Ipoh
Ipoh grew rich on tin. The Kinta Valley held some of the largest alluvial tin deposits on earth, and between the 1880s and the 1970s that money built a city of grand shophouses, a Moorish railway station, millionaires' clubs and civic buildings well beyond what a town of its size would normally have. Then the tin price collapsed, the money left, and Ipoh spent thirty years quietly preserved by neglect. It is now one of the most rewarding stops in Malaysia: a walkable old town of restored heritage buildings, limestone cliffs and cave temples on every side, and a food culture — white coffee, bean sprout chicken, hor fun, dim sum — that Malaysians travel for. It sits two hours from Kuala Lumpur and two from Penang on the electric train, which makes it very easy to add.
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All Ipoh Guides
15 in-depth guides to Ipoh — food, nightlife, beaches, transport, money and the practical detail that is hard to find.