The revolving mural
Rice fields seen from a turning platform.
Marufish from Alor Setar, Malaysia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Marufish from Alor Setar, Malaysia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Marufish from Alor Setar, Malaysia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Marufish from Alor Setar, Malaysia — CC BY-SA 2.0
A museum devoted to rice in the heart of Malaysia's rice bowl, as Kedah is nicknamed for its broad plains of paddy fields. It opened in 2004 in a three-storey building shaped like sheaves of harvested rice, at the foot of a towering limestone hill called Gunung Keriang, surrounded by green fields. Its galleries tell the story of rice farming in Malaysia, from preparing the land and sowing to harvesting and threshing, with the tools and machines farmers used over the decades, and a statue of a farmer leading his buffalo in the grounds. The museum's jewel is a circular hall with a huge wraparound mural of rice fields and farming life, painted by sixty artists from North Korea, which visitors view from a slowly revolving platform. An adult ticket is five ringgit and a child's two, and it opens daily from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, closing on the first day of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. It lies about eight kilometres from central Alor Setar, roughly a quarter of an hour by taxi or car. The fields around it are at their loveliest when the rice is green, stretching like a carpet to the hills.
Rice fields seen from a turning platform.
Shaped like bundles of harvested rice.
A limestone hill amid the fields.
At the foot of Gunung Keriang, about 8 km north-west of Alor Setar
The easiest way is a taxi or ride-hailing car from central Alor Setar, about a quarter of an hour. Ask the driver to wait or arrange your return in advance, as the museum is away from the centre.