From my diary (February 2012)
I’ve come to Kedah, northwest Malaysia, for two
main reasons: to visit Alor Setar, the region’s administrative centre, and the historical site
of Lembah Bujang, further south. On the morning of 5 February, after a long wait I catch a
bus from the central bus terminus heading towards Merbok, the village near
which the Lembah Bujang Archaeological Museum is located, my main destination
for this sunny day. It takes us about an hour and a half to cover the 50
kilometres separating the administrative centre from Merbok, as the bus stops
here and there to either pick up or drop off passengers, a ride made
pleasurable by the expanse of rice paddies and small villages that characterise
this region. We are not far from the coast, but it is more than an hour before
I am able to make out the blue of the Andaman Sea to my right, as we get close
to Gunung Jerai, a 1217-metre-high
mountain rising to our left, at a short distance from the sea, an enormous
green rock cropping up from the wide plain. Shortly thereafter, the road we are
on plunges into thick vegetation, and twenty minutes later we finally arrive in
Merbok, at the southern foot of the mountain. It’s
already one o’clock, the hottest time of the day,
and I have to walk uphill for over two kilometres under the fierce sun,
dragging my bag along, to get to the museum. In spite of the water I had brought
with me, when I finally get to the museum I’m
half-dehydrated and dripping sweat. Without much ado I buy a soft drink, and I’m ready for my long-awaited visit...
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| Statuette of Buddha found in Lembah Bujang (Lembah Bujang Archeological Museum) |
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| The foundations of one of the Buddhist/Hindu temples in Lembah Bujang |
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| Another temple in Lembah Bujang |
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