THE 1980s saw dark clouds descend on my hometown in Ipoh... and Perak, in general. It was the decade when the once tin-rich state was badly hit by the worldwide decline of the tin industry.
Coincidentally, that was also the decade in which I grew up in, spending both primary and secondary years in the Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) in Jalan Lahat, which happened to be the first public school with a swimming pool.
While hardly a competitive swimmer (I only represented my Red Team once in the annual school’s sports day), I always enjoyed a dip in my school’s chlorinated pool every Wednesday, plus the monthly visits to Ipoh’s best-known swimming pools — the Kinta Swimming Club in Jalan Silibin, the Ipoh Swimming Club in Jalan Gopeng (now Jalan Sultan Nazrin Shah), the Perak Stadium swimming pool in Jalan Simee and the Royal Perak Golf Club swimming pool in Jalan Harimau.
Having a splash at a couple of waterfalls with schoolmates was an occasional treat for me, too.
There was the Ulu Buntong Waterfalls at the foothills of the Keledang Range along the Ipoh-Lumut Highway (sadly, the area around it was recently cleared for an oil palm plantation, and the state government is now re-greening it following public protests), the Ulu Chepor Waterfalls in Jelapang and the most popular of them all, the Tanjung Rambutan Waterfalls where the water was most chilling and refreshing.
And when I was not swimming, watching movies in some of Ipoh’s best-known cinemas was my other major weekend treat.
The iconic Lido and Cathay cinemas in Jalan Datuk Onn Jaafar were the “top lepak spots” for youngsters. I fondly remember enjoying the first Star Wars trilogy in Cathay, plus the first Indiana Jones trilogy in Lido.
Popular restaurants were aplenty in the vicinity of Lido and Cathay, too. Besides the first fast food restaurant chains, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and A&W in town, there were also the cafes with trendy names for their drinks.
As for shopping centres, I would often hang out with friends in Super Kinta and Yik Foong, the first of which has since become Ipoh’s Urban Transformation Centre (UTC).
Super Kinta was a departmental store right above Ipoh’s main wet market in Jalan Datuk Onn Jaafar, while Yik Foong was a five-storey shopping complex directly opposite it in Jalan Laksamana.
Back then, modern shopping malls were unheard of and the first among them — Ipoh Parade — only arrived in the mid-1990s.
Super Kinta had the largest and was the best-stocked supermarket in town. It was occasionally used for filming Chinese language television dramas.
As for Yik Foong, it was the place to go for cheap clothes, the latest albums from local, Western and Hong Kong pop stars and the latest home videos from Hollywood and Hong Kong.
It also had a great cafe in the lower-ground floor where I first discovered the gastronomic wonder of roti jala (nothing has come close to Yik Foong’s roti jala even today).
Ipoh, which became a city in 1988, was as much a food haven, especially for Chinese food lovers back then as it is today.
The famous flat, white noodles with soy sauce, chilli sauce, mushroom gravy and chopped onions called chee cheong fun was my childhood favourite hawker food and remains so till today.
The best place to get it has always been a corner coffee shop in Canning Garden opposite the wet market, and later another gem of a chee cheong fun joint emerged in the Woolley Food Court, off Jalan Canning in neighbouring Ipoh Garden.
The Ipoh of the 1980s had lots of green areas. Besides playgrounds and football fields (which I only visited for the par courses), the area is known for its Instagram-worthy limestone hills.
Some of these hills most notably Gunung Tasek in the north, Gunung Rapat in the south, and Gunung Datuk and Gunung Layang-Layang in the east of the city have splendid cave temples and all of them have since been upgraded and given fresh coats of paint.
These limestone hills were excellent “guides” whenever I got lost in town.
Since Standard Two, I have learnt to sketch them and remembered their names and locations. And whenever I need help with directions, I’d refer to the limestone hill by its shape — elephant-shaped or snake-shaped.
When I was in Standard Six, I climbed the city’s most accessible granite mountain — the 808m Gunung Keledang, three times!
An iconic mountain in the west of the city, it has a tar road leading all the way up to the city’s television transmission stations at the very top.
To get there, climbers had to go to the small industrial suburb of Menglembu.
Until today, many Ipoh-ites of all ages take leisurely walks up the mountain as early as 6am. The view of the city is breathtaking up there.
After securing a job at the New Straits Times in 1996, I never failed to return to my hometown every Chinese New Year or Christmas. In the last two decades, changes have come to Ipoh for better or worse.
The title “cleanest town in Malaysia” could well return to Ipoh soon since its streets and sidewalks have returned to how they were in the 1970s, with almost every shophouse beautifully refurbished. Even the back lanes are neater today, with works by street artists adorning strategic parts of Old Town and New Town.
The good old cinemas of yesteryears are gone now and on a sad note, some of the beautiful limestone hills have fallen victim to quarries, most notably Gunung Rapat and Gunung Terendum, which sandwich the North-South Highway.
If conservation efforts are not carried out, some of the smaller hills will be gone by the next decade.
Some childhood favourite haunts of mine have also become a lot more excusive than before. The Tambun Hot Springs is now the Banjaran Resort And Spa.
Ipoh may have “grown” over the last 20 years but it still retains a lot of its 1980s charm. As Lonely Planet’s top “must-visit” destinations in Malaysia, Ipoh will always be in my heart.