The Last Surviving Tin Dredge and The Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan

Since we had to go back for Qing Ming, the thoughts of going around the area came into my mind. It was the usual of 5am leaving the house and to Ipoh to KK to Taiping. However, this year was quick brief probably due to the super duper hot weather.  Lunch at the Taiping hawker center was a complete chaos and madness with char keow tiao waiting time was 2 hour. Of course we didn't go for it.

So we were back to M Roof at around 4pm after dropping cousins off which took a good 1 hour. The father had to attend a scout reunion so Bao and I had our dinner at the Morning After in the hotel. And we had a very good and relaxing rest at night.

                  
                           It was lamb for Bao and spicy seafood aglio olio for me. 

The next day, we took our time to wake up at around 10am in the comfy bed of M Roof Hotel again since CNY. And spent about 1 hour in the Old Town Grand for breakfast.

          What is different from CNY was that we could request for the White Coffee which I like.                   

Check out around 12, drove towards Tanjung Tualang with the help of GPS.

On the way, stopped by a temple....

                                              Ipoh limestone caves are full of temples.

The drive continued and I enjoyed the country rides with lots of greenery I missed so much. Somewhere along the way, we stopped by for this scenery.

                                                           Lush greenery to cherish.

           

                                      Our country side is really not bad at all.

                                       Let us cherish the little quiet moment once in a while.

                                                                 Near collapsing pillars ....... 

                                                      At the middle of nowhere....

                                          Loving the view.....there are birds flying in the sky.....

                           More greens before we finally reached the Tin Dredge...

79 years old Tin Dredge is huge and massive......

The tour at 2pm is fulled so we drove to Tanjung Tualang town famous for the Udang Galah. Unfortunately we found our stomach still full from the late breakfast. So we settled down in a tiny stall for the ice kacang and fruit rojak which turned out to be very tasty.

At approximately 3.30pm we were back there for the Tin Dredge tour we booked earlier. 

                               This is how it works....digging 30+ meters underground

                                                                          Helmet is required.

                                                                      It is flaoting...

Once inside, the tour guide, the tour guide started to talk.

    The tour guide : "This dredge was built in 1938 in England. It was a medium size dredge weight 4,500 ton.....it was in operation for 44 years till it closed down in 1982....because it was a sunset industry...tin was replaced by plastic and other materials...high operation cost...."

"It cost 2 million back then and it cost 200 million at present day..... Perak car no plate starts with an A because Perak was the first state to have automobile due to tin mining industries producing millionaires..... then came B in Selangor also due to tin mining..... then C....."

"The giant buckets dug as deep as 33 meters to scoop up soils containing tins..... there are 115 buckets all together.... and there were about 60 dredges in Malaysia back then...."

It was 3 storey high but we were only allowed to enter ground floor as the restoration work is still on going.

                                             The massive cables pulling the buckets.....

   Erie idler that went into the water deep into the ground..

The tin collected in giant drums and the soil and the rest were all discard into the lake at rear of the dredge .

    The rear of the dredge floating on a sea of water lotus is a beautiful and enormous sight.

                The tour ended and we walked around it for a while. It was an interesting visit and very informative.

                                                        This is how big a bucket is.

We thought of driving back to Tanjung Tualang for the prawns but changed our mind in the end because we were simply not ready for dinner. So we decided to drive to Teluk Intan for our leaning tower which is 1 hour drive according to GPS.

                                 It was painfully hot and shinning when we were there.

It was closed when we went many years back. This time around we were just i time.

                           

It was built in 1885 making it about 133 years old.

It is definitely leaning as I felt giddy immediately I stepped inside.

And when we saw this only we realized that it is actually a water tank.

Looking up from outside, we could see the tank and the wooden structure.

It is also a clock tower and this is the mechanism.

The structure and design is clearly Chinese here. 

It was a watch tower during Japanese occupation in 1941.

View from the top, the third floor. 

