Ipoh Stay: Brick Box Hotel @ Ipoh Old Town

In Ipoh, most hotels are located some distances away from Ipoh Old Town and not in the budget range. Accommodations that can be found inside the old town are mostly guest houses or dormitories. There are not many of them and they suffer from poor sound-proofing from moving vehicles along the streets, which is a common problem associated with old towns in Malaysia.

Brick Box Hotel, since its opening towards end of 2016 or start of 2017, has been our preferred accommodation when visiting Ipoh.

Why I prefer Brick Box Hotel?

1. Good location. Located in Ipoh Old Town and just 400m from Ipoh Railway Station, the hotel is also close to most eating places, street arts and the Concubine Lanes. The proximity is the most ideal for travellers.

2. No breakfast. With so many local food options in the vicinity, there is no need to have same breakfast provided every morning. Rasheed Nasi Kandar Restaurant is just next door, serving all kinds of Indian food, such as roti canai, nasi kandar, etc. Don't know what they are? Walk in and try!

3. Have single rooms. This is great for solo budget travellers. Most hotels are unfriendly to solo travellers, always making them pay more for the smallest rooms, which is usually a double-bed room.

4. Good sound-proofing. Brick-laden walls provide better sound-proofing than wooden walls, which are very commonly used in budget accommodations to partition rooms. The hotel is located away from busy roads, thus, traffic noises are greatly reduced. Windowless rooms are also shielded from traffic noises.

5. No frills. This always help to keep costs and, ultimately, the room rates low.

Interior of the Hotel

Brick Box Hotel is rustically decorated with bricks and metallic gears, wheels, pipes, etc. Its lobby is spacious with simple decorations of the same theme. Outside the lift on each floor, there are wheels on the walls facing the lifts — level 2 have 2 wheels, level 3 have 3, etc.

Spiral staircases are common behind most pre-war houses for escape uses in the old days. Most old houses in Ipoh still have it today. New developments of these houses will usually demolish the staircases and built modern ones but Brick Box Hotel preserved it. However, a new staircase, for emergency exit, leads to the front of the hotel.

The Rooms

The walls of the rooms are left exposed and unpainted — a minimalist design trend. With brick-laden walls on all sides, the rooms really look like "brick boxes". Despite being a new and modern hotel, the walls created a rustic ambience.

For solo travellers, the Single Standard rooms come with attached bathrooms. There are no windows in single rooms, so they can be very quiet even in the day.

Both the Standard Double rooms and Deluxe rooms are similar in size and amenities, except that Standard Doubles are windowless. There are different designs for the double rooms. One with a dedicated pantry corner, so the space on both sides of the bed is smaller but more cozy. Another design of the double room provides the pantry set on a tea table besides the bed. This makes the room more spacey, especially if the guest have big luggage.

The bathroom is similar for all the rooms with shower gels provided. Can't see the shower head? It's mounted on the ceiling.

Television and WiFi are also available in the rooms.

Brick Box Hotel also has family rooms for 3 persons and family deluxe rooms for 4. I have no chance to stay in those rooms, do refer to their Facebook.

How to Get There

Arriving or departing Ipoh by inter-city buses is at Amanjaya Bus Terminal, which is about 10Km to the north of the old town. Connecting bus frequencies between the inter-city bus terminal and domestic bus terminal, near the old town, is about one hour's interval. It is less convenient to use inter-city buses to get to Ipoh Old Town and will usually end up hailing taxis — but their meters are forever spoilt. So, use Grab cars.

Getting into and out of Ipoh is easier and convenient by trains from Penang or Kuala Lumpur. Brick Box Hotel's proximity to Ipoh Railway Station is very favourable for travellers.

From the railway station, follow the straight route on the map below to get to Brick Box Hotel. You can arrange with the hotel for a pick-up from the railway station if you have heavy luggage. Otherwise, 400 metres is not that far to walk to the hotel. You will find Brick Box Hotel a couple of units away from Standard Charter bank.

Address:

31, Jalan Dato Maharajalela, 30000 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

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