4 January 2023, Wednesday

It was a cool 16 degrees C when we woke up at 7am this morning. Always nice to experience a bit of natural, chilly weather away from the constant heat and humidity in Singapore. At 8am, we checked out of our Golden Hills apartment and drove to Brinchang for breakfast, just five minutes away by car. We found a cosy place called Cottage Delight, which seemed quite decent and popular.

I ordered an American Breakfast (RM8.50 / S$2.62) and a cup of white coffee (RM2.70 / S$0.83). The breakfast set came with two sausages, a slice of ham, baked beans, a fried egg and two slices of toast. It was like something you would get from the Western Food stall at a school canteen. The food was not spectacular but the coffee was good.

After breakfast, we walked around the Brinchang town centre and came across an open-air farmer’s market with several stalls selling vegetables, fruits and foodstuff. The veggies were harvested directly from Cameron Highlands so they all looked very fresh and unblemished. There was also an indoor market, Pasar Awam Brinchang, right beside the open-air one.   

At 9:05am, we left Brinchang and made our way back to Ipoh. At 9:42am, we stopped at a grape farm in Blue Valley but unfortunately, it was closed. We then stopped for a toilet break at a petrol station along the way. It was quite amazing to see that it cost only RM2.05 (S$0.63) per litre for Grade 95 petrol. In Singapore, the equivalent would be around S$2.80 per litre, more than four times as much. The reason for the low petrol prices is because the Malaysian government spends a massive RM50 billion (S$15.38 billion) on petrol, diesel and LPG subsidies each year, benefitting all Malaysians. Hence, foreign-registered vehicles can only pump Grade 97 petrol, which cost RM3.350 (S$1.03) per litre.

As we approached Ipoh, we were stopped by the Police. Uh-oh. The officer told us that a speed trap had captured our car driving at 80km/h when the speed limit was only 60km/h. We explained that we were tourists, and he gave us a chance and kindly let us go without issuing us a ticket. Malaysia boleh!

We arrived at our apartment at 11:15am and discussed the plan for the rest of the day. Uncle S thought of taking us to Taiping but it was quite far away, about 66km from Ipoh and around 1 hour 15 minutes away by car. After the long drive from Cameron Highlands, we felt it was better to stay here in Ipoh so as not to tire ourselves out. At 11:50am, we headed out again.

One of Ipoh’s famous local products is peanut candy. Mum and I really love peanut candy so we requested for Aunt V to take us to the famous shop, Sin Weng Fai (click here), to buy some. Sin Weng Fai opens from 9am to 10pm daily but their peanut candy only goes on sale from 10:30am, according to Aunt V. There is always a long queue for it so you have to be prepared to wait. As we drove round the shop, we saw that the queue was not very long so we quickly hopped out of the car to join the queue.

The peanut candy is handmade daily to ensure freshness and it follows the same recipe and ingredients that have been passed down for generations. The recipe ensures that the nuttiness of the candy is not overpowering but mild and savoury enough to be distinguished on the palate. Every batch sells out almost instantly, so they have imposed a limit of 7 packets per customer. Each packet is 300 grams and costs RM12 (S$3.70).

The aromatic smell of peanut was strong in the air. Two staff members at the cashier counter manually weighed, packed and vacuum sealed the peanut candy into individual packets, so it was a slow and laborious process. There were about 10 people ahead of us in the queue and we all waited patiently. We queued for around 25 minutes before it was our turn. In the end, we spent RM232.60 (S$72) at Sin Weng Fai. We bought quite a lot of peanut candy and other cookies for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

With our mission accomplished, it was finally time for lunch. We drove to a nearby restaurant called Sin Hup Weng Chaozhou, which serves Teochew porridge. Uncle S ordered a spread of dishes to share – kang kong vegetables with chilli, braised duck, chai por egg, tofu and braised egg, and a platter of pig’s innards and fatty pork meat, along with sweet potato porridge. Including drinks, the total bill was RM113.50 (S$35).

At 1:20pm, we left our lunch venue and went back to the apartment to drop off our haul, because we didn’t want the peanut candy to melt in the afternoon heat. By then, it was around 31 degrees C. How I missed the cool temperatures of Cameron Highlands! We drove out again and went to a place that sold Chendol, but unfortunately it was closed.

At 2:20pm, we arrived at Kellie’s Castle, located in Batu Gajah, about 20km from Ipoh. The entrance fee for foreign adults was RM10 (S$3.08) and the parking fee was RM2 (S$0.62). I hadn’t heard of Kellie’s Castle before so I didn’t know what to expect. The castle stood on a small hill across Sungei Raya river. It was built in Moorish, Indo-Saracenic and Roman style and it looked quite pretty.

The castle was built by a Scotsman named William Smith, who came to Malaya (as Malaysia was then known during British colonial times) in 1890 as a 20-year-old civil engineer. Smith’s family were poor farmers so he decided to venture overseas for better prospects. In Malaya, Smith worked for a New Zealand man named Charles Alma Baker and joined him in his survey work, and in road construction. Smith later set up his own firm and won a two-year contract supplying ballast for the railway. Unfortunately, the project stalled, but he later managed to acquire 200 acres of land in the Batu Gajah area of Kinta district for cultivation.

