In Ipoh, majority of hotels are located some distances away from Ipoh Old Town and mostly not in the budget range. Accommodations that can be found inside the old town are few guest houses / dormitories and they suffer from poor sound-proofing from loud vehicles along the streets, which is a common problem associated with old towns in Malaysia.
Brick Box Hotel, since its opening around end-2016 / start-2017, has been one of my preferred accommodations when visiting Ipoh.
Why Brick Box Hotel?
Below are my reasons for choosing 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, colonial buildings and the Three Concubine Lanes. The proximity is the most ideal for travellers.
2. 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 standard queen-bed room.
3. Good sound-proofing. Brick-laden walls provide better sound-proofing than wooden walls, which are very often used in budget accommodations to partition rooms. The hotel is located away from busy roads, thus, traffic noises are greatly reduced. Windowless rooms are totally shielded from traffic noises.
4. 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. A new staircase, for emergency use, 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.
The Standard Double rooms and Deluxe rooms are larger in size and have similar amenities. 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.
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
Getting into and out of Ipoh is easy and convenient by trains from Penang, Kuala Lumpur or Johor Bahru. Brick Box Hotel’s proximity to Ipoh Railway Station is very favourable for travellers — about 400 metres. You will find Brick Box Hotel a couple of units away from Standard Charter Bank.
If arriving by inter-city bus at Amanjaya Bus Terminal / Sri Maju Bus Station, or by flight at Sultan Azlan Shah Airport, e-hail a Grab car direct to the hotel.
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Address:
31, Jalan Dato Maharajalela, 30000 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
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