 which was brewed from a sachet of 3-in-1 mild flavour Nescafé.



We reached Ipoh at 1630 hours and braved the rain to the Sultan Idris Shah Mosque nearby for the prayers. To leave a note on my first impression of Ipoh, it was between classic and majestic, particularly when I saw the Ipoh Sentral building, the High Court building, the Dewan Bandaran Ipoh, and the clock tower just in front of the mosque's side entrance.

The next agenda was work so let's skip that part to the main entre, the quest for mi udang. We went in circles in Ipoh town for quite some time before finally putting ourselves on course to the nearest mi udang.With the help of GPS we managed to track down an establishment serving the delicacy although we have been told that the authentic mi udang can only be found in Taiping, particularly Kuala Sepetang.

Restoran Mi udang sempoii, as it is known is located by Jalan Tambun, a few kilometres ahead of The Lost World of Tambun. Although hidden behind a Petronas gas station, it didn't stop us from getting the taste of their signature dish the mi udang sempoi. I counted seven prawns size of two fingers in my plate as I was ready to dig in. As I've expected, the taste tho might be different was as delicious as the first one I had 4 years ago. How does it taste? Well I really have no answer cos you should really jump on the next train to Perak and get a plate yourself.

A plate of mi udang sempoii set me back RM8, which was worth the satisfaction and long last. At around 2200 hours we hit PLUS to start a 3-hour journey back home.