© Lonely Planet 207 Kedah & Perlis Tucked into Malaysia’s northwest corner are two states that fairly drip with greenness and fertility: Kedah and Perlis. If Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia at its most frenetically developed, and Borneo the nation at its wildest and ruggedest, this is the country’s, well, country: not paved, not jungled over, but cultivated, cared for and landscaped into a horizon of looping emerald ridges. Limestone pillars thrust up through this paddyscape and peasants dot it, the latter contributing to the harvest of over half of Malaysia’s domestic rice supply. Not that many foreigners see all this. While it may be one of the most touristed states in Malaysia, most travellers would draw a blank if you asked them anything about ‘Kedah.’ That’s because almost everyone knows it by its biggest island and Malaysia’s number one holiday destination: Pulau Langkawi. One of those postcard places where life is a cruise ship commercial starring you, Langkawi is also a living island where there’s a fair bit to explore beyond the beach, although no one will fault you for losing a few days (Weeks? Months? Langkawi has that effect…) on the sand. Langkawi’s duty-free status also makes it popular with a certain kind of shopper, and it’s not uncommon to see folks leaving the island with tanned arms busting with cartons of Marlboros. Perlis is the smallest state in Malaysia; physically and culturally it borders Kedah. It’s also proximate to Thailand, and most travellers rush through here on their way to that kingdom. Their loss: this corner of the country is part of the Malay heartland, which makes it over- whelmingly friendly and culturally significant. The Malays are known as bumiputra – sons of the soil – and that soil, physical and cultural, is most fertile in Kedah and Perlis. HIGHLIGHTS Telaga Tujuh Sliding through the seven pools of Telaga Tujuh ( p219 ) Gunung Pulau Langkawi Machinchang Exploring Kedah’s history as a Hindu- Buddhist kingdom at the Muzium Arkeologi ( p210 ) in Lembah Bujang Deciding between staying in a colonial villa or Chinese mansion at Temple Tree ( p223 ) in Langkawi Lembah Bujang Relaxing on one of the stunning beaches of Pulau Langkawi ( p220 ) KEDAH & PERLIS Riding the cable car to the top of Langkawi’s Gunung Machinchang (p219 ) to enjoy the spectacular views TELEPHONE CODE: 04 POPULATION: 2.17 MILLION AREA : 10,236 SQ KM 208 KEDAH & PERLIS •• Climate lonelyplanet.com 0 50 km KEDAH & PERLIS 0 30 miles To Hat Yai To Hat Yai (28km); Bukit (28km) Bangkok (953km) Pelarit (553m) Gua Kelam Padang Sadao Besar Ko Satun Taman Kaki Bukit Tarutao Negara T H A I L A N D Perlis 7 E1 Ὀ Bukit PERLIS Kayu Hitam Pulau Langgun Kangar Bukit Koh Gunung Arau Changlun Mai (762m) Raya Kuala Kodiang (881m) Pulau Perlis Langkawi Bukit Pasir Langkawi Terbang Kuah gai K Tasik (574m) International 7 un ed Pedu Airport Jitra S ah Bukit Gajah Pulau Beras Pulau Hutan (1067m) Basah Tuba Sultan Abdul Halim Airport Pulau Singa Alor Tasik Besar Pulau Setar Langgar Muda Dayang S u Bunting Kuala Kedah n g KEDAH a Gunung Kampung Pulau Lebuhrayai Payar 1 (Tollway) Perak Gulau (865m) Pendong Kota Sarang Semut Guar Chempedak 77 Yan KecilBu Su Gurun Tok Bidan Gunung jang (842m) ngai Jerai (1217m) Singkir Darat Bedong 76 Tanjung Dawai Lembah Baling A N D A M A N Bujang a Sungai d S E A u Petani M 67 i Kota Kuala Sunga Kuala Muda Ketil Baubak (1199m) Gunung Bintang Gerik Georgetown (1862m) To Kota Ayer Butterworth Pulau Bharu Itam (220km) Pinang Bukit Kulim Gunung 76 Mertajam Inas Bayan Lepas (1801m) Airport E1 PERAK PENANG Gunung Ulu Jerneh Nibung Tebal (1577m) Parit Buntar To Ipoh (108km); Kuala Lumpur (313km) Climate is a Unesco-designated ‘geopark’ – the first Kedah and Perlis both enjoy a typical tropical one to be named so in Southeast Asia – but climate, with temperatures between 21°C and that status has more publicity than actual 32°C throughout the year. The wettest time of protective measures attached to it. year is between April and October, when the odd tropical storm is expected, whereas there Dangers & Annoyances is intermittent rainfall and occasional down- Travellers crossing the land border into pours at other times. Pulau Langkawi tends Malaysia from Thailand have reported a com- to see less rain than the mainland. Humidity mon scam practised by some travel operators. hovers at around 90%. Foreigners are told that at the border crossing they need a certain amount of Malaysian ring- National Parks git (RM) to be allowed into the country (usually The tiny state park of Perlis (Taman Negara quite a high amount), and are then obliged to Perlis; p228 ) is a remote, 5000-hectare ex- buy Malaysian currency at a highly disadvan- panse of jungle