Travel By Photo – Galeria Perdana at Langkawi Island

I’ve been to Langkawi Island only twice, so far, though it’s one of the famous travel destination in my country, Malaysia. Not that it’s bad, or far from Kuala Lumpur (it’s quite far from KL actually, >600km or 6 hours drive! ), it’s its slow city development that discouraged me from visiting it once every year. 🙁 Read more from my “Top 5 reasons to visit Langkawi” post.

However, after my second time to Langkawi, there is one place, apart from the giant eagle at the harbour, that I could still remember well and found interesting. It’s the Galeria Perdana, or Sri Perdana Gallery.

The Galeria Perdana is located at Kilim district, about 11km from Kuah Town, the city central of Langkawi.

This gallery showcases a remarkable collection of more than 2500 souvenirs, awards and gifts, which were received by our former Prime Minister,  Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, and his wife, Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, from the world leaders and entrepreneurs during his tenure as prime minister.

Through this gallery, visitors will get an opportunity to appreciate the distinctiveness and assortment of various arts and cultures. The buildings with oriental architectural designs boast of harmonious ambience. Here, you’ll find various sections dedicated to different exhibits.

While browsing one section, you will find gifts made of wood, leather, crystal and lacquer….

…together with musical instruments and stone objects.

Tun Mahathir loves horse and many of his gifts are horse sculptures.

And this creation of horses in jade.

This sculpture’s title is “Eight Horses“. Could you spot all of them?

This is an abstract carved in jade from China.

Off course, this Japanese toy is from Japan. Can you imagine this was a gift to Prime Minister?

I’m not sure these pearls are real or just artistic…

Another section will disclose exhibits like textiles, games, weaponry, ceramics, plaques and this Islamic art of “Wayang Kulit”.

The art section features abstracts from variuos artists.

Cave,sea and sky…

Volcano?

Smiling face and burning back… 🙂

One another section displays gifts made of silver, copper, brass and pewter.

Also check out the range of automobiles including several prototype cars and four-wheel drive vehicles.

Another prominent feature that visitors must not miss is the art above head, the ceiling.

The fall ceilings of each hall are generally fibrous plaster ceiling festooned with handmade paintings.

Looking directly up, neat and sophisticated patterns covering the whole roof areas.

Thanks to my Panasonic Lumix FZ28‘s ultra zoom lense, let’s take a closer look at the fine art…

From an isometric view angle, the 3-dimensional look is just amazing…

… another hall, another design. Well, this is our Tun Mahathir’s favourite’s to have totally different design to different sections…. same with how his ideas to the 9 motorway overhead bridges and 9 totally different designs in Putrajaya, the government administration district.

… and this is my favourite piece of art. Click the photo to view photos in full resolution via flickr

Dr. Mahathir decided to keep all these souvenirs on display in 3 interlinked double story blocks of Galeria Perdana, because he believed that whatever he has got during the term was on the behalf of all Malaysians, and the people of the country must have an access to them (but why is he charging entrance fees?). This gallery is unfortunately among the only few better maintained travel site in Langkawi. Anyone comes to Langkawi Island must also come to this Galeria Perdana and anyone comes to this travel blog should also subscribe Travel Feeder’s RSS feeds for free updates on upcoming travel stories. 🙂 – Travel Feeder.