Perak is the state to the north of our home state of Selangor. Some people say it's neglected, losing out in all directions to the Cameron Highlands and Penang and KL.

Well, it shouldn't be. It's fascinating.

Our base for four days was Ipoh. It's instantly likeable, with its mountain-ringed setting, its karst vistas, and its conspicuous imperial architecture ("the Bendigo of Malaya", as one early reporter put it). An easy stroll can take in beautiful mosques, the empire-resonant Padang, and the historic Kinta River. Most of all, Ipoh boasts an impressive wealth of classic shophouses. They come in a variety of styles, but in general they're notable for their brightly painted shutters on the overhanging upper floor, their comfortable covered ways out front, complete with painted pillars, tiled floors, and sun-baffling chicks (roller blinds), and their long, dark, narrow shops. They come in a variety of states of repair, too, but whether spruce and sparkling or romantically dilapidated, they offer a wonderful and ever-changing streetscape.

Then there's the food, of course. Ipoh is a gourmet's delight. It's famous for its bean sprout chicken (you get a plate of tender chicken, with spring onions and cucumber, a plate of crunchy beansprouts, and a bowl of noodle soup, and you combine them as you please -- so simple, so delectable). It's also famous for an institution called Funny Mountain -- a tiny little shop where we shared a sweet, delicious, warm soya pudding. And heong peng are Ipoh's famous biscuits -- flaky pastry round a sweet paste.

But fame comes at a price, and some of Ipoh's most celebrated coffee shops (where you can get its signature white coffee and all sorts of other yummy baked products and noodle dishes) are so overwhelmed on public holidays that you just can't get near. Disappointing. Sad too was the realization that to try the celebrated salted chicken, you need to take it away and warm it up. Unable to convince ourselves that several hours on the train and then a blast in the microwave would be exactly what the chef would order, we abstained. Disappointing.

Never mind. There were other serendipitous treats. Like roast pork, with a sweet, delicious glaze, served with rice and a variety of veges. Or a cendol (in nearby Kuala Kangsar) that's rocketed right to the top of my cendol hall of fame -- cendol pulut it was called, and it had big juicy pieces of sticky rice floating in that lovely coconut and palm-sugar mix. (And that cendol, together with two bowls of laksa and two glasses of coconut juice, came to 8 ringgit -- less than $3.)

Near Ipoh, there are plenty of other places that merit a detour, as M. Michelin would say.

Perak Tong, a Chinese cave temple, is one. I love cave temples. I love the way the natural rock contrasts with the devotee's art. (In this one, huge and beautiful murals adorn the rough rockfaces, and massive statues evoke both the fat and lean manifestations of the Buddha, as well as the Goddess of Mercy.) I love the echoes -- from the back of the cave, the buzz at the front sounded like the distant sea. I love the contrasting lights -- the shadows of the cave contrast both with the paltriness of the artificial light and with the bright patches of sky visible through the crevices. Breezes blow through the natural skylights like the sighs of God; drops fall from the damp walls like the tears of angels...

OK, maybe I'm getting a little carried away... But to me, there's a real spirituality about these caves, even though they're far from deserted.

We climbed sweatily up the steep steps to the pagodas at the top of the rock, and gained great views of the wonderful limestone scenery that surrounds Ipoh.

And we bought a pink lotus candle for 15 ringgit. It's supposed to burn for two days, so hopefully, it took us into the New Year...

Another excellent place for an Ipoh-based excursion is Kuala Kangsar. It's another royal capital, set picturesquely on a river. Once you've stocked up on laksa and cendol, you can wander round the City Palace, a beautiful building, now a museum of royal regalia (including a head-dress folded in "flipped wing chicken" style), family photos, and official gifts received (having been to a couple of these places now, we think it's disgraceful how some nations give different sultans the SAME GIFTS -- I mean, don't they think they compare notes??). Further up the hill, there's a picturesque mosque designed by the ubiquitous A.B. Hubbock. And there's the royal palace, which is very grand. There's also a wooden palace, but we didn't get that far.

Another destination is Batu Gajah, which was the administrative centre for the British -- much to the chagrin of Ipoh, which, as "the hub of Malaya", felt it deserved the accoutrements of administration. There are still some lovely buildings up on Batu Gajah's hill -- serenely above the commercial streets below.

We keep being told by Malaysians that you need a car to see Malaysia, and that the public transport is uniformly dreadful. We keep trying to prove them wrong... The contest kind of culminated in a draw this weekend. We had a great train-ride up, the mountains increasingly evident, and the foreground enlivened by big, fat rivers, grazing water buffalo, and elegantly traditional Malay houses on stilts. And we pretty much got where we wanted on the buses. True, you have to wait a little, but the buses duly rolled up. And admittedly, it took us three attempts to get from Perak Tong to Kuala Kangsar -- but this was entirely our fault. We failed to identify the first candidate before it had sailed past (we weren't, after all, at an official bus-stop), and Nigel happened to have gone walkabout just when its successor rolled up. But the third time was lucky. I quite like chugging along on the buses -- through the peanut-renowned town of Menglembu, along high streets full of picturesque shophouses, or through pretty countryside with ever pointier limestone formations. Lively markets provide all kinds of produce that people lug home on the bus, with the feet of chickens past protruding spikily from their carrier bags.

However, lack of information is a drawback where buses are concerned. Where there's a bus station, you can ask, and people are very happy to help. When the bus just drops you by the side of the road, it's hard to figure out your options. Technically, we could have got to Kellie's Castle by taking the bus from Batu Gajah to Gopeng -- but we had zero idea where it went from. And while the buses are generally an acceptable temperature, you occasionally get one that is absolutely freezing, so you go from being really quite extraordinarily hot to really very uncomfortably cold. As for the trains, well, as so often, in so many countries, they didn't quite cope with the end-of-holiday rush. To a man, on Monday evening, they were quite significantly late.

The other hazard of being carless is the bits you have to fill in on your own feet. Normally, this is quite a pleasure -- a good opportunity to stroll, gawk, take photos, and spot eating opportunities. But occasionally you get caught out by a cracking rainstorm, as we did coming back on Sunday. All the clouds in the world, it seemed, had gathered over Ipoh to weep their little hearts out. So it took a LONG time to get home, as we waited, drippily, under various shophouse frontages, watching the drains fill and the puddles gather, popping out to sprint a short distance when it looked like it was slowing down, and ducking back in when, spotting us, the rain went "hah!" and turned itself back on again. Never mind. Chicken porridge warmed us up, and close by was a cake shop. When life gives you lemons, buy banana cake...

So, Ipoh and its environs are very rewarding. You really don't need a car to be able to see and experience lots. We'll definitely be back to Perak for more...