Travelogue 29/5/22 - Terrapuri Heritage Village

This is another eye-opening experience in my Terengganu Trip on the last day.

When we arrived Terrapuri, I was quite surprised that the owner, Mr Alex, is a Chinese man. He gave us a briefing about the story behind Terrapuri and the Malay house. He also explained about how he involved in tourism business at 19 years old.

Briefing by Mr Alex

At the beginning, he took over his grandfather shophouse to make it a homestay because he planned to earn money for his oversea study. He wanted to study IT initially but then he changed his mind to build a heritage village with 29 units of traditionaL Malay House that range between 150-200 years old. He had spent 18 years to buy and collect those houses from different places, disassemble them and then reassemble them in this site.

Malay House

Bathroom of a Malay House

He also talked about the obstacles he faced during the process. For example, the land in Terengganu is mostly Malay reserve and he had to let go some of his property due to financial problem during the bad times. Another part worth to highlight is the power of Internet. According to Mr.Alex, Terrapuri is one of the first resort in Malaysia that launched a website to attract customer.

I can feel the pride and passion about the Malay house architecuture and he can easily tell the characteristic or meaning of the components of Malay house. For example, the staircase step is purposely designed with odd number, the 3 pieces of coloured cloths on the columns is a belief to keep the bad spirit away, what are the things to put in the down part of a tiang seri and the special measurement to design a Malay house and so on. Based on my observation, the village is quiet and not much outdoor activites happen during the day. It might because most of the guest are going to have activity at nearby islands. He also mentioned that mostly their guests are foreigners. I am not surprised that the locals are not attracted by this kind of resort as compared to foreign tourists. The rate for one night here is around RM500+. Actually, with RM 500+ people can afford a 5-star hotel with grand interior design and exclusive facilities, It understandable that some of us might not be comfortable to stay in this kind of rustic feel, old tradisional Malay house. Compared to other luxury hotel, staying in a heritage village that located by the sea will be an incomparable experience. Not only it allows us to stay away from the hustle and bustle from the city, in the meantime we can also take time to appreaciate the culture and historical value of heritage biuilding.

"Tak kenal maka tak cinta." Now I feel it. I am happy to learn about Malay house architecture this time and am appreciate that Mr.Alex's effort in doing this conservation project.