Christopher

photo courtesy of Mike Wild

The photograph in this post was likely taken in 1956 at the wedding of James (Jim) Gardner, a rubber planter and Joan Marjorie Joseph (3rd and 4th from left). Mike Wild, who is the son-in-law of James wrote to us in April wanting to know if anyone could recognize the caucasian man at the far right, who was the Best man from his father-in-law’s wedding.

Do write to us if you recognize the man or the caucasian lady (2nd from left) in this photograph.

On the 6th of April, we celebrated the 80th Birthday of our founder, Commander Ian Keith Anderson at the Dome in Meru. With the theme “80 Years of Undetected Crime”, the birthday was definitely one to remember as guests wore cowboy checks and prisoner stripes in matching the theme of the party.

Mr. Anderson being led to the dock by two county officers

Under lock & key

The “accused” and his family 

Once again we’d like to wish you a very happy 80th birthday Mr. Anderson! 

*photographs are courtesy of Tan Mei Kuan 

15 Clarke Street is looking for someone to set up: 1. Food & Beverage counter and 2. Marketplace for Social Goods. We charge very low space rental or even zero rental for certain social enterprises. Please leave your messages at WhatsApp 019-5730536 and expect a call from us.

It’s the day after Christmas or as its better known in the west, Boxing Day. After going through our presents this year, we found this interesting set which didn’t come with any figures. Part of the wild west set of toys, have you played with one of these before? Do let us know…

Said to have originally belonged to a Village Chief (Penghulu), this particular spear has a simple forged blade about 10 inches long with a wooden shaft. Overall it is around 56 inches long.

Have you seen one similar to the one we have? Or have you wielded one before? 😉

Merafak Sembah Setinggi-tinggi Tahniah

Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Sultan Perak Darul Ridzuan
Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah
Ibni Almarhum Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah Al-Maghfur-Lah
Sultan, Yang Di-Pertuan dan Raja Pemerintah
Negeri Perak Darul Ridzuan

Selamat Menyambut Ulang Tahun Keputeraan Tahun 2018

from all of us at 

1948 to 1960 proved to be troubling times as Malaya had to experience attacks within its borders in the form of Communist insurgents. The brave men in the photograph above did their part in helping to keep their towns safe through patrolling the streets at night, they were the Auxiliary police and for that we are truly grateful for their deeds.

Do you have any stories you could share with us about the auxiliary police? Was your father, grandfather part of the force or were you part of the force yourself? Let us know…

The donor of the photograph above attended continuation classes at ACS in 1946 and graduated in 1948. The principal, Mr. Wong Wai Lam is seated (4th from left). How many of you attended ACCS? What were your fondest memories there?

The photographs above was taken on the opening of the Fatimah hospital which was officiated by the Late Sultan of Perak, DYMM Sultan Idris Shah on the 6th of December 1974. Were you there on the day of the opening of the hospital? Do you recognize anyone from the photographs?

Wishing all our muslim followers and readers Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, maaf zahir & batin. Be safe on the roads to all travelling back to your kampung this weekend! Don’t forget to save us some lemang and rendang 😉 

Manufactured by Shibata Industrial Co. Ltd and distributed by Taiwo Trading (Penang) likely before Independence, this manual paddy treadle thresher definitely requires a bit of effort or footwork to say the least. Those who have used threshers like these will tell you it’s no easy task. Have you had to work for your meals (literally) in the past?

A custom printed envelope from P. S. Jamnadass & Co. who were at 15 & 17, Market Street. Do you know of any other tailors whose businesses were at Market Street back in the day as well??

Wishing all our readers and followers a Happy 2018!!! 

Our donor Alan Steel shared the following story with us: “Xmas day, we entertained the children from the local Dr. Barnados home. Staff Battersby turned this jeep into a train to take them on a tour.” According to Alan, the one dressed as Santa (in picture) was Battersby himself!   

We’re all familiar with Christmas cards (paper and e-cards too!). Have you received a handwritten Christmas greeting in Chinese, complete with hand-painted bamboo motives and a poem?

This is indeed a rare finding!

Oops, I guess the decor in the malls must have gotten me in the Christmas mood early this year. This here is a photograph taken in 1956 of the soldiers from the 12th Infantry Workshop REME (Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers) organizing a Christmas party at their base in Ipoh for the orphans and the helpers of the Main Convent orphanage.

