Last Friday we had a class trip to Kg. Kepayang, Ipoh. I wasn’t excited for the trip at all cause I thought it’d be really boring. But when I got there, I actually got pretty amused with the old shophouses. It was once used to be a really live and happening place. There were once shops, entertainment place, and at night, there was prostitutes and stuffs like that. Basically a small city. Now, it’s all decaying, the government wants to demolish the place but some of the owners of the buildings couldn’t be found, and since it’s a freehold land, they can’t do much about it.

To me, walking around that place was such a discovery, almost like an adventure. It was as if I was walking through time. I was imagining the life in there 120 years ago as I snapped the pictures. There are still about 5 families still living in those shophouses. And perhaps 3 to 4  shops such as workshop, barber shop, fertilizer’s shop and Feng Shui place.

Inside one of the shophouses. There's a well down there.

I think this used to be some kind of a courtyard space, maybe?

Some of us, taking pictures with the locals. 🙂 From left, is the uncle we interviewed, he's the owner of the fertilizer shop. The guy on the motorcycle trishaw was on the way to pick up his kids from school.

This old guy seemed pretty happy to be interviewed as well as having his photos taken. LOL.

one of the lots that are still relatively in good condition. This place is bought by the owner of the fertilizer shop.

This probably used to be house or a salon. Maybe, just maybe.

Nature's back to take over of what once it used to be.

Abandoned. It's as if the people disappeared just like that. Really, I wonder where did they go? But I'd like to think they teleported somewhere. haha.

As you might be able to tell, the place was very dusty. On top of that the buildings are right next to the busy street, so it was noisy and a lot of smoke from the vehicles. It was so busy, it’s almost impossible to cross without using the pedestrian’s crossing. Guess, that’s the whole point of having the pedestrian’s crossing after all. haha.

It was also so dangerous to not walk on the corridor. But some of the corridors are too dangerous to walk on so we had no choice but to walk beside the road. The space from the drain to the road border line is less than half a meter and the vehicles were moving at about 60-80KM/h! It was really scary. (see first picture) I mean, I’ve been hit by a car before until I got unconscious so, don’t want that to ever happen again.

Inevitable time.

All in all, it was a nice trip. Although it was terribly hot, I got a really bad headache throughout the trip, and until the next morning.

It was pretty cool to see buildings in decomposition process. Makes me wonder about what other buildings might be in this state in the next 150 years. Too bad I wont live that long to find out.

On other note, I feel quite pity to the families who are still living in the shophouses. I mean, it’s nothing wrong there, but for them to come home everyday to see their homes slowly deteriorating… well, you get the picture. The place is like a ghost town for foreigners. But not for them. 🙂

p.s, From our interviews we can tell that in that old town, everybody knows each other. Now that’s something we could relearn.