Trip to Ipoh

Last Sunday I joined my church for a 2-day retreat to Ipoh, where 2 (Chee Wing & Dexter)of them are from.

To begin with, our journey there was truly interesting. A few of us don't normally travel by bus. So they required that it must be a very nice bus. So, Dexter bought tickets from a 'Kesatuan Ekspress'. We saw the picture of the interior and we were impressed. So we arrived Duta bus station. Since it was holiday season we had to wait almost 1 1/2 hour for the bus to arrive. Finally we saw the bus...."Arrrgggghhh! You bluff me!" One of them squealed in Mandarin...Hah! The bus was the bus kilang type....It was super old and whenever the bus moved, the air-cond was super hot. So off we went to Ipoh....

We did many things especially hunting for food...Most interestingly was trying the famous Ipoh white coffee. Wah! It was soo strong I was light-headed for 1 hour.

On our last day we went to Gua Tempurung. Actually we went there too late the day before, at 1.30pm. And it was almost raining. So we went back dissappointed. But the next day, we were blessed. Not only was the wheather sunny but our tourguide was so adventurous that he brought us beyond what we paid for. So we were in the cave from 10.30-1.10pm.

The 1st half of the journey was climbing stairs all the way. The view in the cave was superb with various stone formations. We finally arrived where the stairs ended. When we off our torches it was pitch dark, we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces. We went back via the river. This was the most interesting part of the trip. Certain areas was so low, we had no choice but to swim through. There was one part we had to slide down an almost 5m 'dried' waterfall. Then we had to jump down a 8-feet pit via a small openning. Along the way, some lost or almost lost their slippers. But we were wet and had fun!

Coming back was as interesting. We learnt our lesson of not travelling via 'Kesatuan Ekspress'. So we took 'Konsortium'. Chee Wing who was holding our tickets arrived late at the bus-station. So when we boarded the 2.30pm bus, we were chased out! How embarrasing.....Anyway we were allowed to take the 3pm bus without additional charge. However it left only at 3.30pm. But we thought it was a blessing indisguise as the 1st bus was in such a terrible condition.

It was a pleasant trip all the way till..."BANG!"....One of the tires burst. OH no! So we pulled to the side to await the next bus to pass by. Our group of 8 people was split into 2 as the 1st four boarded the 1st bus that came and the balance waited for another bus. About an hour later in the 2nd bus, we received an sms from the 1st group that their bus broke down!

It was quite hilarious as before that me and my friend were just discussing the probability of 2 buses we took breaking down successively! mind...mind.... Anyway 7 of us were reunited when we went to their rescue...hehe...By then we were praying that our bus don't give any problems, cause 2 breakdowns were hard enough....

Anyway we arrived KL safely. It was a good trip with many new experience and deeper friendships made.