By Andrew Sia
An oasis of luxurious kampung living, Terrapuri also aims to preserve Terengganu’s botanical and culinary heritage.
APART
from the hardware of the homes themselves, the Terrapuri project is
also keeping alive the crucial software of carpentry skills needed to
maintain heritage homes.
Alwee Abd Rahman, 44, the resident
maintenance manager, has been a carpenter since he was 13, following in
the footsteps of his father Abd Rahman Abdullah.
“My father and
grandfather were wood workers who made boats and houses,” he says. “I
learnt much from them, for instance, how to use wooden pegs instead of
nails when joining wood together.”
His son Alhuzaifi Alwee, 20, is, in turn, following his footsteps as an apprentice.
Homely touch: The service is warm at Terrapuri, and you can even enjoy breakfast on the verandah.
“As
most of the kampung folks now want concrete houses, the old skills of
traditional builders are being lost,” says self-made entrepreneur Alex
Lee Yun Ping. “Yet conservation can become a whole industry in its own
right, like in Europe.”
Alwee is not just preserving the past but
also innovating new products. The anthology of antiques here includes
many traditional Malay beds which are sized somewhere between today’s
Queen- and single-sized beds (requiring special mattresses to be
commissioned for them).
The founder of Terrapuri, Alex (as he
prefers to be called), says that since there were many more beds than
needed at the resort, he discussed with Alwee how to turn some of them
into benches.
“The resort could easily have just bought benches
from Bali for RM400,” says Alex. “But we wanted our own Terengganu
identity. You won’t see these benches anywhere else.”
This is the
place to experience kampung living in style. From breakfast on your
villa’s verandah with the classic Terengganu dish of
nasi dagang (spicy sweet tuna curry with rice) to dinners of
sup bujut (local chicken soup),
ayam masak merah (tomato curry chicken) and
budu (fermented anchovies) at the high Rumah Tanjung overlooking the pool and surrounding forest.
An
antique bed which is being converted into a bench. Alwee Abd Rahman
(left) and his son Alhuzaifi Alwee are maintaining their family’s living
heritage of carpentry skills.
Instead of parachuting
in some hotel managers from Kuala Lumpur, Alex has chosen the approach
of “community-based tourism” to ensure that some income from visitors
will flow towards people who live in or around Penarik. Thus
tudung-clad
village women provide a most homely welcome as they act as
receptionists, serve food or do housekeeping, while chatting about your
day’s activities, or about life in Terengganu.
Food is also
sourced from nearby villages, and a must-do day trip here is out to the
nearby floating aquaculture farms in the river. Here, I watch Alex
pulling up a whole slew of live oysters and prying them open for
consumption on the spot!
The idyllic kampungs around the resort
are great for cycling, and I see fishing boats, orchards, a turtle
hatchery and even a breeder of ornamental cockerels known as
ayam serama.
In fact, the Setiu Wetlands surrounding Penarik offer a host of
eco-tourism delights, including trips out to the nipah and mangrove
swamps. An even more magical experience awaits me at night as fireflies
on the mangroves create flashing dots of light…
Penarik is just
20 minutes from Merang jetty, the jumping-off point for day trips to the
islands of Pulau Redang, Pulau Lang Tengah and Pulau Bidong. There’s
nothing like some snorkelling to work up an appetite!
But for something more unusual, I visit the haunting gelam forests around the resort. Alex says the movie
Bunohan was
filmed here, and it’s easy to see why because the trees exude a
mysterious charm with their gnarled barks, spindly branches and draping
leaves.
Indeed, it’s not just architecture that is being
preserved here, but also the state’s botanical (and culinary) heritage.
Alex is working to create a rich garden of herbs – such as
kadok leaves (used for otak otak),
kelsom (laksa),
ulam (salads) pandan, lemongrass, ginger, galangal, turmeric,
bunga kantan (all used in curries) and the aphrodisiac
tongkat ali.
The
idyllic kampungs around the resort are great for cycling, and you can
see fishing boats, orchards, a turtle hatchery and even ornamental
cockerels.
Apart from the normal mango and soursop, he is also planting more “kampung” trees such as
sukon (breadfruit),
kerkut (which has small cherries that attract birds),
cermai and
gajus (both can be mixed with belacan into a condiment) and
melinjau (used to make a type of local crackers). Meanwhile, the flowers from frangipani,
cempaka, melor, kenanga, gardenia and
kesidang trees will (once the trees mature) impart a bouquet of natural fragrances.
The wetlands on one side of the resort are rich with
jambu laut, gelang, pandan laut, paku laut (
cycads rumpii),
kerecut reeds
(which can be weaved into mats) and, of course, nipah (the leaves are
used for attap roofs). And if you ever wondered what inspired
Terengganu’s woodcarvers to create their gloriously intricate patterns,
look no further than the surrounding plants such as
pepulut, sesayap, ketam guri, bayan peraksi, bakawali, kangkong and
ketumbit. Yes, the plants here can be eaten, and even inspire art, too!
Indeed,
it’s heartening that heritage at Terrapuri is being celebrated on a
deeper level beyond architecture, by delving into ancient carpentry,
traditional cooking, pristine wetlands and a rich botanical inheritance.
blogger: Thanks to Alex- Ping Anchorage
sources: http://thestar.com.my