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Ipoh Cycling Sojourn 2022: Day 2-2- Cycling The Kinta Riverside & Ipoh Art Street

Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia Day 2-2: Wednesday 13th April 2022

This is part of a road/cycling trip from Kuala Lumpur to & around Ipoh.

The second part of today's adventure is a easy and casual ride along the riverside of the Kinta River within Ipoh Old Town:

Masjid Panglima Kinta>Ipoh Mural Art Lane>Kinta Riverfront>D R Seenivasagam Park>Ipoh Love Bridge>Happy Cycling Tree>Masjid Panglima Kinta.

Distance: 5.88 km. | Level: Easy

Time: Not applicable | Time Taken: Not applicable

This is page 3 of a 4-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.

< Go to D2-1 Tg. Rambutan | Go to Other Days | Go To D3 Shopping Ipoh >

Route Recommendations:

1. Traffic Directions!

Malaysia's traffic is right-hand drive, so drive or cycle on the left. Same thing applies when crossing the road, be careful and take note of the direction in which traffic is approaching from!

2. Route & Traffic Conditions

The Kinta Riverfront in Ipoh Old Town is an easy place to ride in, mostly flat with some parts having to carry the bikes up some steps. A major part of the route are along pathways at the riverside, but a short section goes on public roads. Most parts are shady, but some sections are not, so do cover up or apply sun-block lotion. Some section have much mosquitoes, so it's best to apply some mosquito repellent.

3. Places of Interest

Enroute were several places of interests, some of which we visited and others we did not for lack of time (Note: click on GPS coordinates for directional map to respective places):

- Masjid Panglima Kinta (GPS: 4.59335, 101.08110),

- Ipoh Mural Art Lane (GPS: 4.59373, 101.08135),

- Kinta Riverfront Walk (GPS: 4.60318, 101.08003),

- Shui Yue Gong Temple Ipoh (GPS: 4.59851, 101.07943),

- D R Seenivasagam Park (GPS: 4.60437, 101.08448),

- Japanese Karesansui Rock Garden (GPS: 4.60386, 101.08366),

- Kinta River Arch Bridge (GPS: 4.60416, 101.08132),

- Kinta Riverwalk (GPS: 4.60318, 101.08003),

- Shops along the Riverwalk.

- Ipoh Love Bridge (GPS: 4.60293, 101.08036),

- Kinta Riverbank (GPS: 4.59389, 101.07990),

- Happy Cycling Tree (Sleeping Dragon Tree) (GPS: 4.5924, 101.07861).

4. Food

Afternoon Tea: Lai Kee Soya Bean (GPS: 4.59437, 101.08454):

Soy bean milk and Soy bean pudding (tau foo fah)

with Gula Melaka Syrup & Ginger Syrup.

Dinner: The Museum (GPS: 4.59904, 101.09508) in Ipoh Old Town:

Their signature char siew (barbecued pork belly), Wat Tan Hor

(stir-fried flat noodles), Shrimp Omelet, Deep Fried Tofu garnished with fried shallots

& fresh spring onions.

5. Weather

April is within the inter-monsoon period, although there could be short showers, weather can still be hot. The saving grace is the overcast skies do give some shade. At Ipoh, mid-afternoon temperatures were 32°C and night temperature averaged 27°C. There was some light drizzle in the late afternoon and evening.

A useful weather forecast site is AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.

6. Communicating with Locals

For the uninitiated cycling in foreign lands can be a daunting experience, especially when one can only speak a smattering of the local language or if there is no common language to speak to each other (like English). Most Malaysians can speak fairly good English; but in the rural areas the locals speak only some rudimentary English, so learning some basic phrases in Bahasa Malaysia will be helpful.

This could be partly overcome by using translation apps like Google Translate. Do install this app into your phone and before you leave on your tour do some basic translation as it will be saved onto a list of recent translations.

And do install memory-resident translation apps into your mobile phone.

7. Staying in Touch

When travelling in a group it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one got lost or just to share photos and moments. Pre-paid phone sim-cards are easily available from most phone shops in the main towns.

8. Service Your Bicycles & Carry Tools and Spares

Before leaving on your tour, it will be good to service your bike and bring along some spares like tubes, puncture patches, brake pads and the relevant tools.

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PRELUDE

This morning our local buddy, Eugene, had taken us on a tough but memorable ride from Tanjung Rambutan up the foothills of Bukit Batu Suluh to the KOA (Kampung Orang Asli) Tonggang. After lunch, we said our goodbyes to him. But the day was still young and surprisingly Lynne had recovered from her bad cramps suffered up in the hills. So we decided to scratch our itchy cycling legs some more with a ride at the Kinta Riverside in Ipoh Old Town.

This riverside holds so much memories for us as we have cycled here often since our first time during a quick Jaunting Ipoh Ride in 2014; it was then that Sin, Kookkeong & me "discovered" our "Happy Cycling Tree" at the Kinta Riverfront. Since then, this quiet riverside has grown to be a major tourist attraction, and has been extended all the way to the D R Seenivasagam Park and perhaps beyond. Even our "Happy Cycling Tree" has now earned a mighty name and is now known as the Happy Cycling Tree (Sleeping Dragon Tree) 😎.

Okay enough of the memory trip. LET'S RIDE!

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THE RIDE

Route: Masjid Panglima Kinta>Ipoh Mural Art Lane>Kinta Riverfront>D R Seenivasagam Park>Ipoh Love Bridge>Happy Cycling Tree>Masjid Panglima Kinta.

This is an easy five-plus kilometer route that goes on a loop around the Kinta Riverfront in straddling between Ipoh Old Town and Ipoh New Town.
A major part of the route are along pathways at the riverside, but a short section goes on public roads.

