Malaysian Road Trip! Episode 1: Exploring Ipoh’s Hidden Gems, Herbal Tea Museum & Local Favorites

Shum and I set off on a week-long road trip across Malaysia: Ipoh, Taiping, Penang and the Cameron Highlands, all places viewers had told me to visit. The coolest part isn’t the destinations, though. It’s a native Malaysian and some crazy foreigner from America on a road trip together. By the end, we’d know each other really, really well.

Pun Chun Restaurant. Our first stop was Pun Chun Restaurant on Jalan Besar, an old-school favorite of Shum and his friends, where I tried the stink bean bun he’d been telling me about and herbal duck noodles. There’s no menu; you just trust your local friend. The noodles were good, and since I was a little under the weather, they were exactly what I needed.

Han Chin Pet Soo. I wasn’t feeling great, so we took it slow, but the tin mining museum in Ipoh was a highlight. Normally I’m not a big fan of museums, but our guide did an exceptional job. He was extremely knowledgeable about tin mining and how it shaped Ipoh and the rest of Malaysia, including the downsides, like opium use, the gambling games of the era (he had visitors role-play one) and the story of the concubines.

Shum called ahead to book a time for us. There’s no set price, but donations are welcome. The tour was very informative, and the guide did an amazing job.

A bank-vault bookstore. Shum made us visit a bookstore. This one is down a staircase in an old bank vault, complete with safe deposit boxes: the speakeasy of bookstores.

Ho Yan Hor Museum. This herbal tea museum tells the story of Dr. Ho Kai Cheong, a Chinese physician who, after World War II, rented a small room above this shop with his young family, brewed his tea in the shared kitchen and sold it from the veranda. He eventually bought the shop and cycled from town to town selling his tea. Today the company, Hovid, is a big pharmaceutical exporter. Be careful on the stairs; they’re more than 100 years old. The tour ends with a tasting of five teas: the gold tea for digestion, a calming night tea with mulberry leaves, the original fever remedy (strong and slightly bitter), a spicy ginger tea, and a cold sweet licorice tea that was my favorite. I had a refill.

Nam Thean Tong Temple. We finished at the limestone cave temples, with incense, oil lamps kept burning by donations, and a sleeping Buddha. The cave stays nice and cool. Shum tried to tell me the legend involved five people emerging from the cave as the Power Rangers. I’m fairly sure that isn’t right.

Dinner with family. We ended the day with Shum’s brother and his wife, trying bean sprouts with chicken and my first chicken feet. Not touristy at all, which is exactly what I love.

Where we stayed: the WEIL Hotel on this first pass through Ipoh, and the Symphony Suites Ipoh for one night on the way back before heading to the Cameron Highlands.

Continue the trip in Episode 2: My First Mosque Visit.