Tin town

Ipoh, the Malaysian city that hit the jackpot with its tin industry.

Tin city. That’s what they should have nicknamed Ipoh. Instead they dubbed it “city of millionaires”. It was tin, though, that made the millionaires.

This versatile metal was discovered in the valley of the Kinta River in 1876. Ipoh became the hub for the world’s largest tin field, and British mining companies established headquarters there.

Already essential for solder, tin had long been used as an alloy with copper to create pewter or bronze, or with lead to make bullets. By the late 19thcentury, the food industry was hungry for it, too. Tin was vital to plate steel for “tin” cans, and amassed a huge income for the country. In British colonial times, Ipoh was second only to Kuala Lumpur.

As we set out to explore this modern and still prosperous city surrounded by steep limestone hills, the morning air is already loaded with humidity.

I’ve heard Ipoh’s noodles are better than anywhere else in Malaysia. That’s a big claim with Penang about an hour by road to the north and Kuala Lumpur two hours south.

I must find the markets, so we follow the locals, watching for tell-tale signs: empty bags ahead, laden ones approaching. The Pasir Puteh Wet Market is well worth the search. Inside, our eyes need to adjust from the glare, but our noses immediately tell us we’ve hit pay dirt. The odours of fish, blood, durian and much, much more hit us – but in a good way – for this is fresh, just-caught, just-harvested produce.

The market’s four storeys are well-organised, with entire floors for meats or vegetables. We wander down alleyways of eggs (duck, hen, preserved) and others of rice, coconut, flowers, tofu.

There are corners devoted to smallgoods with scavenging cats scooting under counters and entire sections heady with spices, sauces, condiments. A supermarket on steroids.

The Ipoh Heritage Trail brochure has other ideas on what to see. Many of the city’s century-old buildings, established by British companies, are still used as banks and offices, and make grand subjects for our photographs as we hike around the Old Town and its blocks of brightly painted heritagestatus shop-houses. Many of Ipoh’s landmarks would sit comfortably in London. The Birch Memorial, with its intricate murals, clock and campanile seems lifted from Europe, though it’s a memorial to Perak’s first British