Ipoh Mural Art Trail - Ernest Zacharevic

Following in the footsteps of Penang, the Ipoh city council and Old Town White Coffee commissioned the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic in 2014 to paint 7 murals in the old town of Ipoh. The murals incorporate certain elements of the buildings they are painted on and tell something about Ipoh's history. The trail starts in front of Ipoh’s Tourist Information Center where you can pick up a map of the trail. Be warned though not all coordinates are correct which can be quite confusing. The locations on the map below are correct so better follow these. One of the murals  "Girl On A Wall In Bandar Timah" has been painted over. In addition to the 7 murals Ernest Zacharevic painted a bag with coffee (4.595918 N, 101.078195 E), presumably to practice for his "A 'Kopi' Break" mural. The murals are spread out among a couple of blocks and easily visited on foot. Other painters created various murals, so keep an eye out for those if you're interested. However, I must say that the artwork created by the other artists is not quite as good as Ernest Zacharevic's.

Ipoh is the birth town of white coffee. White coffee is made by roasting coffee beans in palm margarine, giving the coffee it's distinctive taste. The first mural on the art trail depicts an old man drinking a hot white coffee from a traditional kopitiam (coffee shop) cup giving homage to Ipoh's coffee culture.

Walk along the park from "An Old Uncle Drinking Coffee" and at the corner of the second block you'll find "A Paper Plane". It's 4 stories up, so keep that in mind when looking for the mural.

Continue along Jalan Tun Sambanthan and take a right into a parking lot. Directly on your left, you'll see the next mural. The mural depicts a row of take out coffee in stringed up plastic bags with a straw and iced kopi-o. Kopi-o is Malay for black coffee with sugar. If you prefer black coffee without sugar, order Kopi ‘O’ Kosong. Kosong in Malay means empty.

The next mural shows a hummingbird hovering in front of a real life tree. The mural is just a little down the parking lot on the opposite site from the "A 'Kopi' Break" mural. Google Maps doesn't recognize this as a street and will try to send you on a detour. Ignore this, you can just continue your walk from down the parking lot.

After taking a left and crossing the street, you'll get to "Ipoh's Evolution From Tin Mining Town". In this work, Ernest Zacharevic uses the Chinese style of ink painting to depict a tin mine surrounded by the characteristic limestone mountains of Ipoh. In 1880 large deposits of tin were found in the vicinity of Ipoh. This caused a rapid growth and an influx of Chinese workers to Ipoh, which was a small village at the time.

Walk down Jalan Bijeh Timah from "Ipoh's Evolution From Tin Mining Town" and take the second street to the right. This is the last mural on this trail and imho the best one. It shows a painted old man gathering garbage backs on a real life trishaw.