the town that tin built

This picture of the Ipoh railway station was taken in Feburary 2004, at its finishing touches. As part of the double track northern sector railway expansion project, the station was renovated and given a fresh coat of paint. The Ipoh railway station was one of the grandest and the three biggest railway stations that the colonial master planned and build in the Federated Malaya States and the Straits Settlement. The other two being the Kuala Lumpur railway station and the Singapore railway station.

Located in the middle of the Kinta Valley, Ipoh was once described as the town that tin built. The rough and tough bustling heydays of the wild north where immigrants came to seek their fortune in the open cast tin mines are long gone. The tin industry brought with it restaurants, sing-song girls, bars, massage palours and in the seventies of the last century chic barber shops notoriously famous for the extra services provided by the female barber. There were also the pretty and innocent lass selling herbal drink from the roadside stall. And, the fine gal with the film star look selling g-cheong fun (a version of rice noodles).

What has Lee Ang's Crouching Tiger and Bond film got to do with Ipoh, you may ask. Well, Ipoh is well known for producing pretty maidens, and the lead actress is a fine product of Ipoh. However an absurd tale that folks in other town have about Ipoh beauties was that because Ipoh was a mistress town, therefore naturally she has more beauties than any other towns in the country. They said mistresses were more often than not prettier than the customary wives, and pretty mum begets pretty daughters. Was it not envy that wove that falsehood.?

Vistors to Ipoh used to praise her as the cleanest town in the country. It was a planned town with its shop houses laid out in grid and a good drainage system helps to keep it clean. She is also blessed with good water from the surrounding limestone mountains. It has it that without the water, Ipoh would not be endowed with the silken hofun (another version of rice noodles) and crunchy bean sprout. The Ipoh hofun found here in the Singpore is a poor imitation of the real thing.

A while back an article in the ST contrasted its fortune with the booming Kerteh town, which was a fishing village located in the coast of the oil rich state off the eastern peninsula. Fortune wax and wane, and it is no different with towns and cities. Ipoh is quiet, and laid back, showing its age. The city center in the old and new town has hollowed out as the center of business activities shifted northwards to the North-South Highway.

Ipoh railway station will always have a place in the heart of the folks that hailed from this fine town. There were many a farewell enacted here over the century, where their immigrant forefathers would take the train from here to Singapore to catch the boat back to China. This was the station where the country boy would alight en route back to his kampong during his college days in KL.


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