Ho Yan Hor Museum – Learn About This Local Herbal Tea Brand
Ho Yan Hor Museum is not just a tribute to the founder. But also, a showcase of the inspiring story behind the Ho Yan Hor brand.
If you have time to spare, we highly recommend a visit here.
As you’ll also see what life was like back in Ipoh during the tin mining era. Moreover, there are no entrance fees to enter the museum and see the gallery!
Reasons to go
Firstly, the whole building is air-conditioned with sufficient lighting. This makes for a comfortable experience in exploring the museum.
Everything is indoors which makes a visit to this museum an appropriate venue to spend a few hours out of the rain (or sunshine). As a bonus, the staff is well mannered.
Crowd control is good at Ho Yan Hor Museum too. We think the main reason behind this is for safety. Safety for visitors and the building, which still has some of its original structure – like the staircases.
Thus, you will have the gallery to your group while you are here. Nobody will rush you through it and you can explore the gallery at your own pace.
We do appreciate that the sequencing of the individual exhibits is logical. So, it feels like one whole exhibit instead of several.
The start of the gallery is a few steps from the front door. Beginning with the founder’s origins, and his initial struggles starting up his tea making business.
And if you follow the order of the story, the gallery will take you to the back of the building where they have a traditional kitchen set up. And an old equipment that they used in the early days of the tea making business.
Upstairs of the gallery is when the business started to take off. You’ll see photos of the family’s growth, as well as the founder’s passions outside of his business.
Before you head back downstairs, the last bit of the gallery touches on Ho Kai Cheong’s academic and other recognized achievements.
Reasons not to go
Kids might get bored here as there are no interactive exhibits for them to explore. Much of what you can learn here is text (English and Malay only) supplemented with photos and artifacts.
Furthermore, the staff control the number of visitors into the museum at a time. So, you can’t just walk in anytime that you like.
You will likely have to leave your name and contact details with the staff at the door. And come again at your allocated time slot.
There’s one other main reason you might not want to visit Ho Yan Hor Museum – the consistent lack of parking spots in this area.
Do give yourself plenty of buffer time to find nearby parking if you plan to visit this museum on a weekend. Or when it is close to lunch time (this is still true on weekdays).
On another note, you are expected to try some of their tea at the end of your visit.
We don’t really find this a problem since the tea tasting is free. And the sales pushing is minimal. Their cooling teas are enjoyable, and we did end up buying some (spending about RM100) to take home.
One other thing to note about this museum is that the gallery continues upstairs and there are no lifts or wheelchair ramps present anywhere in the museum.
The nature of the building is long and narrow too. So, there’s not much room to navigate a wheelchair anyways.
Conclusion
If you’re in Ipoh Old Town and want some indoor activities to fill up your schedule, you won’t regret a visit to Ho Yan Hor Museum.
You’ll learn a lot about Mr. Ho Kai Cheong’s life, traditional tea making and Chinese herbal tea in general from a visit here. His success story gives another perspective of the lifestyle during the tin mining period in Ipoh too.
Additionally, the museum is next to a must-see in Ipoh, the Han Chin Pet Soo Museum which focuses on Hakka culture and tin mining in Ipoh.
