Instead of chicken varuval and murukku, my Deepavali this year was spent with dim sum, chicken rice and the best salt-baked chicken i've ever had. And because my family take food seriously, we didn't want to settle for just any dim sum or chicken. We endured a two-hour train ride to Ipoh, ate till our hearts content, and hopped on another two-hour journey home seven hours later.
Because we didn't drive there, we had to rely on taxis and our feet to get us around. At one point, we walked for more than an hour trying to find our way from the dim sum restaurant to the soya bean place and then to Ipoh Parade. Half way through, some of us gave up and caught a cab instead. Those who braved the long walk to the mall were greeted by Daddy, who immediately shook everyone's hands and said, "Congratulations. You've made it to the next round of the Amazing Race". Haha! I never knew Dad is an Allan Wu-Phil Keoghan wannabe.
During our early chicken-rice dinner, we made up for all the kilos lost while walking. Everyone headed to the train station with bigger bellies and declared that they've had enough food to last until the next day. But of course, being Malaysians, we live to eat. A couple of hours later, we ordered nasi lemak from the train's cafeteria. So much for being stuffed.
Having arrived at the train station an hour earlier, we had time to kill and popped into the nearby
Majestic Station Hotel for a visit. Built in 1917, it houses a really old elevator with stairs circling it and has a hotel room corridor (pictured on the right) unlike any others i've seen. Sure, it has great history but a hotel that has been around since the World War and prolly housed many war officials (both good and evil i suppose)? No thank you. But if antiques, rustic charm and ghosts are your cup of tea, then knock yourself out.
Till the next excursion, tootaloo! Funny how it sounds like "to the loo", which was what some of us did after this picture was taken. Hey, all the chicken and siew mai have to go somewhere right?
