Since 1883
Malaysia's oldest museum.
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
The oldest museum in Malaysia, founded in 1883 by Sir Hugh Low, the fourth British Resident of Perak, in an elegant white colonial building with towers and red roofs. It began as a natural history museum devoted to ethnography, zoology, botany and geology, the fields its founder loved. Today it shows collections of mounted animals, rocks and minerals, and pieces of Perak's history and its peoples' cultures, from traditional weapons to costumes, among them an ornate royal bed. In its grounds stand an old steam engine and a railway carriage, recalling that Taiping saw the country's first railway line. Fees are token, about two ringgit for foreigners; it opens Saturday to Thursday from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, on Fridays with a long midday break, and closes on the first day of each Eid. It stands in central Taiping on the main road, close to All Saints' Church, so make it an afternoon stop, when the town usually gets its rain.
Malaysia's oldest museum.
Animals, rocks and minerals.
A carriage and steam engine in the grounds.
Jalan Taming Sari, central Taiping
All Saints' Church, TaipingA small white timber church in Gothic style, founded in 1886 and consecrated in 4 minutes walk
Zoo Taiping and Night SafariA long-established zoo that opened in 1961 in the shade of green hills beside th11 minutes walk
Taiping War CemeteryA quiet military cemetery cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on16 minutes walk
Taiping Lake GardensThe first public garden created in Malaya, laid out in 1880 on an abandoned tin 18 minutes walk
Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill)Malaysia's oldest hill station, set up by the British in 1884 on the forested he21 minutes walkBecause in the nineteenth century Taiping was Perak's capital and the heart of its tin wealth, so it saw many of the country's first modern ventures, from the first museum to the first railway line and the first public garden.