Our favourite Malaysian Museum

Our favourite Malaysian Museum

There’s a lot of competition in Malaysia in museum terms with plenty of great and varied offerings in Kuala Lumpur, George Town/Penang and Sarawak’s Kuching in particular – while we’ve always liked Malacca’s unique Museum of Enduring Beauty – but the low-key, admittedly somewhat obscure, but fascinating Time Tunnel in Cameron Highlands’ Brinchang Town definitely weighs in as our favourite Malaysian Museum.

We’d readily admit the eclectic, highly unusual collection of over 4,000 everyday, cultural and historical objects and artefacts might not float everyone’s boat but we’ve always found it absolutely fascinating. The emphasis is certainly on everyday and household and covers pretty much the entirety of the 20th century so the inclusion in a museum of numerous objects that we’re very familiar with from our childhood – and indeed more recently – is at the same time disturbing yet delightful. The ‘exhibit’ that brought this home to us most was possibly the collection of 60s and 70s record sleeves. (Deep Purple in Rock!? We remember buying that and now it’s museum-worthy?)

The collection was amassed by a local…collector, who presumably scoured the Malaysian equivalent of car boot sales, rescued items from defunct businesses and undoubtedly, sadly, deceased local peoples’ homes but we can’t help imagine the reaction when he announced he was going to establish a museum featuring Tom Jones records, cans of Milo and old bottles of 7-Up. There must have been locals who doubted his sanity yet in our opinion his audacity worked. As well as displays of household objects, old toys etc there are also meticulous recreations of we guess a 1950s or 60s hair salon, a traditional style coffee shop and local grocery store. The Time Tunnel name is certainly well chosen.

Although located next to a strawberry farm in Brinchang, it could to some extent be in any Malaysian Town and despite an extensive collection old photos of the area, some local Orang Asli artefacts and a scattering of Jim Thompson memorabilia, much is not specific to the region.

The museum was closed for a while – we’re uncertain why – but local reports state it has since reopened so a visit to Brinchang’s Time Tunnel Museum was a shoo-in on our updated, 2026 Malaysia small group tour itinerary. We’ve also noticed that a similarly themed Time Tunnel Museum recently opened in Ipoh so we’ll check that one out as soon as possible. Its location is close to the old town’s Concubine Lane so it should complement the historic buildings and Ipoh’s famous street murals perfectly!