running along the Thai border. tageous rate. Don’t be taken in by this con – it For more details, contact the park visitors centre is not necessary to have a specified amount of KEDAH & PERLIS KEDAH & PERLIS (%945 7898). The entire Langkawi archipelago Malaysian cash to cross the border. lonelyplanet.com KEDAH •• History 209 Langkawi ‘beach boys’ – local men who of Asian agriculture, this state is the field of make a living off small tourism activities, sunflowers to your inner van Gogh. hustling or flings with foreign women – have If not, it’s still worth spending some time a particularly bad reputation for aggression here meeting Malays. Across the world, rural and general sleaziness. We’ve read many folk have a reputation for being hard working reports of fights between ‘beach boys’ and and hospitable. The cliché holds true in Kedah male travellers and saw two such incidents at least. Here farmers are bent over the ruins during our research. You may just want to of great kingdoms like Srivijaya, and their be generally careful. children seek IT jobs in Alor Setar, but to a man, they’re all friendly as hell. Getting There & Away For travellers’ purposes there are essentially The main train line and the Lebuhraya two Kedahs: the tropical island of Langkawi (North–South Hwy) run through Kedah and and its attached islets, and rural, little-visited Perlis, heading southwards to Butterworth mainland Kedah. Kedah state’s business hours and beyond, and northwards to the Thai bor- differ from those of most of the peninsula. der. Alor Setar, the state capital of Kedah, is Banks and government offices are usually the main transport hub, with bus connections closed on Friday, but sometimes open a half- to most major cities on the peninsula. It also day on Saturday. For information on the state, has an airport, with regular flights to Kuala check out www.visitke dah.com.my. Lumpur (KL). Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah and Padang Besar in Perlis are the border History crossings into Thailand. Kedah is one of the most historically signifi- Langkawi can be reached by air from KL, cant Malay states. Settlement goes back to the Georgetown and Singapore and by ferry from Stone Age, and some of the earliest excavated Georgetown, Kuala Kedah and Kuala Perlis archaeological sites in the country are near and from Satun in Thailand. Gunung Jerai. More recent finds in Lembah Bujang date back to the Hindu-Buddhist Getting Around period in the 4th century AD, and the current Most of the big towns in Kedah and Perlis royal family can trace its line back directly are easily reached by bus. Trains are infre- to this time. Discoveries in Lembah Bujang quent, often leave at inconvenient times show that it was the cradle of Hindu-Buddhist and are not particularly useful for travelling civilisation on the peninsula – the society that within the two states. There is no public would become the foundation stone for Malay transport on Langkawi. You will have to culture – and one of the first places to come use taxis to get around, unless you rent a into contact with Indian traders. The latter car or motorbike. would eventually bring Islam to Malaysia, a religion whose cultural impact cannot be overstated here. During the 7th and 8th centuries, Kedah KEDAH paid tribute to the Srivijaya Empire of The iconic man-made geographic feature Sumatra, but later fell under the influence of of Southeast Asia is and ever was the rice the Siamese until the 15th century, when the paddy. There’s something about its flatness rise of Melaka led to the Islamisation of the and fecundity, all that green suggesting area. In the 17th century Kedah was attacked wild, energy and life, yet so expertly and by the Portuguese, who had already conquered elegantly partitioned off and cultivated. Its Melaka, and by the Acehnese, who saw Kedah nature at its most vibrant, tamed into its as a threat to their own spice production. most productive. In the hope that the British would help pro- KEDAH & PERLIS The paddy field is the eternal horizon of tect what remained of Kedah from Siam, the Kedah, Malaysia’s ‘rice bowl.’ Two blocks sultan handed over Penang to the British in of colour constantly kiss at the edge of the late 18th century. Nevertheless, in the early your eyesight: robin’s-egg blue on top and 19th century Kedah once again came under deep, alive green on the bottom, with strips Siamese control, where it remained, either di- of bitumen webbing through. If you find rectly or as a vassal, until early in the 20th cen- inspiration in the rustic, clean-lined aesthetic tury when Siam passed control to the British. 210 KEDAH •• Sungai Petani lonelyplanet.com This history of changing hands between the 4th century AD.