Back to the trip...
1st March
The visit to the maritime exhibit at the museum the other day lured us to Pulau Duyong to chase the renowned traditional boatmaker called Haji Abdullah or Haji Lah. Pulau Duyong floats in the middle of Terengganu river, accessible by Sultan Mahmud Bridge into a serene village where we stopped by to have our kampung style breakfast. A pack of nasi dagang and a cup of steaming black kopi O in a small warung had me flown back into the kind life i missed so badly. A piece of advise, if you're not a native Kelantanese or Terengganuian and know nothing about their
dialect, don't even try to sound like one of them. Especially when ordering food because it will sure sound funny to them, bordering on insulting. You might even get charged more as a 'token of appreciation' for ruining their dialect, as one of us had learnt the hard way.
We packed our stomach full and moved to the boatmaking workshop. It's quite tricky to find the direction at first. Even with GPS. My Garmin Mobile XT wasn't capable enough to route us through the narrow paths in the village in Pulau Duyong but nevertheless it has been truly helpful finding us ways reaching here all the way from Shah Alam, finding accommodation and places to eat. So the small hiccup is forgiven. We finally made it to the workshop. Only that this one is not Haji Lah's but it belongs to another famous boatmaker in Pulau Duyong, the late Haji Ali and his son, Hassan. This workshop is the one that produced the legendary Naga Pelangi and Naga Pelangi II. Both belongs to a German Sailor Crhistoph Swoboda who had spent most his middle aged life on the sea and in Terengganu. We might have caught a glimpse of him when we were there but we weren't so sure.
A scene at Pulau Duyong. Sultan Mahmud Bridge in the background
The next thing we know, we almost run out of battery for our cameras after being a bit too snap happy at the first workshop. So it was time to move on to Haji Lah's workshop which is just a few breath away. Reaching there, we were told that we missed our luck just by one day because the last boat finished just yesterday and today it's already in the water. Of course, we acted heartbroken while actually we didn't really care that much. We were just being there to meet our dear Haji Lah to listen to his stories. We went up stairs where they had this large balcony overlooking the workshop's ship building area.
We met Haji Lah, notified him of our purpose, and he greeted us. We setup chairs 180 degrees around him looking out to the mildly flowing river with smooth breeze in the hair, and he started talking. Not sure why but you can only experience this kind of mood when listening to really old people. A voice recorder could really come in handy in that situation. And sure enough, one of us unleashed his iPhone with voice recorder app to save the day (As if other phones are too inferior to have that feature).
Haji Abdullah. Good man, great boat builder, nice stories, bad angle of photography
Haji Lah went on talking about how he started the enterprise in 1955. Most of his customers are European and Singaporean. Up until now he has made almost 20 boats with each one takes average 3 years to complete. But the cost of wood has more that quadrupled since then and has definitely put a dent in his profit and inflated the price. However, Malaysian made boats are still among the cheapest throughout the world and many western customers testify that ours are the best in built quality because of the robust nature of Cengal wood that we used coupled with highly skilled boat makers of course. He then described the types of boats that are there and where they come from. Among the names that been given to differentiate the types of boats are Phinis, Bedar, Payang, Dogol and Gobel. Perahu Anak Bedar, according to Haji Lah, is believed to be originated from France.
Axisthink provides banner/bunting design and other graphics services (Picture above not related)
Haji Lah also offers courses for those interested in learning about boat making and carpentry. Scroll down for contact details.
Got extra RM 2 million lying around?
We had a taste of what it's like being on the boat
This boat is technically completed. Pending for protocols and all those boring stuff
Trust me, he has no problem climbing over into the boat but he's just couldn't be bothered about doing so
The captain needs a rest
It's kinda cozy in here. Perhaps some carpeting, maybe a coffee maker, medium sized microwave oven would do, a reclining seat, central air-cond, Wifi, throw in a 52" Lcd and a PS3, life is complete
I knew Noah's ark was bigger
Those looking for contact number and address for both workshops, here I spoon feed you;
Bot Tradisional Duyong Enterprise
3609, Kg. Duyong Besar,
20100 K. Terengganu.
019 9662266
btde05@yahoo.com
Custom Made Wooden Yachts International Shipyard
3592, Duyong Besar,
20100 K. Terengganu
Haji Abdullah 09-631 5072
It was noon, we still had another destination we got to be at before we wraps up the day. After lunch we head on to Pura Tanjung Sabtu. This place really took us by surprise. Secluded, charming, creepy and beautiful kind of surprise. We didn't expect it to be 'The' place at first. once we entered the gate, which is in itself an eerie welcoming structure, we stumbled upon a very hushed place in an environment that looked like not very well maintained. Ironically, the place at the same time managed to be beautiful. We were totally drawn by it. The whole assembly of that place reversed the time to about a century ago. We felt like we were living the past. Well, that explains the eerie feeling, other than the lack of human being in sight.
You don't expect historical building to be all shiny, do you?
Probably we were making a bit too much noise after reaching there because someone did turn up eventually from the balcony. We told her of our intention but unfortunately the owner, Tengku Ismail bin Tengku Su was not in at the moment. So we were only allowed to wander around the exterior of the building. That was sufficient for the time being. Even the exterior was beautiful it takes hours to explore it to the fullest. After all, we were already running out of juice for our cameras anyway.
The scene of a 19th century palace, except in full colour
Pura Tanjung Sabtu is a private residence of a fine songket aficionado, Tengku Ismail bin Tengku Su who is also a songket weaver and designer. He took the trouble of finding old blocks of Terengganu houses and palaces and brought them here at Tanjung Sabtu. There are a few blocks reserved as guesthouses so you can actually stay here for the experience. The attraction of course is the architecture itself, which is what brought us here in the first place.
Thumbs up for the works of retaining the features that makes old Malay Terengganu Houses unique and authentic. There's so much to describe about this place but I guess I'd better let pictures to do the talking.
Peles, peleh, pemeleh or whatever nickname they call it, adorning the roof edge
No nail policy most apparent in the stairs construction
Told ya... Please ignore the flooring
The center balcony, akin to modern day performance stage
The courtyard, most appropriate for morning aerobics session
Squeeze Play Doh through
Gog and Magog haven't found this opening
The genius of nature + man made amalgamation. Do not step on grass
Yes, the sun was powerful back then
Poor attempt at hiding the evidence of compromise
Pura Tanjong Sabtu is open for public. Just be sure to keep bugging their phone line because it's unlikely that you'll be successful the first time.
Address
5728, Kampung Tanjung Sabtu, Mukim Manir, 21200 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia
Phone
+609-6153655
Fax
+609-6155013
purakota@yahoo.com
www.puratanjungsabtu.com
We were only two days into the trip up to this point. There's a whole lot more coming so stay tuned...
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