We searched google for food recommendation and ended up in a seafood restaurant for our dinner. Just before the shop closed, we managed to buy some local snacks before we headed home at about 7++. And we were caught at a massive jam reaching home at 1145pm.

Dinner was tomyam fish (very appertising gravy with prawns (for what we missed inTanjung Tuakang) and vege (a must) .

The short getaway was pleasant and interesting. It was really nice to have a drive out of town away from the concrete jungle. Maybe we can have a seafood bak ku teh trip soon.

Gong Xi Fa Chai 2018

2 weeks before CNY 2018, after a long time of talking and postponing, we finally decided to go ahead with the house repainting work. For 1 whole week, we came home to a messy house everyday after work.

This was how messy my room was the first day when I got home. All curtain down, books off the shelf, bed in horrible stage, floor is dusty, toilet is a complete disaster .

Anyways, it was all done up in 1 week's time. The cleaning up almost break my back and my legs during the weekends. I am so glad the house is all bright and clean now.

Dinner at Mr Tuk Tuk during shopping spree.

We started CNY shoppings a few weeks before the day. It was Sunway Pyramid and Midvalley on most weekends as usual. Money spent like no body's business since Bao got home. With the house painting works and CNY preparation, the time went by even faster than I could imagine. 

While I shopped, Bao went for her nail done at a nail art parlour.

On the day before CNY eve, I took half day off from work to go to Midvalley again. And I finally managed to buy 3 blouses and 2 pairs of shoes. When we reached home, it was almost 9pm. By the time we showered and packed, it was way past midnight. Alarm was set at 4am, with less than 4 hours of sleep, we got up and was leaving the house at 5am sharp.

M Roof is M Boutique Hotel new venture.

Traffic wasn't too bad, we reached the hotel around 8.30am. They couldn't let us check-in like last year as someone was occupying the room.  

Hotel lobby looks like picture out of interior design magazine.

While waiting for 6th aunt, we were snapping away.

Selfie for the FB wishes!

 

When waiting became ugly...

After almost 1 hour of waiting, 6th aunt finally arrived. We went for breakfast before we drove to KK ancester home.

Then off we went to Taiping for the praying as usual.

Dinner was at the same restaurant whose owner is 4th uncle's classmate of former engineer.

Back to the old house for catching up before we were back to the comfort of  our triple room. Had a very good rest.

                                          The bed is what makes me come back again and again.

                                                                       Breakfast at the Hotel, Old Town Grand.

                                                                                                          Bao and her OOTD.....

    Beautiful boutique hotel.

Cousin who is residing in Ipoh sent her mother over to the hotel to meet us.

The yearly routine continued.

Bao had her "photo shooting" session with her parents as cameraman and crew cum persnal assistant at the Victoria Bridge.

                                               Beautiful skyline of the old house.

                                            River just at the back of the old house.

                         Victoria Bridge dated back in 1900 used for the mining industries.

It ceased operation in 2002.

                                                               Model of the day....

The first day ended with a candle blowing happy birthday at uncle's house after dinner. 

                                   She had arranged this with her father and cousins.

                                                                                                        Happy Birthday....to me! 

                                                        Posing with a motorcycle.

                                                    Big compound in uncles' house.

Second day was spent in the old house with the cousins before everyone parted to leave for the in-laws' house.

                                                              Second day in the hotel.

                                                                         Second day at hotel lobby.

                                                                                             At the entrance.

                                                                                     At Concubine Lane, Ipoh.

                            

Over the years the young ones are getting bigger and those not so old ones are getting old.

On the 3rd day, we drove to my hometown. It was emotional and happy at the same time for me to see my old mother.

Playing with the cheeky fellow.

                                                          Fireworks session was fantastic and joyful.  

At night, it was fun and funny and lots of laughter playing with fire crackers with dear nephew who purposely stayed back to wait for us before leaving to work in Singapore.

CNY 2018 ended with annual company lunch at Egg, The Pinnacle.

Company annual lunch on the last day of CNY.