I only spent 24 hours in Taiping and honestly, you really don’t need more time there. It’s actually a case of half a day is plenty of time.
Taiping is not a tourist city and all you can really do there apart from eating – and the food is really good – is visit the zoo, a museum, look at a church or visit the park. Personally, I didn’t go to the zoo, even though they have a night safari that sounded quite nice. I went to the Perak Museum, where you can see the history of the state Perak from prehistoric times onwards. They also have a nice exhibition where they explain the difference in earthenware between all the states of Malaysia. They also show you what kind of transportation people used and what kind of hobbies people from Perak would have a couple of centuries ago. Entry to the museum is RM4 (~€0,80 or ~$0,95).
Near the museum is All Saints’ Church, the oldest church in Malaysia. The church looks rather nice from the outside and is built out of wood.
And then there is Lake Gardens or Taman Tasik Taiping. The park is really nice so I would recommend to just stroll around. As the name would suggest it is full of lakes, so you can watch locals fishing there. Just be carefull as motorbikes are allowed to drive inside the park.
And that is pretty much it for Taiping. It is certainly not a city where you have to go but I found it a good place for one night in between Penang and Ipoh. Have you ever been to Taiping? Did I miss something there? Let me know in the comments.
Eyes of Owls 