an outing in gopeng, perak

I had the privilege to join Khen and Marriane for an outing during my recent trip to Ipoh last week. We headed to an ex-tin-mining town, Gopeng, which is 20km south of Ipoh.

The history of this town is a little sad. According to Wikipedia, "Once this town was bustling with tin miners and locals who busied themselves with the great tin mining industry of Malaysia until the collapse of the tin empire in 1980s. According to locals, there was once a French, British and local tin mining companies developing tin mine industry here. Among of them was called the Osbourne & Chappel which opened its franchise here in one of Gopeng's rich tin mine. Both locals and immigrants worked there. People started to flee the town and seek better opportunities in neighboring towns and cities soon after the collapse of the 80s."


But before the outing, what better way to have breakfast than to experience the local food itself, namely Ipoh Hor Fun. Chicken soup is added to the rice noodles in addition to some fish cake, prawns, shredded chicken and chopped spring onion. If you know where to look for a good stall, this dish is heavenly!


We arrive in the middle of a palm oil plantation and quickly got to work.


Being a palm oil plantation, we would naturally find bright red-coloured palm oil seeds liberally spread on the ground.


Other than that, there are heaps of flowers to photograph...


...and they come in all different colours, shapes and sizes.






We also stopped by a waterfall, and practised some slow shutter speed techniques.


Doing so helps to create a silky smooth effect of the waters flowing down the rocks.


In rural places, local traditions die hard. This tree has nails planted into it to prevent the ''watchman'' of the tree from disturbing locals who frequent the area, if you know what I mean!


We dug into some more local food during lunch in Gopeng.


Cuttle fish in a tomato based sauce, sprinkled with crushed peanuts and sesame seeds.


Stirfried clams.


Fresh steamed tilapia in some unique sauce.