Cameron Highlands Brothers Drive – Morning in Ipoh

Mission – Meet Missing Bro

Today’s mission, should we choose to accept, was to arrange a rendezvous with our secret agent at an unfamiliar airport, and to ensure his safe passage back to our hideout in the mountains.

We wake up to a foggy and wet morning, quickly get ready for the day’s mission. Our poor missing doctor brother has already missed 7 episodes of our Cameron Brothers’ Trip… not good, not good. 🙂

On the bright side, over the last day, I got to spend quality time with my lawyer brother, something that is quite rare for me because over the course of our lives, I’ve interacted mostly with them as a set of twins. In that one full day together, we talked a lot as we journeyed together. It was a very meaningful time of catching up.

It also turned out to be a great excuse to take a relaxing morning drive down the mountains along the scenic northern Simpang Pulai route. It was a nice morning excursion, just a 90 minute drive to reach the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport where our other brother would be touching down after his morning flight from Singapore. Neither of us have been to the airport before.

Turns out to be a very small neighbourhood airport. Easy to find parking (cheap cheap) and we head into the main terminal. We get comfortable at the only cafe there, have our morning coffee and prepare for the arrival of our guest of honour!

Being the playful brothers that we are, we plan our cheeky welcome. Being identical twins, we get lawyer brother to take a selfie and use that as the backdrop for the greeting board that we will raise to welcome our doctor brother as he walks out of the arrival hall. Well.. they basically have the same face anyway! We also were curious to see what the other waiting people will make of our stunt.

So what were our findings? See it for yourself in the video below:

Turns out, nobody really made a big deal out of it, not even our brother, who just seemed happy to see us!

After the successful rendezvous, we proceed to the Ipoh city centre for our Dim Sum Breakfast

Dim Sum Breakfast @ Foh San Restaurant

Ipoh is certainly famous for its food, and Dim Sum is one of the popular options around town. Foh San Restaurant is arguably the most famous Dim Sum restaurant in town, although insiders will probably tell you that it is far from being the best. Many people prefer to eat just across the street at Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum.

The first issue around this area is trying to find a parking lot. Because of the popularity of the restaurants here, finding a space to park can be a very frustrating endeavour. This turns out to be the case this morning. We end up having to park across the main road a few streets down.

The next challenge is then trying to find a place that sells the parking coupons. Many shops were not yet open that morning, and I had to walk around in circles a few times before I found a shop where I could purchase the coupons. The parking charges are reasonable – 30 sen for every half hour.

After scratching and displaying the coupons, we proceed for breakfast.

We easily get a table just beside the entrance. We order all the usual fare. The food here is definitely of a certain standard. Considering the reasonable prices, really cannot complain. I personally like the century egg porridge, and the chives dumplings. The prawn chee cheong fun is also yummy!

Price: (7 / 10) Reasonably priced, definitely more value-for-money than any Dim Sum place in Singapore.
Taste: (8 / 10) The quality of food here is good, albeit not the best in town.
Drinks: (8 / 10) Nice sugarless chrysanthemum tea to wash down all the yummy food.
Service: (2 / 10) Service here could be a lot better. They take a long time to sit you down even though there are empty tables. Additionally, with the self-service concept, they could be more vigilant in not allowing people to blatantly cut the queue.
Environment: (9 / 10) Restaurant is well built and spacious, with sufficient seating capacity.
Overall: (7 / 10) Worth eating here, if you can accept the lousy service. Then again, it is quite hard anyway to find a Dim Sum restaurant with excellent service.