Driving on Malaysian highway from George Town to Lenggong was very easy and I arrived safely at the Lenggong Archaeological Museum within just 1.45 hours. After read negative reports on this website, I did not expect much from the visit, the nearby beautiful Kuala Kangsar’s royal quarter and Belum-Temengor forests were substitutes to make this trip more worthwhile, at least the latter may become a World Heritage Site in the future as a trans-boundaries forest with Thailand.

The only thing I could see when I reached Lenggong area was the palm oil plantation and the museum itself is located in the middle of plantation. The museum is quite small in the L-shaped complex, one side of the building is the empty hall and the other is the permanent museum. The exhibition is quite fine; on the ground floor, there are artifacts like ancient axes and hunting weapons as well as archeologists’ excavation tools and their stories. The signboards about Asian archeological sites on early hominid places have interesting information about Southeast Asia as a second important on early hominid study outside Africa. The highlight in the museum is the Perak Man, the oldest complete human skeleton remains in Southeast Asia. These authentic remains have been moved from Kuala Lumpur last year to heighten archeological values of Lenggong. The museum even replicates the cave where Perak Man discovered. The last section of exhibition is on the second floor with story of its World Heritage campaign, and the UNESCO certificate. My personal favorite object is in the second floor, the hand axe embedded in rock dated to 1.83 million years ago created by high pressures and temperatures from the meteorite impact!

I finished the museum within 20 minutes since nothing much to see. The museum has only one guard whose duty is to make sure that all guests will sign the register book. I walked to the hill behind the museum and typical to other Malaysian tourist attractions, there is an observation tower on the hill for visitors to see the sea of palm oil trees and lovely view of mountains and river. While the site’s importance is undeniable, my experience with Lenggong was quite underwhelming even I prepared to read the ICOMOS report before the visit. The planned new Lenggong Visitor Center development is very challenging with the winner’s design of bamboo loop tunnel, an impressive design that will make the future visit more interesting but for architecture not for archaeological values!