Taiping In 24 Hours

The last trip we went up to see my grandma, to see her for the last time, was evenful enough of a holiday for my boys.

The first thing we did when we arrived at Taiping was to grab lunch before heading to see my grandma. By the time we were done sitting and chatting with her and other relatives, plus getting the boys showered, it was dinner time.

We stayed at my aunt's place, which rendered me little sleep as I suddenly got myself in a spot of a tiny sleeping spot with my 3 boys on a double bed. It was also a sleepless night for me as the boys took turn waking and asking for more space to get comfortable in. The next morning, the two older ones woke up at 7am and played in my aunt's garden while I slept in with Myron till 9am. After breakfast, we went around town.

We were driving around the lake gardens when we I thought, the boys should finally, after so many trips to Taiping, join me and a whole of of other people, from many generations before, to take a ride on their slide in the playground. THE slide have been there for more than 40 years, my aunt recalls, as she went around town with us while her kids were in school.



They have changed all the other parts of the playground, upgraded every few years, but these wonderful enormous slides have been here ever since the days my father courted my mom on his Vespa scooters.

We also stopped by a stone dinosaur to take some shots (this is at another part of the lake gardens). One of my brothers has a photo on the back of this rock dino too, when he was about Micah's age.


It was also here that we spotted some monkeys on the trees. We did not wait for them to come down to see if we have food on us. They are known to be pretty fierce when it come to getting food out of people, and have often "robbed" picnickers.


And finally, as we rounded back towards town, we made an unplanned stop at the museum. All because of this plane on display outside that caught our attention.

L->R: Ee-poh (my aunt), Ah Ma, Micah, Max, Myron, Grandma.

Unfortunately the inside was under repair and only one section of natural history was opened. Still, that was good enough for my boys to look at stuffed wild animals and also some crocs and snake skeletons.

The thing about Taiping is that time almost stands still in this small town. All the sights above, we did them in 2 hours on the morning before heading back to KL. After all that we had a western set-lunch (only RM8.60 each, complete with soup and a scoop of ice-cream for dessert and tea/coffee) at a cozy restaurant.

On the way back, we made a couple of toilet breaks. On one, at the Tg. Malim stop, the boys asked to go have a look at a police motorcycle parked at the side and got a treat!!


Their "boss" (a very high ranking office out with all his stars and colours on display) was very friendly* and actually carried my boys onto the bike and told me to take a photo.


Despite the grave intention of our visit to Taiping this round, it was still good fun for the boys.
In a day, so much can happen.


*This confirmed what Mommy had been saying all the time, that you need not fear the police if you do not break the laws. Micah so excited that the policemen were so "friendly" that he wanted to "visit" the army trucks next. (The police were actually escorting a fleet of army truck, which looked like they were transporting some weapons and explosives. There were parked along the emergency lanes of the highway just beside the rest stop.)
Mommy had to say no to his request.