Merafak Sembah Setinggi-tinggi Tahniah
Selamat Menyambut Ulang Tahun Keputeraan Tahun 2017

from all of us at 

Photograph courtesy of Irene John

Have you ever heard of the Jubilee Transport Company or rode on their buses before? The company was running a bus service from Lumut to Ipoh from 1932 to 1935. Incidentally, an article from The Straits Times dated 24th of July 1937 read “Ipoh To Have New Bus Service. If Transport Board Approves Scheme”,  which is basically about the company requesting approval for a scheme to run a bus service in Ipoh which would expand to Ipoh’s suburbs.

Measuring at 55 centimetres tall, this kerosene lamp was manufactured by Drawing Petrol Lamps.

How many of you have seen or had this at home?

Who needs an aircond when you have your own personal fan?!

But since Ipoh has been ‘Crazy Hot’ for the past couple of months, I take that back. Hehe…

These are handheld rattan Punkahs, not to be confused with the large swinging fans that were fixed to the ceiling and pulled by a coolie. The word Punkah / Pankha is Hindi and originates from the word Pankh which means the wings of a bird which produces a draft when flapped.

Have you seen one of these before or even better, have you used one of these before? Let us know… 

Kindly click on picture to enlarge.

Some of you may recognize this bridge, most of you pass it driving up North. With the caption Sg. Perak Bridge, July 1984, we believe that this is the Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah Bridge located on the northern part of the North-South Highway.  

Ais krim potong anybody? The weather in Ipoh has just been crazy for the past few weeks, scorching hot in the afternoon, heavy thunderstorms in the evening.

We remember seeing a man on his motorbike selling ais krim potong near the roundabout of Persiaran Greenhill a couple of years back, we haven’t seen him since. What’s your fondest memory of this sweet treat? Do tell…

The next time you’re on Jalan Tun Perak (formerly Conolly Road) and you’re heading to Buntong via Jalan Sungai Pari, keep an eye out for this long-ish building after the turn. This particular building believed to be more than a century old was once the quarters for staff members of the ‘Public Works Department’ or what we call today as the JKR (Jabatan Kerja Raya).

There  also used to be another similar looking structure across the road but has been demolished since late 2013. Has any of our readers out there stayed here in the past? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Click here to read an article written by Star Metro Perak on the structure.

“Have you ever seen a pot the size of a fist!?”. Wait a minute. I didn’t get that quite right, let’s try that again, “Have you ever seen a fist the size of a pot!?” is a Cantonese phrase often used by actors like Stephen Chow in movies when trying to scare someone into not getting into a fight with him.

This cast iron pot (bigger than one’s first of course but smaller than one’s head if anyone wanted to know how big it was) was likely used at home for soups and herbs, how many of you have used this in your homes back then and do you have any interesting experiences or stories which you’d like to share with us? We’d like to hear from you. 

Anyone remembers Kwong Sang Tailors or had been a patron of the business in the past? We’d like to hear from you if you do or were a patron. =) 

An old Dunlop sign with the man himself John Boyd Dunlop at the bottom of the sign. We think its from the 50’s, have you all seen this sign with J. B. Dunlop before?

The picture above was taken from a postcard, on the back are the words “Enclosure surrounding Town Hall”. Our guess is that this was taken in the early 1900’s, before the railway station was built. What do you think photo detectives?

Photo courtesy of Duncan Paterson, taken at a fancy dress party in the Ipoh Club (1940)

Wishing all our followers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance!

From all of us at  

Here’s something to start-up your week. The building in this particular picture is said to be a hotel in Ipoh, Federated Malay States (FMS). Anyone recognizes the building or knows where this hotel might have been?

P. S. We’re not too sure of the name of the hotel or where this building was located.

The photograph above is part of a set of Leong Fu’s, ‘The Chinese Kung-Fu Karato (Atado)’ which was generously donated to us by Dato’ Lim Si Boon. The entire set consists of a promotional booklet (small booklet in the centre) and a 21 part series of illustrated loose sheet instructions. According to peterharrington.co.uk, no copies have been recorded by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in any libraries internationally, and no trade records in the usual channels. So tell us, were you a big fan of Kung Fu?? Click here to see the front covers of the complete set.