(Click here for cycling the Kinta River Google Route Map Link)

For those keen to cycle along the Kinta Riverside, and driving there, a good place to park will be along Jalan Masjid, as the riverside paths are easily accessible from here. There are many car-parks near the Masjid Panglima Kinta. It's also an opportunity to admire this mosque with its unique, easily recognizable, bright blue domes. Built by Datuk Panglima Kinta Mohamed Yusof in 1898 to commemorate his wife who died that year, this mosque is over a hundred years old and is of combined Mughal and Neoclassical architecture.

And just round the corner is the Ipoh Mural Art Lane, which runs parallel to Jalan Masjid and stretches form Jalan Datuk Onn Jaafar to Jalan Laxamana.

Aiks! Anne seems to be cycling backwards in the above animation photo, there seems to be a glitch when preparing animated photos with Google Photos, or perhaps this old man using it wrongly 😂.

Too bad that some of the older murals have faded and peeled off.

These older murals have been around since 2014; to see these murals in their prime condition view the Ipoh Street Art 2014 blog.

Fortunately, new, vibrant ones have been painted, like this cheerful on of the Ipoh Circus with a new year greeting; let's hope that these will be better maintained, and also that the older ones will be refurbished.

In a more sober mood, this one celebrates Mother's Day.

Others showcase Perak as a tin capital with tin-mining ladies playfully splashing water with their dulangs onto the circus animals. Aiks! These animals have happily taken leave from the circus and encroached onto this mural!

This one is unique; it shows the dhoby wallahs whos is to do manual dhoby washing at Jalan Sibilin of Old Ipoh. The animals from the zoo decided to come help out and play too.

A few are useful for seasons greetings such as Happy New Year, Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali, and Merry Christmas!

There are several ones on animals; such as: dragon boats, psychedelic elephants, and colorful Siamese fighting fishes.

This new one is a favorite among visitors. Titled "Full Love", it shows a docile tiger feed its cubs.

The "Children on a Skipping Rope" mural seems slightly worn out, but is still on fun to skip with 😄.

Even a simple red colored sliding grill can form an interesting backdrdop for a romantic interlude!

A "Happy" jump before we leave the place to go explore the riverside nearby.
(click here to view the latest Ipoh Street Art Mural 2022)

The riverside paths are just round the corner from the mosque; and soon we were cycling along shady trails along the river banks!

But this section is lined with paver-bricks and settlement has set in, causing puddles to form. So this section has much mosquitoes too, so it'll be good to apply some mosquito repellent; otherwise one may be scratching more than one's cycling itch!

But here, slightly away from the river are nice old houses, although dilapidated and overgrown!

But these add to the greenery of the place and make it more cooling too.

Unfortunately, this house is slated to be re-developed into a 1-1/2 storey bungalow. Let's hope future development will not reduce the greenery of the place; otherwise it will lose it's charm!

This area is known as Kampung Kuchai.

Among all this lush greenery are hidden other more interesting houses like the one above. This one seems to be a timber Malay kampung house, perhaps it could be a Rumah Kampung Perak.

Be on the look out too for some striking flowers.

The riverside paths run on both sides of the river, and one can criss-cross via several bridges, like the Kinta River Arch Bridge and the Ipoh Love Bridge. But do look down into the river, sometimes there are activities there, like this man doing cast-net fishing.

At the riverside too are several old and huge rain trees, like those beautiful ones found at the Taiping Lake Gardens. The one above even has a name - the Sleeping Dragon Tree.

But we cyclist, especially our Happy Cycling Group, have an even longer love history with this tree, before it was so named we called it the Happy Cycling Tree! Whenever we cycled here, we were sure to stop by to take photos! The above was taken during our 2014 Parit Buntar Cycling Tour, which started at Parit Buntar and ended here at Ipoh.

We all looked so happy..... of course, as we are from the Happy Cycling Group! 😀😊😄

Unfortunately, the large horizontal branch is this photo no more, as it has been cut off.

To prevent encroachment by motor-cyclists, concrete barriers have been put up. The girls can be seen here slowing down, and squeezing through one of these barriers. Ahead is the Jalan Leong Boon Swee bridge, where the lanes ends; we will exit here and use the public road bridge to cross over to the other side. Some narrow lanes do continue after this bridge, perhaps that will be for future exploration; apparently they may lead, in some way, to Batu Gajah!

To cross over to the other side, carried the bike up and down some stairs at Jalan Leong Boon Swee bridge.

Back down at the eastern bank, the initial path was an un-paved narrow one, but one that quickly led to wider paths.

But don't just admire the river and its banks; do stop once in a while to look up. The river is a sort of bird sanctuary, and they are nests amongst the trees. These are probably egrets' nests; use to see them previously wading in the river; but this time round did not see any. I do hope that it's because of off-season and that they are still around.

(photo from Google Maps; credits: Lee Shirley & Omar Shaldan)

Further north, nearer D R Seenivasagam Park, the lanes seems to be wider and have been upgraded and trees line them boulevard-style.

(photo from Google Maps; credits: Lee Shirley)

D R Seenivasagam Park shouldn't be missed as it's a beautiful place; on a bright day, the pond there reflects the skies and trees stunningly!

Nice water-scape and pathways there.

Within this park is a Japanese Rock Garden, so authentically done that one is "transported" to Japan!

Here there are paths and rock gardens set among nicely trimmed shrubs, looks so peaceful that one can meditate serenely.

In the evening we went to The Museum; not to view artifacts but to have dinner.
It's so named as the owner is a collector of artifacts; and inside one can find a few on display!