Another,Set of Wall Murals in Ipoh

In my earlier post, I have mentioned about wall paintings along the backlane in the new town area of Ipoh.  Then, a few years later, Ernest Zacharevic, was invited to Ipoh by some rich people to do wall murals in the old town area.  This is the same man whose works in Penang brought him fame.  He is also the one whose mural stirred up quite a storm in Johor Baru.   Anyway, in Ipoh he did seven wall murals and the main attraction to his artwork is that he can blend his painting with the real surround to make them look surreal.  In a way, it something like a form of three dimensional art.

Above, is a painting of a humming bird.  From afar, the bird seems to be trying to get at some berries from the tree.  Real humming birds are quite small.  I have seen them fluttering around trees, just like what you see here.  They will pick up ripe berries, fruits and insects while they hover in the air.

Talking about birds, here we have a young girl who is trying to get at the birds which are "caged" above the ventilation holes.  Ernest Zacharevic excels in blending real things with his drawing.  The red plastic chair and the bird cage are real while the girl is not.  I saw people coming to "help" the girl while posing for a picture.  

Not far from the drawing of the girl and the birds, is this giant packets of "kopi O" or black coffee hanging on the wall of a building.  Bring a drinking straw when you come, and then position yourself to "drink" from one of the packets. That will be an interesting trick shot.  I have seen people doing that too.

Because Ipoh was a famous tin mining town in the past, the theme of tin-mining is what this mural is all about.  The drawing depicts a scene of an old fashioned tin-mine and the old ways in which tin was mined in Ipoh.

This old man seems to be enjoying a cup of hot coffee.  This is no ordinary "uncle", he is the icon of the famous Ipoh Old Town White Coffee.  In fact, the wall belongs to the Old Town White Coffee restaurant.  If I've got my information right, the boss of this place is one of the sponsors for all these murals.   

Jalan Sanders, Ipoh

This is used to be the name of a short road that runs through the railway quarters in Ipoh, from St John's Road to Connolly Road.  Today, I don't know what it is called.  Even Google Map left it unnamed. The road sign is not there anymore and Connolly Road is now named Jalan Tun Perak.  According to Durai Raja Singam, in his writings on Malayan Street names, Connolly Road was named after  Dr RM Connolly, a District Surgeon of Taiping and Ipoh. Jalan Sanders used to be roaring with life and the field next to the road was a hive of sporting activities in the evenings. Today, it is merely a shadow of it former self.  The houses along the road are dilapidated and most are now unoccupied.

At the junction of St John's Road and Jalan Sanders, is this famous mamak restaurant known earlier as the murtabak restoran, but is now named Restoran Goodshed.  This is because it is located just opposite the railway goodshed.  That place is now the Ipoh inland port terminal.  Once, it was supposed to sell the best roti canai and murtabak in Ipoh. Today, the roti canai and its signature murtabak don't taste the same anymore.  Nevertheless, I read a food review somewhere, that it is still one of the top place to go for a murtabak in Ipoh.  In the 1970's a piece of roti canai cost 15 cents and a murtabak cost $1 only.

This is Jalan Sanders seen from St John's Road.  The old row of wooden railway quarters are still there. However, only a few of the rain-trees on the opposite side of the road are still there    The first house seen in this picture used to be the house of a carpenter, Mr Chong -  and his family. No one stays there now.

   

The first house on this block is No.107 Jalan Sanders. This house holds special memories to us. This the house in which we all grew up.  The original house number is not there anymore but someone has replaced it with a chalked written one.

A closer view of No.107. The front door and the windows have been nailed closed, meaning no occupies this house now.  However, as shown in the earlier picture, it seems like there is someone staying at the back portion of the house.  A zoomed in view of the side of the house revealed that there is a car with the registration number ADY 7278, parked inside the side entrance.  Why would someone want to occupy the back portion and not the main part of the house will remain a mystery.  

Bits of the past in Kuching

A short visit to Kuching, Sarawak to attend a niece’s wedding, gave me some time to roam around the city and look at things which are no longer seen over at Peninsula Malaysia, at least along the west coast.  When one talks about heritage, one usually thinks of old building and architectural structures and forget about the living heritage.  Living heritage are sometimes more valuable – it’s the old ways of life – which may disappear soon together with the last generation of practitioners.  Here, in Kuching, I found, much to my delight, that much of what has disappeared back home, are still in practice.  For instance, at the famous waterfront to the Sarawak River, old fashioned boats are still being used to ferry passengers across the river for only 50 sen per person.   That rate belongs to the 1970’s for a ride across a river in any kind of boat.   This kind of trade – as a boatman – has long disappeared in West Malaysia.  One just can’t earn enough to sustain a living, doing this. Modernised form of transportation and improved road infrastructures has made this form of trade obsolete.  

Talking of modernised form of transportation, I noticed that although new and air-cond. buses are now moving people around the city, the old-fashioned, open-windowed buses are still going around doing its public service, faithfully.  The design, the paintwork and even the seats are still the same for the last half of a century or so.  Of course, such buses are also still plying along rural routes in West Malaysia, but over here, they are very well maintained. Riding on these buses brings back memories of how I have to change stage buses three times for a journey from Ipoh to Penang in the early 70’s.  And, all those buses looked like this one that I saw in Kuching.

As a youngster, I used to enjoy ice-balls.  Those days ice-balls cost only 10 sen each.  They are made by pressing shaved ice into a ball, the size of a sepak-takraw ball, and then had red syrup or sarsi poured over and into it.  On a hot day, sucking the red syrup out of the ice-ball is delightful.  Now, no one makes ice-ball this way any more.  Then, you know what, there is this stall by the side if a road in Kuching which is still selling something that is so similar to our ice-balls.  They called it ice kantong. Same principle, shaved ice and then squeeze the ice onto a stick and pour syrup over it!!    On that  hot afternoon, it was selling like hot cakes!  The next thing that caught my attention was the tool the hawker used to shave the ice.  No one use such a thing back home anymore – it is a wooden ice shredder!  You just push a block of ice over the blade sticking out of a wooden stool-like equipment and the ice is shaved.  This was used by the cendol man, the ice kacang man and the ice-ball man, long, long ago over in West Malaysia.  This is what I meant by living heritage.  This man is doing it exactly just the way his grandfather did. 

         

Making Ice Kantong

Still using an old wooden ice-shredder