Cats, ghosts and gold: 5 unique museums to visit in Malaysia

The Cat Museum in Kuching, Sarawak is popular with cat lovers. — Filepic

Museums are a great place to learn about the history and culture of a place or people. As museums and galleries in Malaysia are once again open to visitors after about three months of closure due to Covid-19, we take a look at five of the more quirky ones.

1. Museum Of Enduring Beauty, Melaka

This is actually part of Melaka’s large Muzium Rakyat, located along Jalan Kota, which houses a number of smaller museums and galleries.

The Museum Of Enduring Beauty, also known as Muzium Kecantikan, is where you can find displays depicting how beauty is perceived not only among the cultures in Malaysia but around the world, too.

There are collections of beautiful traditional costumes, accessories and headgear, as well as displays of tribal tattoos, body piercings, foot bindings and neck rings.

This museum was opened in 1996 and is managed by the Malacca Museum Corporation (Perzim).

The Museum Of Enduring Beauty, in Melaka, has a collection of traditional Malaysian costumes. — Perzim

2. PG Gold Museum, Penang

Touted to be the “first and only gold museum in Malaysia”, this place is where one goes to learn all about the history of gold and gold mining in the world.

Opened by Public Gold, this museum has interesting displays on gold and silver artefacts, demonstrations and interactive exhibitions.>

The PG Gold Museum is the only one of its kind in Malaysia. — Filepic

3. Cat Museum, Kuching, Sarawak

The Cat Museum in Sarawak is said to be the world’s first... but it is definitely not the only one of its kind in the world. In fact, there are surprisingly quite a number of cat museums in Europe!

The museum in Kuching (“cat”, get it?) features a wide range of exhibits, photos, paintings, sculptures, souvenirs – pretty much everything and anything to do with felines, really. In fact, there are more than 4,000 items housed in this museum located on the ground floor of the Kuching City Hall building.

4. Time Tunnel, Cameron Highlands, Pahang

Also known as “The Local Museum”, Time Tunnel, to put it simply, is a museum of knick-knacks. Opened by See Kok Chan in 2007, this museum houses local antiques and memorabilia from decades ago, including pictures of Cameron Highlands was back in the day. See, an avid collector, grew up in the resort town. He was able to find and get a hold of many items from even before he was born, like a picture of a primary school in the 1950s that used to be a British Military Hospital.

According to an article online, See says that older visitors are usually thrilled to come to the museum as it brings them back to their childhood days. Time Tunnel is located in Brinchang, near Cameron Highlands.

5. Ghost Museum, Penang

One of the ‘displays’ at the Ghost Museum in Penang. — Ghost Museum Facebook

According to their Facebook page, the Ghost Museum is not a haunted house but a museum that “introduces ghosts” from five different countries and cultures.

It probably seems more gimmicky than anything, but this museum is still worth visiting as it does really have comprehensive details about the different kinds of “ghosts” and supernatural beings that are popular in Asian cultures, as well as the media.

Feel free to take pictures in the room full of coffins (an indoor graveyard, if you will), or with some of the um, ghosts themselves. It is located on Lebuh Melayu in George Town.

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