Hanging out with Ben and Dave.

What did you do today Bahari? I hung out with Ben and Dave at the Hin Bus Depot, my two Australian Brothers. Ben has a shop at the Hin Bus Depot where he sells 400 year old ceramic wares salvaged from a Portuguese ship wreck off the coast of Dungun in Terengganu. The Portuguese vessel was sunk by the Dutch while on its way to Goa in India, It was carrying allot of Chinese ceramics aged to be 400 year old. Although most were shattered, there were also some that survived whole and complete, These ceramics fetch a fair price today even the broken pieces that were grinded to form rings and pendants for sale. Ben,{seated in the middle} was doing the filming of the retrieve of the treasures of the Wanli.

Dave was on his way from Pulau Kapas, in Marang Terengganu, to where ever in Tahiland where there is a beautiful beach and a good place to surf and dive. He had been living on Kapas Island for the past twelve years. Bena nd I visited Dave on Kapas sometime last year where we stayed for ten days just soaking up sea and sun. 

"The Portuguese Wanli shipwreck of 1625 was discovered six miles off the east coast of Malaysia after pottery appeared in fishermen’s nets in 1998. The ship was found six years later, loaded with blue and white antique Chinese porcelains belonging to the Ming Dynasty, the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644. The vessel became known as the Wanli shipwreck after the ceramic recovered was found to have been made in the town of Jingdezhen during the reign of Emperor Wanli (1573-1620).

Only a small part of the ship has been recovered intact; most of the hull was damaged and a large part of the cargo has been lost, seemingly destroyed by a huge explosion which is likely to have followed a battle between the Portuguese ship and a rival vessel, maybe Dutch. An archaeological reconstruction suggests that when the fire reached the ammunition store, the stern was literally torn off by the resulting explosion, and the remains sank to a depth of 40 meters. Much of the ceramic cargo was broken by the explosion but despite this more than 9,000 kilos of porcelain shards were recovered from the site. These bear witness to the forms, styles and types of decoration that were being traded in this period."

 

We sat and listened to live music being performed and one of the performers was from Thailand who played his three stringed ukulele which he made himself from a Jack fruit timber. For a homemade instrument it sounded great over the speakers.

The Hin Bus Depot is like a flea market where people just came to hangout and stare at others. It used to be a bus depot and when no longer in service the place was converted into a leisure space where one can buy and sell trinkets and curios. There is also a small art gallery where Ben and I along with a Nigerian artist had a three man show we called BWB or Black White and Brown.

. The hat that Ben Rongen brought back from Australia for me.