Rumah Tiang 16

The house with 16 pillars is what the title of my post means. Situated in Lenggong  which is a UNESCO  archaeological site, this small town gained the world heritage title because the oldest skeleton of a human being in S.E.A was found in one of the caves.Called the Perak Man, he now resides in the archaeological museum in Lenggong.

So Nash Jalaludin, the owner of the homestay invited me to stay at his ancestral home and I gladly accepted. Together with my husband I arrived at the house on the 23rd of April 2019 around noon.Obviously I was enchanted by his way of welcoming his guest. Dressed in a traditional baju Melayu, we were given a tray of drinks made of flowers and daun pandan, a cold face towel with the bunga kenanga frangrance. Nash then recited a pantun and I was supposed to reply with a pantun but I was speechless! Lunch was then served and his wife cooked noodles for us.

The next day Nash took us to a padi field and we had our breakfast at the stall facing the padi field. It's quite an experience for us. A real Kampung lifestyle.

Breakfast facing the padi field.

Then come the moment that we waited for which was a trek to one of the caves. There are many caves in Lenggong and he took us to Gua Kajang.  He said that it probably got its name from the orang Asli word Kajang which means Shelter. During the stone age, hunters used this cave as their Shelter. In this cave they found two skeletons from the stone age and the bronze age but both are not as old as the Perak Man. How did they differentiate the period? Well during the Stone  age, the corpse was buried in a foetus position and during the bronze age, the corpse was buried like the normal position.

The cave from the front. 

I have been to caves around Ipoh but this one in Lenggong is different.I could imagine the cave men using this cave as a Shelter.It is really beautiful and I wish other adventurous people especially the youth would be able to explore the Lenggong caves.I would have ventured out to see the rest of the caves but time was not on my side.I had another appointment at Bukit Merah Resort.

The sad part about our UNESCO archaeological site is because the authorities left it to rot.The boardwalk,Gazebo and toilets were in dilapidated state.Why are we not looking after it?Are we not appreciative of what's given to us?I remember going to another UNESCO site in Jogjakarta.The Borobodur was so well kept and the numbers of tourists that visits it.No one visits our archaeological site because we never bother to tell the world about it.Who do you blame?