I Did Not Expect To Like This Malaysian City ThIsMuch and why you should visit

Ipoh! Wow! The marketing department really devised this exciting slogan. A genius. A genius, wow. We are here in one of the largest cities in Malaysia. It's got a population of like 7-800,000 people. But to be honest, in these first moments that we've just gotten here, it's pretty chill, isn't it? It feels like a smaller city with all the lower buildings. It's nice. I mean, when you're driving in, it's actually pretty majestic. Where it's got these scaling limestone cliffs. Because Ipoh is actually really known for cave temples, I guess would be the term. And it used to be extremely wealthy in British colonial times for tin mining. But now it is very much a tourist town. It is very famous for the limestone caves as well as the home of white coffee. And pomelos. Pomelos, yes. And melons. The nature here really is spectacular. And I think if you were looking for a city that's much more relaxed than Kuala Lumpur or Penang, where we are going next, this might be it. So we are in such a cool space right now. We are here in Khlong Heng Square. Which is this very unique colonial era cluster of buildings. And I guess for a long time they were just fully abandoned. But through the past few years, there has been a whole bunch of artists, cafes, restaurants that have moved in here and have made it such a cute space. So we were just walking down concubine lane. What a name for a place. But I guess that's the history. And we decided to try this milk custard that I guess is more famous in China. But Chinese heritage is of course a big part of Malaysia as well. So I'm not quite sure what to expect. Let's try it. The consistency actually looks quite different than other custard I've had before. That's actually really good. Very nice on a very hot day. Definitely not as sweet as I was expecting. Alright, here we are at one of the best rated places for not only white coffee but some other delicious treats. So let's try it out. Hey guys, we got so much going on here but it is so good. We have some friends joining us here today. And we are gonna try the famous white coffee that they have here. We obviously got it cold because it is just so hot out. Lane, do you want to do the honors? Try the white coffee. What do you think? It's smooth, it's sweet. I like it. It's roasted much lighter and I believe with margarine and caramelized with sugar. It's nice and smooth. This looks amazing. And then as far as other things, we got a whole bunch of everything going on. We got some dim sum, we got some shrimp roll, sesame ball. And then this dish is interesting. This is the banana leaf fried kway chao if I'm pronouncing that correctly. I've had it before. It's kind of similar to pad thai but definitely spicier and like flat rice noodles. Some noodles going on here. And a shrimp. Wow. That's all I'm gonna think of now whenever I say wow. I'm just gonna grab it. Alright, let's try. Okay, we have a shrimp roll. It's very good but it's very chaotic and you have to buy things from all the separate places but the taste is amazing. Happy birthday dear Lane. Happy birthday to you. You guys are so sweet. They even got her a birthday cake. What is it called? A tart, right? But it's an egg tart, right? Egg tart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very famous in Japan. It's interesting because you can taste that it's egg but it's slightly sweet. It's really good. Yeah, amazing. So, we are already on day two because yesterday we got rained out but I have to say we met the cutest people. They came and sat with us at the restaurant downtown and they were really sweet and bought us cake for our birthdays and they got the restaurant singing happy birthday. The sweetest. Very good first impression of Ipoh. Just very kind people and a very quaint downtown, right? It's not, I wouldn't say super busy but there's enough to do. Yeah, the markets we walked around were cute and it was incredible. We're going to almost get run over here. But yeah, so good, good first day in Ipoh. But now we are here at the Mirror Lake Tasik Sermin if I'm pronouncing it correctly. And this was I think one of the top rated things that you read about in the guidebook that this is like a beautiful lake to take a boat ride on. There's two mirror lakes and yeah, we can ride boats on them, I guess. And then also right beside there is a cave temple so I think we'll be able to do both in the same day. Super beautiful. Did you enjoy our boat lake ride? It was nice. It was very nice. Good idea to come in the morning because it will get extremely hot and intense later on in the day and busy. But just want to let you guys know that not just here but you know Southeast Asia in general you need to be very aware that there's a lot of poisonous snakes. And as our guide was saying because we're in a water area at night there's pythons that come out. They go swimming. They go swimming because they love the water. Just be aware of that because even our guide was saying he was bit by a viper because he was doing some rock climbing in the area and because they really blend in with the greenery he accidentally touched one and it bit him. Your hand completely swells up and then he had to go get antivenom at the hospital or risk death. So just keep that in mind in Southeast Asia. It's not a joke that there are some very poisonous scary things here especially if you are out in nature. So we just arrived to Sam Po Tong Temple. This is one of the oldest cave temples here in