Ipoh 2023 - Ipoh Cave Temples Sam Poh Tong (Part 1)

Next day favourite breakfast! Kai Si Hor Fun and White Coffee. Kai Si Hor Fun is an Ipoh dish, and its like a cross between Penang Hokkien Mee and Penang Koay Teow Teng, and I love it. I even eat this dish in Penang, paying almost 8rm a bowl for it. Here, it's around 7rm 2 years ago. So I make sure I always have a bowl here.  

After breakfast, we were going temple cave exploring! Something I've always wanted to do in Ipoh since they are famous for it. I've only ever been to one cave temple in Ipoh before, and that was during schooling days when I went to Ipoh for a state chess competition. I had a paranormal experience there, and have been avoiding cave temples in Ipoh since. I can't quite remember which cave temple I went to, but I'm pretty sure it's the one nearer to Tanjung Rambutan with cliff side stairs going up and down the temple. Anyway, we were going to be visiting 3 caves this time, all clustered together. 

The very first one was Sam Poh Tong, which translated to Three Treasure Cave. Actually all the three caves are on the same road, and this one is the inner most cave. So we took a Grab taxi there from town, and hope we will be able to get a taxi ride back when we were done. The thing about Malaysia is, sometimes the attraction sights are so far away with no good public transport taking you there. So sometimes it is actually cheaper for me to travel overseas than it is to travel in Malaysia, cause the transport cost itself would be high if I have to take a Grab taxi everywhere!

Upon arriving at the first cave entrance, you instantly felt like maybe you are no longer in Malaysia. Everything looked so Chinese here that this could have well been a temple in China. The limestone background with the pretty tress and green pond in front also add to the atmosphere. Instantly you also felt calm cause you are now away from the town and roads and civilisation. 

So this was just the outside of the temple, the tall traditional gate was actually the entrance into the temple. The multi-storey building outside would probably be accommodation area for the care takers and monks of the place. Later we found that there is also a vegetarian cafe here, but it was closed when we were there. 

A different angle of the outside of the temple. There seems to be a smaller temple complex further down. I think this was the prayer hall.

Making our way towards the entrance. Although the whole front looked so grand, the actual entrance was just a narrow walkway. This actually made sense cause this was after all, a cave temple. So this was the entrance into the cave itself! How cool is that.

Once inside, everything changes again. Temperature dropped since you're now inside the cave. You also had to adjust your eyesight to the dark, There are lightings inside the cave, but where there are no Gods or Idols, or no pathway, there it remains path. There are halls and pathway inside, even stairs. 

Yeah. somehow the Gods here looked much more majestic. Almost as if they are in their natural habitat!

The halls here are odd shaped cause it depends largely on the same of the caves. The altars are built into the cave walls as well. And lightings hung mid air. It's dry inside, but some area you could hear water dripping, or damn and wet corners. 

Some icon paintings on the wall with old tiles.