The road trip to Kampar, Perak was unintentional. Since most of the proper hotels were sold out over the Christmas holidays, I ended up booking for a boutique hotel in Kampar. When I saw M Boutique Hotel Kampar, I didn’t think twice for I love the concept of M Boutique Hotel Ipoh (Read: M Boutique Hotel Ipoh – The Review). Apart from escaping the expected crowd in Ipoh, there are apparently plenty areas to explore in Kampar. Kampar is no longer the hollow sleepy town that it used to be. The traffic from Kuala Lumpur to Kampar was punishing. It took 3 hours and a half to reach Kampar, including taking the old trunk road from Tanjung Malim to Kampar.
M Boutique Hotel, Kampar
Located at the new town of Kampar, M Boutique Hotel Kampar is very conveniently located near a hypermarket, rows of restaurants and fast food outlets. The hotel is enjoined with the Old Town White Coffee on the ground floor. The three-storey M Boutique Hotel Kampar is not as big as the one in Ipoh. They still have antique chests and trunks as their interior.
Kelapa Leleh Restaurant, Kampar
After taking a rest at our hip and trendy hotel, we went out for early dinner at Kelapa Leleh, a very famous restaurant in Kampar. It’s 7-13 minutes’ drive from M Boutique Hotel. The traffic through the old town of Kampar could be snail-slow. By the time we arrived there, there were only 2 tables left. Every table had atleast half-open coconut fruit filled with ice-cream and toppings of various flavor. Kelapa leleh, which can be translated to dripping coconut, refers to the ice cream dripping down the coconut container.
I ordered myself Famabest Fruit Coconut Ice cream, which was good. According to the guy who took our order, the ice cream was pretty famous among customers. Another favorite was the Oreo and Milo.
The Mee Goodang Udang turned out to be so-so. The prawns were not that fresh. My brother’s chicken chop cheezy was served cold. The taste was there, but who likes to eat cold meal right?
Parking is easy to get at Kelapa Leleh. We might have ordered the wrong food on the menu. Tell us if you feel the same or otherwise.
Medan Selera Kampar
The next morning, we went to the Medan Selera Kampar for breakfast. Apparently, Kampar is famous for Chinese food such as Roti Ayam, Ayam Garam etc. Due to my halal restriction, let’s keep this post a halal one. 95% of the stalls at Medan Selera Kampar cater for Chinese customers. We went to try the laksa beras and some noodles prepared fresh. Nothing to boast about the food, to be honest.
But my mother was happy to buy a 1L bottle of air pegaga.
Kinta Tin Mining (Travel Pump) Museum
As we still had time to explore Kampar before leaving for Lumut, we decided to visit the Kinta Tin Mining Museum which lies on the same street as M Boutique Hotel. Having recently visited Han Chin Pet Soo, I was very excited to learn more about the history of tin mining in Perak. For non-museum lovers, trust me the Kinta Tin Mining Museum is not as dull as you would imagine. And it’s free, why not?
Before entering the museum building, most visitors would stop to comprehend the huge waterwheel and pump machinery which was used to extract tin ores. We did try our hands on the extraction of tin ores by separating the sand and the tin ores moving the pan in the water. The light weighted sand would be washed out leaving only black powders in the pan.
Inside the Kinta Tin Mining (Travel Pump) Museum, sample of tin ores, tin ingots and goods produced by tin were displayed. Pictures dated as far back as 1920s narrated the history of tin mining in the Kinta Valley. At the centre of the museum, a replica of a huge elephant stood representing the pet elephant owned by Long Jaafar (1790-1857). It was said that Larut, the elephant went missing for several days and was found with its body covered with mud containing significant amount of tin ore. The discovery led to the establishment of “Larut”, the tin mining belt in Taiping.
There was even a section tributing the tin mining prosperity in Kinta Valley to Yap Ah Loy, the father of Kuala Lumpur, Chung Keng Quee (1821-1901) the Clan headman and Perak King of Mines Leong Pi Joo (1857-1912), the pioneer of modernization in tin mining industry and Loke Yew, the tin mining tycoon.
‘The Star’ Attraction at Kinta Tin Mining (Travel Pump) Museum
Another star attraction at Kinta Tin Mining (Travel Pump) Museum is the 6,500 years old sediments-buried fossilized tree runk discovered in Batu Karang, Kampar between 1978-1979. Several tree trunks were exposed to a layer of organic mud & peat in the mine pit during the mining days. The largest of the tree trunks was measured approximately 8 feet in diameter and 70 feet in length. The tree trunks was burnt by the mine workers. However, the tree trunks were found to be highl resistant to fire. Radiocarbon age of the fossilized tree trunk is 6,510 years of age.
Disney Avenue Kampar
I chanced upon the Disney Avenue Kampar when googling for a place to visit that very morning. As we entered Bandar Agacia, it did look like a half complete housing area. Empty. Then we spotted the famous colourful buildings which took inspiration from the trails of Redmond, United States. My heart jumped upon hearing the Disney songs blasting from the speaker. Most of the shops were closed, well atleast I had the impression that they were closed. None of the visitors walked into the open ones. Everyone was more interested in having their pictures taken around the Disney Avenue.
The instagrammers would definitely have a field trip at Disney Avenue and nearby streets of Castle’s Avenue and Pavilion’s Avenue.
2 Comments
Wow! That Disney Avenue is totally new to us. Now Hollywood is just hours away 🙂
So you didn’t go to Gopeng and take a look at the Gopeng Heritage Museum then? You should Farah!
I have been to Gopeng Heritage Museum. I personally think Perak has a lot of interesting museums such as the Tin Mining Museum in Kampar, The tin dredge museum and Han Chin Pet Soo. Just haven’t got the time to write about them all.