Ipoh and this is incredible. What a spectacular almost garden. I would almost call this a garden because you have this huge koi pond these incredible rock formations with different sculptures in them and then I think the main temple is kind of past this large gate because the temples were literally built into the caves and from what I read online the limestone cave itself is 400 million years old. So absolutely this is one of the most unique things about visiting Ipoh but sadly a couple of the other temples that we were going to see were closed but luckily this one which is gorgeous is still open. They're way bigger than I was expecting. That's a chunky tortoise. Oh my goodness, look at you. You are so cute. It is crazy, if you guys can see there are turtles all over there like at least 20 or 30 and they all kind of like being around the parameter of this gate here. There's a whole bunch clustered right there. They are so cute. Oh my gosh. Hello. This is so nice. Their desserts look amazing. Wow. So from a very local place for lunch yesterday we decided to go with a very westernized brunch. Lane, your avocado toast looks amazing. It looks so good. I'm so happy for you. And then I got this behemoth of a breakfast and initially I did really want to try the desserts here but I'm not so sure we'll have room. But it looks really good, it's really good. So for our last and final day here in Ipoh Lane and I have chosen to come to a bit of an unorthodox sort of attraction if you can even call it that. This is the Papan Heritage Village which is, I guess, yes, it is an attraction because they do actually have some signs of, you know, the history of this area but it is more or less an abandoned village but it had a boom in the late 1800s, early 1900s with, you know, the tin mining industry but then with the collapse of tin prices and also occupation by the Japanese during the Second World War this village kind of fell into disarray leaving these, you know, beautiful colonial houses which, you know, have now been overgrown with vines and trees. It's an interesting place to see for sure. It's kind of on the outskirts of the city so we couldn't even get, you know, a grab to initially go by the name that it shows on Google Maps we had to use, like, this other name to be dropped off here so to be frank we're a little bit worried about getting a grab back hopefully we'll be able to figure it out but luckily there is still some people that have now chosen to move back into the village so there are other people here that, you know, we can ask for help if need be. So like I said, we are literally in a tiny abandoned village on the outskirts of Ipoh and I meet Nate who we have actually chatted on Instagram and you totally explore these kinds of places, right? Yeah, that's sort of my side job I go around the world just taking pictures of abandoned places. How did you initially hear about this one here? Honestly, it's all over Google. And what's been your experience so far? Because I think you got here before we did. I got here like an hour ago and yeah, I'm just surprised that a lot of these places you can just walk into in most places in the world they lock up abandoned buildings that you have to really strategically find a way in and look at this, you can just walk right in and check it out. But yeah guys, if you want to see more amazing abandoned places check out Nate on Instagram It's so crazy that you would be here at the same time as us I'm like, what? How do you know my name? This is crazy Right? Oh yeah I am well aware there are snakes in this country So this is what some of the furniture looked like back then Serio? This is so cool Oh my gosh We are so lucky today with the people that we're meeting We're getting the inside look We met the people who own all of these buildings and they've completely refurbished everything and this is kind of a museum slash library and then they also own the cafe right beside So cool It is at least 30 degrees We are baking So let's see if we can have a nice cold drink at this local cafe here That looks so good Thank you So you want to try a bun? Yeah, let's try a bun Oh my gosh Kumquat tea Nate, it's really good you said? It's good It's really good, oh my gosh I'm so excited Kumquat tea That's so interesting It's really good But a very, very different taste than I expected I wasn't expecting that What do you think? It's very good I think it's good It's just different It looks like orange Gatorade And then we ended up getting two food things to try We got some chicken rice in a very unique way and then a soft chicken bun I think that's pork Oh, it's pork, okay Blaine, do you want to try the pork bun? How do I... I mean, you can use your hands Oh, this is pretty good I think it's good I'll try it Yeah, it's yummy Good, yeah And Nate, you said the chicken rice was good, right? Awesome Success Well, I think there is only one word that will encapsulate our time at Ipoh Wow The marketing person was right all along that there actually is so much to see in Ipoh and I myself am shocked because honestly, when I first looked at this place I'm like, okay, yeah, whatever, we'll stop there I'm not that excited about it I don't think there's that much to do But this has ended up being such a great unexpected adventure in so many ways and I would highly recommend you all check out Ipoh But yeah, Blaine, Nate Thank you so much for being my co-host here in this journey Check them both out on Instagram And until next time Keep being your own kind of beautiful Bye, guys