WHEN THE RAILWAY STATION IS A HERITAGE BUILDING

26TH AUGUST 2023 ~ The next heritage site visited in Ipoh was its Railway Station. Even the Grab driver who drove me to the hotel from the airport the day before told me it was the first railway station built in the country,

Did you know that the very first railway station in Ipoh was constructed in 1894?

It served the town for 20 years. It was a single storey building with no accommodations.

In 1914, the construction of a second station and hotel to replace it began and was completed in 1917. This is the current building you’ll be looking at in Ipoh today.

It was designed by the prolific and talented British architect, A.B Hubback, who also built Kuala Lumpur’s famous train station.

And now, after more than 100 years, through the operational years of the Federated Malay States Railways and its eventual successor, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad, the station’s overall layout has remained largely unchanged.

Like her sister, Kuala Lumpur train station, this one also sports the facade of British Raj with its Moorish domes, towers and quaint verandahs. Super impressive!

source: theipohguide.com

This was one of the places I had never set foot even though I had once stayed in the city for 3 months - 30 years ago.

I got to thanks my ex-student [of SMK Taman Universiti] who is working and residing in Ipoh now, for taking me around the city on his motorcycle while I was there. Looking forward for more adventure in Perak with him as the tour guide next year.

THE CAMBODIA ROYAL RAILWAY STATION

The Cambodia Railway Station is one of the historical buildings erected in the centre of Phnom Penh and this could be seen just by looking at the architecture. It was built in 1932 but was abandoned from 2005-2016. The present site now operates offering train services to Sihanoukville and Poipot, as well as the terminal for the airport shuttle train.

I was here when I first arrived on 13th August and when I was leaving on 16th August 2019. It was so far the calmest train station that I had even been to.

There was a cafe connected to the station. I wanted to try its coffee on promotion - with salted eggs but it was not available at that time unfortunately.

Similar to Vietnam coffee I had had in Ho Chi Minh, it was way to sweet for me.

You should use the shuttle train service to and from the airport which is very convenient - cheap and minus all the bad traffic jam of Phnom Penh. Read HERE about the shuttle train service which I took when I was there.

[M Y   P H N O M   P E N H    V I S I T   M A I N   P A G E]

REUNION SESSIONS IN SEGAMAT WITH EXES

I was in Segamat from 22nd to 24th June 2019 for an official duty. Being me, I always try to kill two birds with one stone, hence reunion sessions were set in between breaks when I managed to squeeze out and away from the students.

The first one was with an ex-student of SMK Taman Universiti SPM batch 2002, Mr. Shamsul Nahar. He is now teaching in one of the secondary schools there and was kind enough to drive all the way from Labis which is about 30-minute away by car to see in town. We went to get "teh tarik" (tea with milk) and toasts at Segamat Railway Station at about 5.30 p.m.

Segamat's cat #1

Segamat's cat #2

playing tourist in Segamat

Much later in the evening, which was after 10.00 p.m., an ex-colleague and also one of the teacher pioneers of SMK Taman Universiti came to fetch me at the hotel. Lucky enough he saw my check-in on Facebook and called me to set for a supper date.

This should be the longest session when we managed to sit down and chat. Before this, we just rubbed shoulders in one or two department's official events. It was just a short gathering but hope to see Mr. Rosli Puteh some other time in the future.

It was a fruitful trip to Segamat with these two get together sessions. Two birds were killed and I was one happy person.