Time to revive Station Hotel

iplend 6...The signboard of the Majestic Station Hotel Ipoh, which will cease operations end March 2011, already taken down. pix by: lew yong kan/9-3-2011/ipoh/chan li leen

MOST cities today have their own classic luxury hotel. Kuala Lumpur has the Majestic Hotel, Penang has the Eastern and Oriental while Singapore has the Raffles. Up north, Bangkok has the Oriental, Hong Kong is proud of its Peninsula and Yangon has The Strand. Ipoh has none, however.

In the 19th century, the tin mining boom influenced much of the present-day colonial buildings at Ipoh Old Town. One of the most captivating colonial buildings there is the Ipoh Railway Station, which is often referred to as the Taj Mahal of Ipoh due to its minarets, columns, arches and tower topped with a cupola. The architecture of this majestic edifice was the result of a hybrid between neoclassical and the Mughal architecture of India which is referred as Indo-Saracenic.

This building used to house the Majestic Station Hotel which had 21 rooms, a bar and a special dining room located at the centre, under the octagonal ceiling of the main dome.

One of the best features of the Majestic Station Hotel was the fine airy verandah which provided a magnificent view of Ipoh and the hills flanking the Kinta Valley like a grim black wall to the east. There was a room and bathroom beneath each bedroom where the maids of visitors could stay so that they would be near their employers all the time.

Sadly, the Majestic Station Hotel is now deserted and abandoned despite the railway station being very busy due to the massive number of passengers and visitors travelling frequently to Ipoh.

During the weekends, the line of cars streaming into the railway station speaks volumes of the city’s tourism boom since last year. Ipoh is experiencing a tourism boom, which is a good thing even though it means larger crowds are in the city.

With the increase in the exposure of Ipoh in travel guides such as Lonely Planet (it was even featured in the New York Times recently), the Pakatan Harapan state government should think about reopening the Majestic Station Hotel for tourists.

I think the people of Ipoh would like to hear from Tourism, Arts and Culture Committee chairman Tan Kar Hing on what he thinks about the future of the Ipoh Majestic Station Hotel.

S. SUNDRALINGAM

Ipoh