Smith attempted to plant coffee but the coffee boom was over and the price had crashed due to competition from Brazil. Smith then started a rubber plantation that became successful since there was high demand for rubber to make pneumatic tyres. Smith named his estate Kinta Kellas after his home farm “Easter Kellas”, and went on to own the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company as well. The Kinta Tin Rush began around 1884 and made Batu Gajah the centre of the richest tin mining district in the world.

In 1903, Smith went back to Scotland to be with his dying mother. On his return, he met a woman named Agnes on the ship headed for Penang and fell in love with her. He married her almost immediately, and decided to take on his mother’s maiden name Kellie, and he was then known as William Kellie-Smith. They had a daughter named Helen the following year. Another version of the story states that Smith and Agnes were childhood sweethearts and he went back to Scotland to marry her after having made his fortune, and brought her back to Malaya to settle down.

A total of three buildings make up Kellie’s Castle today. The first house, Kellas House, was a modest wooden bungalow. The second house, the Kellas House extension, was a brick mansion built in 1909 and it now stands in ruins in front of Kellie’s Castle (or more accurately, behind Kellie’s Castle, when approaching from the main entrance). Construction on the next extension comprising the tower and the wing, which is now called Kellie’s Castle, started in 1915 following the birth of their son, Anthony.

Kellie-Smith had a vision to build a grand castle with four floors, 14 rooms and Malaya’s first elevator. There were also underground tunnels, secret rooms, an underground cellar and hidden stairways. Kellie-Smith brought in 70 craftsmen from Madras, India to build the castle. All the bricks and marble were imported from India as well. Evidently, no expense was spared.

However, construction on the castle was never completed because Kellie-Smith died of pneumonia in 1926 during a trip to Lisbon, Portugal. His wife Agnes was devastated and decided to move back to Scotland with her children. The castle was abandoned and consumed by the jungle for almost 80 years before the Malaysian government decided to restore it for tourism purposes in the early 2000s.

I must say the government did a good job restoring the castle without altering its character. It retains its original brick façade and weathered appearance, making it feel authentic and un-commercialised. Throughout the building, there are interpretive signs in almost every room, with the text displayed in both Malay and English, making it friendly for foreigners while still catering to locals. Efforts have also been made to recreate the living room as how it could have been when Kellie-Smith’s family was living in the residence, with furniture from that era being displayed in the showroom.

I also liked that it wasn’t crowded at all. Besides our group, there were only a handful of other visitors, so we could explore all the rooms and take as many photos as we wished. We wandered from room to room, walking along the corridors that some say the spirit of Kellie-Smith roams at night. We also went down the spiral staircase and climbed to the rooftop where we had a great view of the surrounding Batu Gajah area.

In all, we spent 50 minutes visiting Kellie’s Castle. I enjoyed it a lot as I like to see old buildings and learn a bit of history about the places I visit. From Batu Gajah, we drove back to Ipoh and arrived at Ipoh Parade mall at 3:40pm for a bit of shopping. It was nice to bask in the cool air-conditioning after being out in the afternoon sun for some time.

At 6pm, we left Ipoh Parade and drove to Perak Stadium for dinner, as Aunt C and Aunt V’s sister operated a stall at the food court there. We had a simple dinner of bee tai bak soup with chicken paste balls and kiam chye, which was very tasty and appetising, and waffles for dessert. After dinner, we went back to our apartment before 8pm and called it a day.

5 January 2023, Thursday

We left our apartment at 8am and drove to Sun Sun Café for our breakfast, arriving at 8:15am. It was a traditional kopitiam, with a half dozen stalls selling local favourites like Hakka noodles, wanton mee, chee cheong fun, roast meat and chicken drumstick noodles. We ordered kaya toast, chee cheong fun, char kway teow and coffee. A delectable breakfast.

We left an hour later and went back to our apartment to do some final packing, before making the short drive to Sultan Azlan Shah airport, arriving at 10:20am. We bade farewell to Uncle S and Aunt V and thanked them for their wonderful hospitality over the past three days. They brought us to places we never would have gone if we came to Ipoh on our own, and ate lots of good food at authentic eateries frequented by the locals. It was really great to share a car and spend quality time together on the road, and also in the same apartment every night.

As we experienced on our arrival, it was a tiny airport, with only three counters open for check in and two immigration counters. Inside the departure hall, there were no water coolers or even vending machines to buy water. It was as basic as it got. At 11:55am, we walked on the tarmac to get to our airplane.

Our Scoot flight TR485 was supposed to depart at 12:05pm but there was a delay as an infant was crying loudly before take-off and refused to wear the seat belt. The flight could not take off until everyone was securely seated. We eventually took off at 12:25pm but still managed to land in Singapore on schedule at 1:23pm. After having our lunch at Heavenly Wang, we hopped on a taxi and went back to home sweet home. End of another short but fulfilling vacation!