Tales of his travels were indeed colourful and were a source of entertainment to his peers. It was on one of these sojourns that would lead to his most fascinating adventure. On this trip, after being almost a year at sea, Lord Avery and his crew had anchored in over twelve ports, collecting valueble and exotic mechandise. However on that fateful evening before heading back for home, Lord Avery sailed into the warm waters of the Straits of Malacca. His senses were hightened and his instincts feared for his crew and ship. The night was silent with overcast clouds shrouding the silver threads of the moonlight. Before he could instruct his captain for the crew to be on the alert, a thunderous sound broke the silence of the night and wooden splinters rained over him. A cannon ball had ripped starboard.

Rushing upstairs, he was blocked by two dark strangers brandishing knives. Somehow managing to throw them to the floor, he arrived on the deck to see half of his crewman dead, the other half fighting for their lives. He suddenly felt a piercing pain in his chest. A bullet's impact threw him off balance, knocking him over the side rails into the sea. Struggling to stay afloat, he saw the Hampshire on fire. He turned around to see seven fishing sampans rowing towards him and he was pulled in. The pain from his wound was too much to bear, he fought to stay conscious but to no avail.

A cool breeze brushed his faced, Lord Avery opened his eyes to see three villagers in his room. One was fanning him, another preparing food and the third cleaning. His bed was made of carved wood and a mattress of batik sarong layed over it. Over his head was a mosquito net made from soft white saffron cloth. His wound was covered and treated with special herb.

An elderly Malay man come into his room. The man smiled warmly and Lord Avery remembered the events of the night and his rescue from the pirates. The seven sampan of the fishermens were also able to salvage some of his merchandise. Lord Avery said that he would present them to the villagers as a gesture of gratitude.

Over the next six months, Lord Avery slowly recovered. During this time his simple hut transformed into a pavilion. He recreated the pavilion to suit his personal comfort, using local material and crafts. The beauty of the local architecture influenced him to use characteristics of its design to blend with his other villagers' and each hut eventually possessed an eclectic blend of East and West.

The villagers were quick to accept Lord Avery, and despite initial language barriers, he was able to communicate with them in his warm, natural way. Their friendship fostered an exchange of culture and value. Meal time would be a melting pot of local and western cuisine as Lord Avery and the village cooks traded culinary recipes. He was delighted to eat with his hands while the villagers were equally enthusiastic about spoons, forks and knives. They in turn would teach him their native tunes and words. Soon, these singing sessions proved to be so popular that an area in the village was created for this special purpose. They named the place Jungle Fringe

Very soon, Lord Avery was able to converse in the local tongue. He held story telling sessions for those who were keen to hear his adventures and tales from other land. These sessions were normally held at the wakaf, the meeting place of the villagers but were later moved to a large room which the villagers named Bilik Pelita, after the little lamps placed around the room. Lord Avery used smaller rooms for his own purpose of reading, penning poems and conversing with smaller groups. This was almost always at night, and the villagers would know that he was working from the light or cahaya that seeped out from the room.

His sincere and genuine concern from the villagers endeared him to them. His chalet was the most popular in the village. It was known to everyone as AVILLION an acronym for Avery's Pavillion. He no longer felt the urge to return to his homeland. In this little village, he found his peace, his paradise, his AVILLION. Over the years he re-engineered the village, keeping the simple and casual ways of the fishing kampung, yet adding touches of the other architectural influences. In addition to refurnishing the existing two rows of huts, he built seven finger of houses on stilts that stretched out to sea in commemoration of the seven sampans that rescued him.