A replica of the 11,000-year-old Perak Man skeleton at the Lenggong Valley Archaeological Gallery. — Photos: ADRIAN CHEAH
Lenggong, located in northern Perak, may not always be on the top 10 list of recommended places to visit in Malaysia. But this quiet, quaint town has so much to offer visitors, like the Perak Man.
The Perak Man is South-East Asia’s oldest, most complete human skeleton that has ever been discovered. It is considered one of the world’s most important archaeological discoveries.
It was unearthed in 1991 by the country’s first woman archaeologist, Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Siti Zuraina Abdul Majid and her team of researches from Universiti Sains Malaysia, within the Gua Gunung Runtuh cave in Lenggong Valley. In 2012, the area was inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list for Archaeological Heritage as it holds other evidence of human activities dating back to the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Metal ages.
During my visit to Lenggong a few years ago, the Lenggong Archaeological Museum was closed for upgrading works, but I managed to see a replica of the Perak Man at the “temporary” Lenggong Valley Archaeological Gallery.
Even though it was just a replica, I did learn more about this very important 11,000-year-old skeleton. Did you know that the Perak Man is the first homo sapien who was found – before the discovery of written records – to have a rare genetic disorder called Brachymesophalangia Type A2 (a congenital deformity)?
There are many things you can learn about the Perak Man and Lenggong’s other archaeological gems at the gallery.
My guide, Abdul Nasir Jalaludin, 53, also took me and a few friends on a cruise through the man-made Chenderoh Lake, which was lined with trees.
Here are some recommendations on what to do and see in Lenggong.
The huge suevite rocks at Bukit Bunuh.
Explore the caves
Perhaps one of the lesser-known spots in Lenggong is Bukit Bunuh, a meteorite impact site. The name itself is enough to get anyone intrigued by the place.
We learned that Bukit Bunuh is where one can find Lenggong’s most fascinating archaeological find – a crater spanning 8km in diameter. This crater has suevite rocks scattered across the ground, said to be the result of a meteorite impact that happened some 1.83 million years ago.
About 15km from Bukit Bunuh is Bukit Jawa, home to a 200,000 to 100,000-year-old Palaeolithic stone tool workshop. This site is surrounded by river gravels, said to be used by our prehistoric ancestors as hunting and cutting tools.
Abdul Nasir recommends going with a proper tour guide or a local expert who can share better knowledge of the place with visitors.
The waterfall at Lata Kekabu Forest Reserve.
Lata Kekabu Forest Reserve
We headed straight to the Lata Kekabu Forest Reserve after an extensive exploration in the caves, which involved crawling through holes within the colossal cavern.
The Kekabu Forest Reserve is a geopark that’s popular with families, so one could say it’s pretty accessible and family-friendly. There is a waterfall in the park in which visitors can take a dip, as well as picnic spots nearby.
While driving to the forest reserve, I kept seeing what appeared to be cotton balls by the side of the road. They turned out to be kapok or, as locals call them, kekabu as there were many kekabu trees in the area. Abdul Nasir said many households still use them as pillow stuffing today.
Chenderoh Lake and Perak River
A backwater cruise is a great nature escape, and was very much a welcome ride for me after our adventures in the forest reserve. The quiet cruise along the Chenderoh Lake and Perak River takes a little over two hours so make sure you actually have the time to do this before embarking on the boat.
If you didn’t know, this area was where some scenes in the 1999 Hollywood film Anna And The King were filmed. More recently, Hong Kong movie Operation Mekong was also filmed here in 2016.
Any of the boatmen on duty will gladly take you to these filming locations if you asked them to.
I enjoyed the cool breeze as we floated through the river. It was quite an experience watching the fishermen in action, hauling in their catch with the nets. The evening drew near, and before we knew it we could see the gorgeous sunset on the horizon.
The cruises are manned by the local fishermen who are more than happy to share their hometown with visitors.
A kampung-style lunch featuring traditional local dishes cooked by the villagers.
Food, glorious food
Look for tour packages that include dinner or lunch with the local community. During our kampung-style dinner, we had some scrumptious dishes prepared by the villagers with ingredients harvested from their gardens or the forest.
Some of the dishes include ikan pindang daun seniar, pekasam (fermented fish) and gulai kemahang, a kind of Malay stew that features kemahang (yam stalk) as its main ingredient. This dish is well-known among the older generation in Lenggong, but you may not be able to find it served outside of a local’s home, as it takes a lot of skill and knowledge to cook, which is only found in the wild.
Meanwhile, ikan pindang daun seniar is known as a Malay heritage dish of Perak. It is river fish marinated with ingredients like chillies, shallots, lemongrass and ginger torch flower, and wrapped together in seniar leaves. The pouch is then boiled for many, many hours – at least 24 hours, in fact! The dish is served as is, but can also be further cooked as a gulai by adding coconut milk.
“Some dishes are special to Lenggong, and a few of them cannot be found elsewhere. For instance, kebebe, the traditional Pattani-Malay appetiser or snack that is made using 14 types of ingredients including guava and pineapple, and then pounded on a wooden mortar and pestle,” said Abdul Nasir.
Cottage industry
Most of the businesses in Lenggong are run on a small scale. The most well-known, Abdul Nasir said, is the production of pekasam, which is also popular in Kedah and Perlis. When we arrived at the house where local pekasam was made, the aroma of fermented fish permeated the air; we could smell it even before getting out of the car.
Two women were gutting and scaling a big batch of fish. Abdul Nasir said that once the fish are cleaned they will be stuffed with coarse salt before being placed in a container that’s covered in more salt. After about two weeks, the fish will be cleaned and fermented again, this time with tamarind paste, roasted rice and brown sugar. The whole process takes about six weeks to do.
If you’re looking to learn some new experiences, you can check out some of the more unique small businesses that operate in Lenggong.
The Blue Well is a must-visit attraction.
The Blue Well
The Blue Well, located in Kampung Chepor, was once a community water source, supplying fresh water to the villagers nearly 200 years ago.
According to Abdul Nasir, the well has never run out of water, and can still be used today, though probably not for drinking. The water in the well appears blue, which is said to be – perhaps – caused by the absence of water sediments that are usually found in unfiltered water.
At times, you can also see the water bubbling, like a hot spring on the ground. The local community believes this was caused by an earthquake that took place many years ago in Sumatra, Indonesia.
The volcanic dust on the wall of Bukit Sapi is said to be the deposits of a supervolcano eruption in Mount Toba some 74,000 years ago.
Bukit Sapi
There is a massive boulder that sits outside Kampung Bukit Sapi. This boulder was made from an accumulation of volcanic ash which solidified. The ash is said to be the deposits of a Mount Toba eruption that occurred more than 74,000 years ago in Sumatra. It is known to be one of history’s most powerful supervolcano catastrophes.
Interestingly, if you look at the wall of the boulder close enough, you will find teeth marks that belong to macaques that were said to be “eating the ash”. It is still a mystery as to why the primates did that.
Nevertheless, the catastrophic event has since also transformed Lenggong into an important ecotourism destination in South-East Asia.