  Yes! Tripadvisor travellers worldwide have voted Ipoh World at Han Chin Pet Soo into the Top 1% of Attractions Worldwide. Ipoh’s Number 1 attraction since April 2015 continues to go from strength to strength and is also voted the 4th Best Museum in Malaysia!

With a Certificate of Excellence and voted the Traveller’s Choice, isn’t it time you visited? Visit www.ipohworld.org/reservation to book your visit today!

Picture courtesy of Tom Eadie

Here’s something to start your Monday engines, this is a picture of a sort of busy street taken in 1955. Take a wild guess where this could be, not the street but the place. I’ll give you a clue, it was named the capitol of Perak after the assassination of J. W. W. Birch, the British resident at the time.

Happy guessing! 😉

 Anyone remembers this handy stationary? Despite being more than 60 years old and less glossy than its modern day counterpart, this machine marked The “Hazel” still packs a “Punch” or two as good as its grandchildren, but the question is do you know what it is?

A familiar sight once upon a time, a forgotten memory over time. The building in the picture above, consists of 4 residential units linked together. It is located on a plot of land behind the Syeun Hotel known as Lot 32630 of Jalan Idris, Greentown. According to the donor of this photograph, the image in this picture is what’s remaining of the Old Greentown before it was extensively developed to what it looks like today.

What is your memory of the Old Greentown?

 This here is a fragrance manufactured by Firmenich, a Swiss fragrance and flavor manufacturer founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1895. We were wondering if any of you could help us shed some light to this fragrance (Chettiar Kathambam) in particular. Anyone?

We’ll just let you all have a fun time guessing what this is….and do leave us some interesting stories too! 🙂

A simple altar with offerings to the Jade Emperor

Hokkien New Year is celebrated every year on the Ninth Day of Chinese New Year. Some may wonder, why the ninth day, why not the first day?

Legend has it that during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Hokkiens were attacked by bandits and to save themselves, they hid in a sugar cane plantation until the ninth day when they were sure it was safe to return home. Coincidentally, it was also the Jade Emperor’s birthday; they had been saved by his divine intervention and the protective cover of the sugar cane stalks. (which explains the significance of the Sugar Cane stalks during this celebration)

Having missed the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations, they celebrated their salvation that day and ever since then, the Hokkien dialect group have regarded this date as a symbol of their survival and a time for major celebrations every year.

It’s beginning to look like Chinese New Year, everywhere you go. You hear songs of prosperity, at every mall that you go, its the cheerful kind that sets your hearts aglow. With Chinese New Year being less than two weeks away, preparations for the auspicious celebration would have started for most. Traditional cookies like “Kuih Kapit” are often served to guests on the day of the celebrations. What’s your favourite type of traditional cookie served during Chinese New Year?  

It was definitely a pleasant surprise to have the boy and gals from the Ipoh Classic Car Club in Old Town this morning. They parked their beauties at the corner of the Ho Yan Hor Herbal Tea museum which is of course right next to our very own Han Chin Pet Soo. Guess I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves, enjoy. 😉

A picture possibly depicting a policeman or a home guard patrolling a street in Chemor in the 1950s after the declaration of the Malayan Emergency two years earlier.

Wishing our followers a very happy 2016 from all of us here at Ipoh World! May the year 2016 be a great one for all.

Picture courtesy of Ganesh C.

A photo of the second batch of committee members of The Perak Cheng Clan Association (Persatuan Puak Cheng Perak) to be voted into office in 1st January 1962.

Season’s greetings from all of us at Ipohworld! Wishing all our followers and readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Picture courtesy of Marea Smith

A picture of the dredge in Tanjung Tualang taken in the 70s. You can still see this ‘Monster of the Mines’, Tanjung Tualang Tin Dredge No. 5 (TT5)  along Jalan Tanjung Tualang when you travel from Batu Gajah to Tanjung Tualang.

Picture courtesy of Poh Choo Lim

Thanks to Ipoh World, our plan for organizing a reunion with our primary school teachers has finally materialized. From the few postings in their blog, exactly five years to the date after the first posting, Nov. 22, 2010. We were able to gather about 30 former students to participate in this low-key but yet auspicious occasion.

