A Memorable Trip to Paddy Museum, Alor Setar (27-4-2012)

“P3M, P3M, where have you been?”

“We’ve been up to the Paddy Museum in Alor Setar.”

“P3M, P3M, what did you do there?”

“It is a long story ...let me tell you one at a time."

We knew that tension is fast approaching as the end-of-semester examination is just round the corner. So, we decided to take a short break before we face the gruelling exam week. My class, P3M, decided to take a trip to the famous tourist spot, the Paddy Musuem in Alor Setar, Kedah. The trip was partly sponsored by our lecturer, Madam Shirley Goh, who came along with us.

We left our campus on a bright, Friday morning. It was partly cloudy so the weather was not too warm. It was a pleasant ride in our rented school bus. The bus owner, a malay pakcik in his 50s, drove slowly, mainly because it was an old bus. We didn’t really mind the slow ride....after all we were taking a break.

The rented school bus

The journey from our campus to the Paddy Museum took about an hour and a half. Along the way, we passed by many small villages, paddy fields and graveyards. Actually, it is not that easy to locate the museum as it is tucked away behind a big hill, which the locals call Gunung Keriang. What a good thing that our pakcik driver knew the way to get there or else we would have to stop to ask for directions.

As the bus rounded a bend, we suddenly saw, ahead of us, a unique building. It was the Paddy Musuem!. The building is specially designed to depict the patterns of paddy stalks. We were so excited and the moment the bus stopped, we hurriedly got off. 

The unique design with the pattern of paddy stalks

The museum management charges an entry fee of RM3.00 per person and an additional RM2.00 for each camera brought into the museum. We paid the entry fees and many of my course mates paid the RM2.00 camera fees as well. After all, we love taking pictures and we want to have a collection of this memorable visit. 

entrance ticket

We began our tour at Level Two. There is a TV corner where a documentary is played throughout the day where visitors could gain insights into the history of paddy planting in Kedah. In addition, the documentary also showed the various agricultural activities of bygone era. The activities include the knowledge on the methods of paddy planting such as seeding, replacement, fertilizing and harvesting. Besides the TV corner, there are six huge mural galleries on this level. The murals are beautifully painted, representing various cultural and economic aspects of Malaysia. Of all the six murals, the one that fascinated me the most was the mural depicting Malaysians of various age-groups, gender and ethnicity, all wearing red t-shirts and looking towards one direction. In the centre of this mural, is a hand clutching a stalk of rice. A close scrutiny  of the faces on this particular mural will reveal famous Malaysian personalities and leaders, like Tun Dr. Mahathir and Tun Abdullah b. Haji Ahmad Badawi. Sadly, I only managed to spot Tun Dr. Mahathir until my friends pointed out the others to me.

TV corner

1 of the murals 

Another mural

            Next, we walked down to Level One which is the basement of the museum. Here, we saw exhibits of various traditional tools used in paddy planting. The tools were displayed under various functions like cutting, storage and  transportation. For example, “kapok” and “jelapang” were two common rice storage bins in olden days. The storage bins were lined with dried cow dung which served as an insulator against heat and insects. As for transportation, we saw vehicles such as a buffalo cart, sampan, two-wheeter “anok”, and an old bicycle.

anok

jelapang

An interesting piece of information I gathered was related to cows. The farmers relied on cows to carry out their agricultural activities. They made special gadgets for their cows like cow bells and “kertuk”. What was even more amazing and surprising was that famers “spoke cow language” to their cows as a way of communicating and training those animals to work in the paddy fields. 

Cow Language

special gadgets for cow

Then it was time to move up to Level Three, the highest floor of this museum. From Level Two, we climbed up a winding stairs of 59 steps. I was quite out of breath on reaching the top but what really took my breath away for a second was the scene that met my eyes as I stepped off the last step.

looks like a SNAKE? no, it is the ladder to reach the revolving platform

I found myself standing on a revolving platform with a 360 degrees gigantic panoramic view of a traditional village surrounded by miles and miles of paddy fields. Wow! It was a sight to behold. Actually, this is a mural, measuring 103 meters long and 8 meters high,   drawn by 60 talented artists. The revolving platform has 40 cinema-type seats for visitors to sit and enjoy the view. It takes about 20 minutes to complete one circle round the mural. I truly enjoyed this unique experience as the scenery, people and buildings were so life-like.

Mural (Gunung Keriang)

Mural around the revolving platform

What is a trip without shopping...Yea? So, we headed down to the basement at Level One where the souvenir shop is located. The shop sells many types of rice-based products such as soaps, biscuits, rice crackers and other types of hand-made handicrafts. The museum brochure states that many of these products especially the food items were produced by the people of Kedah. What did I buy?....well here are some of my purchases .....my friends said I should be awarded the title “Best Shopper of the Day” (Haha). 

 some of my purchases (some others already given to my friends and relatives as souvenirs)

It would have been an uneventful day if not for a scary moment. One of my coursemate realised she had lost her 4-month old brand new handphone. At that time we had left the Paddy Musuem and our bus was heading towards Jitra. She panicked and so did we....losing your handphone is like losing your lifeline. We started a search by dialling her handphone number. Luckily, someone answered the call. And what was even more fortunate was that the person worked in the Paddy Musuem. Apparently, a visitor discovered the phone on one of the seats at the revolving platform in Level Three and handed it over to the information counter.  Yes, thank God, there are good, honest people around in this world! Our pakcik driver kindly made a second trip back to the museum where my friend happily reclaimed her handphone. What a relief it was for her....I think from now on she would be more careful.

       All in all, it was a good break for us. Apart from the knowledge gained at the Paddy Museum, the change of scenery, sharing jokes and laughter were also good for us. I felt refreshed, relaxed and more importantly ready to face the coming exams. Thank you, friends for planning and organising this trip. And to Mdm. Shirley...many thanks for coming along with us. 

A w0nderFul tRip ^^

^.^

by, 

Zhi hui