Taiping 101

(This post entails my previous entry, Taiping is in Penang. Read that first!)
Realizing that more of you may not really know where Taiping is (and i don't really blame you), Taiping is here:

*points at map* SEE? Right there!

As shown in the map, Taiping is fairly below (south-east of) Penang. That's an hour and a half's drive within speed limit, and 70 minutes in a madenning 140-ish km/hour rush (okay, i know that's probably nothing to you speed-loving-race-monkeys). However, the point here is that Taiping is, in fact, no where within Penang's district or its mainland. It is in Perak:

"Hey, I can see my house from up here!"

1) Bukit Jana G & C Club
2) Kamunting
3) Kamunting Industrial Estate
4) Kota Ngah Ibrahim
5) Metro Arcade
6) Taiping Town

FAQ: What's Taiping Like?

• it isn't a very big place
  
• it takes 5-10 minutes (at the most) to get from one place to another
  
• there are hardly any traffic jams (or traffic, for that matter)
• it's THE PLACE when it comes to festivals that require you to balik kampung and we only have traffic jams then
• no malls
• no cinemas/theatres
• no renown colleges....yet.
  
• we have a zoo that claims to be the best in the country and they have a thing called the night safari.
  
• it rains here every other hour/day
• we have a very pretty Lake Gardens with lovely rain trees that stoop over to the lake from across the road.
• it has never snowed here
• we've dreamt of it snowing here but it hasn't...ever. (yeah, i know.bummer.)
  
• we're the dampest zone in the Peninsula
• we're at the foot of Maxwell Hill
• we've been labeled the Heritage Town and therefore no further development (after the geodesic dome) may take place within our borders, less activists pelt us with rotten banana peels and pickets
• lush greenery
• quite a bit of wild fauna (especially birds: yellow orioles, hornbills, parrots, kites, herons, etc.)
  
• if you get lost in Taiping, do not fret! Every other road would lead you to the same place eventually.
• Taiping will not change, so even if you came back 12 years later, the roads might be a little wider, but they still lead you to the same place.
• Taiping rhymes with: griping, hyping, piping, sniping, swiping, wiping, typing, [insert your ideas here].
• We have really nice people.
  
• Phoebe lived here a good two decades. (*lol*)
  

We may seem like a quiet town now, but we reflected a different image altogether back in those days. We were the pioneers in many fields for Malaysia. We had the first airport, railway station, lake gardens, hill resort, museum, hospital, and the list goes on. Right now, we're just the casually labeled, "Land of Rain" or "Pensioner's Paradise". We're not even a highly publicized tourist spot, though they love it here when they come over.

So there. Like it or hate it, Taiping in a nutshell.

Picture Sources:
http://adventures.worldnomads.com/
http://www.ipoh-online.com.my/map/taiping/
http://taipingtalk.com/