Former students of NTPS, Jalan Pasir Puteh, were able to honour their teachers to a dinner at the Eurasia Cafe on 21 November, 2015.

Annual dinners among alumni are very common but none can lay claim to organizing one for their primary school teachers who are already in their eighties. The 30 or so students who turned up for the hurriedly organized occasion are mostly retirees themselves in their sixties. Tears and cheers of joy flowed freely when the students and teachers met, some for the very first time after almost 50 years! Another surprise in store for the organizer was that some of the attendees, unknowingly to him, were from the same class way back in the late 50s and nearly 60s.

Everyone was so engrossed in catching up with each other that the MC had a difficult time controlling the crowd and gave up after a few attempts at restoring order before the start of dinner. In fact, he had to take a back seat for the rest of the night as everyone, teachers and students alike, took turns to introduce themselves as well as taking centre stage unannounced at the karaoke session.

Among the distinguished attendees were Dato A. Paramasivam, the newly retired deputy CPO of Perak, Dato Dr. N. Raman, former Director of Hospital Bahagia, Datuk Lean Meng Seong, retired banker, Prof. Dr. Mohd. Jamil Basha, retired university lecturer, Ir. Oon Eng Hock, a consultant, several doctors and many others, who were all former students of this school. They paid tribute to their all time favourite teachers Mr. Charlie Foo, Mr. Yeoh Seng Choon, Mdm Joycelyn Aw, Mrs. Kamala Ramanathan and Mrs. Hew Chai Kee (who is immortalized in Lat’s cartoon) by playing the song “To Sir, With Love” to these few dedicated and selfless teachers.

SH ONG

As Mdm. Chow was unable to be present for the dinner that night, a special lunch was organized for her before she caught the flight to Singapore with her grandson. This was another last minute arrangement and only the initiator, Datuk Lean Meng Seong and a small group of former students were able to attend the lunch. It was another warm and emotional gathering for all present.

A familiar street which Ipoh-ites would definitely recognize. If you do know, don’t tell us where but tell us what was your best memory of the street?

The program book for ‘The Other Festival 2015’

The Other Festival, a festival of Arts, History and Food organized by Kakiseni kicked off in Ipoh on the 22nd of October and would be active until the 8th with fun filled events over the course of 3 weekends. A couple of famous Ipoh-ites would also be involved in the festival namely, Patrick Teoh and Bernice Chauly, who would be taking participants on their respective trails.

More information on The Other Festival can be found on Kakiseni’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/mykakiseni?fref=ts

About a month ago, a mysterious fire broke out at the shop lot behind the former Rex Cinema and razed the two vacant lots (top picture). The lot across the street was also razed by another fire, 3 years prior. This lot has since faced major re-development and the first picture at the bottom left shows how the lot looks like today.

The third and final picture on the bottom right is one taken along Anderson Road (Jalan Raja Musa Aziz) where another major re-development is taking place after the pre-war shop houses were knocked down and according to comments from one of our readers, a fire broke out at one of the lots prior to it being knocked down.

Could we be seeing another major re-development of these lots behind the former Rex Cinema?

The statue of Saint John Baptist De La Salle on the gable of St. Michael’s Institution

A reporter from The Star newspaper, Christina Koh wrote about the story of how the brothers at St. Michael’s Institution rushed to save a large bronze statue of Saint John Baptist De La Salle by removing it, loading it onto a bullock cart and taken to the St. Michael’s Church where it remained until the end of the war.

To read the full article, click here.

Written by an alumni of the band, Master Tan Wei Shern is a book about the St. Michael’s Institution school band or popularly known as the Michaelian Military Band (MMB) which includes history of the band and more. The book also includes an array of photos from various years, you might just find a picture of yourself in the book.

Those who wish to order a copy of the book kindly e-mail: mmbhistorybook2014@gmail.com

donated by Lim Soo Ken

Did you know that the character in the picture above does not exist in the Chinese dictionary? The character ‘Ngai’ which means ‘Me’ in Hakka.

The image above was on the wall of the Hakka museum of China (Meizhou). Any other Hakka characters you know of that doesn’t exist in the Chinese dictionary?