Friday, March 4, 2011

Short Trip to Kellie's Castle, Ipoh 怡保

On one boring November afternoon, we suddenly decided to have a short trip to Ipoh.

Around 3pm, we reached our first destination - Kellie's Castle, probably the only one castle in Penisular Malaysia. It has a mystery legend behind, like all the leftover castles did. You can click on the link for more details.

We take away the Ipoh's famous Aun Kheng Lim salted chicken (宴琼林盐焗鸡). 4 of us, finish the chicken in less than 15mins. Feel so 狂野 to eat with hands... :p

Salted chicken
Next, we were plan to have a dinner and back home already. However, we determined for a detour to temple after the visit of the haunted castle. One of the cave temple caught our attention because we saw a staircase leading up to a hill while we were driving on the old road from Kellie's Castle to Ipoh town. I can't remember the exactly location. But it's on the same trunk road where there are lots of pamelo selling on road-side.

The staircase we saw from the main road
The cave is named as Guan Yin Cave (觀音洞). The temple itself was closed when we arrived at 6pm ++. However, the other sections for this place still open for public. As we walk deeper to the temple's compound, we found that this place is actually a combination of multi-national and multi-races wishing altar.

Write down your 甜言蜜語and hang it there
It looks like a themepark that presents wishing ritual or method as their theme. From conventional to cultural, from spiritual to modernization. You get too see what's the wishing process and try it on your own! There are explaination notes for each wishing section.

黐孖筋
Wish Making stepping stones

We could not finish all the sections as the sky was getting darker. We went to Lou Wong Nga Choi Gai (老黃芽菜雞) for dinner. Its tender chicken and kuey teow soup used to be very very tasty. However, this is the second time it disappointed me. Some says, the boss had handover his shop to those foreign workers for daily operation. It just wouldn't work man... Guess we will try out other sprout bean chicken next time we are here.

芽菜雞 & 沙河粉

How To Go Kellie's Castle:
1. Drive along North-South Highway. If you coming from North (Penang), exit at Simpang Pulai Toll. If from South (Kuala Lumpur), exit at Gopeng Toll. Around 2 hours drive from both way.
3. Exit at Simpang Pulai Toll, turn left towards Gopeng. 
4. Look for a main junction to make a right turn that leads you to Batu Gajah/Kellie's Castle. Take note on signboard.
2. Probably there's no clear and specific signboard around. Keep looking for signboard in this priority sequence:
- Kellie's Castle
- Batu Gajah
- Gopeng
3. If you are from north Penisular, and you found yourself in Gopeng town, you are mostly overshot the junction to Kellie's Castle.

Address: KM 5.5, Jalan Gopeng, Batu Gajah, Perak.
GPS Location: N 4° 28.525     E 101° 05.262

Entrance Fees:
Primary School: RM2.00
Secondary School: RM3.00
Adult: RM4.00

How To Go Aun Kheng Lim Yim Kok Gai (宴琼林盐焗鸡):
It's located in Ipoh town. Lots of websites already mentioned it's location. So I'll just say look for McDonald as your landmark. You are very close to it if you saw McD.
Address: 24, Jalan Theatre, 30300 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Price: RM16 per bird (Take Away Only)

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