The first museum we visited was a Hakka Museum, because my husband's dialect is Hakka. I thought it would be good for him to learn a bit about his dialect group, seeing how he can't even speak his own language, lol. This was a guided tour or the museum. It is free, but they encourage a small donation, and you have to reserved in advance to visit the place. So I did lah.
The tour started with everyone gathering at a Tok Panjang table, or at least that's what the Peranakan calls it. I forgot what it was called here. But I love the tiled floor and the wooden furniture. The table top was of grey marble. And the mirror hanging there, those are infinity mirrors. We have the same concept in a Peranakan house too.
The hakka came to Ipoh mainly as merchants and miners. So it was interesting to learn about the mining community from the guided tour. Before this tour, I've always thought that Ipoh was mainly a Cantonese town since everyone here seems to speak Cantonese. How wrong I was.
After a brief introduction, we were brought into the building itself. Every room, every hallway, a reflection of the past. Love the cowboy style door swing there. You can still find these in some restaurants or old hotels in Penang. They used to be more common.
The tour guide talked about miners, and also opium smoker from the old days.
An old retro walk way. I think the building was 3 storey tall, with very old staircase.
On the upper floor it show case old day's social activities, like gambling house. Chinese loves gambling. You usually see a lot of Mahjong in old Hong Kong movies. Interestingly you don't see that much of gambling in China.....
Domino was also part of the game table. I always thought this game was so classy. I love the sound they make. I love the sound of Mahjong tiles too. Now that my usual Mahjong Kaki in Penang is no more (one passed away, the other is now bed ridden in an old folk's home), I wonder if I'll ever play Mahjong again.
The display of the game room was pretty nice, actually. Pretty realistic. You could almost feel the vibe of the place.
Second floor was also where you would see the semi round shaped partition of the building which it was very notable for in the front from the road side view. I guess this was advance architecture during those days.
Here is a closed up look. Love the tiles. Love the windows letting in all the light.
Hostess service was also very popular among the taukey in the old days. They can be Chinese, or even Japanese.
Old living quarters. I guess you could always find a place to stay in a dialect association building, since in theory you were of the same clan and supposed to help each other out? I think that's nice, but I doubt that still exist today? I heard that if you ever need a place to stay, you can always go to a mosque to seek shelter. I wonder how true is that. Is it true for temples and churches too?
Frankly I think this room is too big for a common visitor. Maybe it's more for a wealthy guest?
The tour lasted around one hour, and soon we were back at the long table. Here there are more information about the Hakka's on the board around the wall.
And this was my favourite wall information, Hakka food! I do love some of the dishes, mainly the meat dishes. Recently I've also learned to love Lei Char, or Thunder Tea Rice. Luckily for me, there are more Hakkas in Singapore and Johor than in Penang, so I can still get good Hakka food at my home in Singapore :)
A selfie with the floor tiles.
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