Sarawak Cultural Village

I was on Media Trip for 4 days in Kuching under Firefly FAM Trip to Sarawak Cultural Village in conjunction with their official launch flying to Kuching, Sarawak!

where the official Rainforest World Music Festival is held!

Homestay in Longhouse for 4 days… it scares the hell out of me… a city girl to stay in houses made of wood and a Longhouse plus it’s 45mins drive from Town, surrounded by forests… I survived =)

all of us were allocated to stay in Iban Long house. Basically we’re located quite deep inside from the entrance. 1 longhouse usually means 1 family including grandparents, parents, uncle, aunties, and cousins. And each room means 1 part of the family meaning your immediate family members only. Imagine now, 1 room equals to 1 person only in the city.

Each of us are entitled to one wristband to differentiate we’re living here to those who are visiting the Cultural Village. I’ll cover the environment and give you guys a virtual tour of Sarawak Culture Village below the post.

stepping my feet into the longhouse, marks my first time to a longhouse and stay for 4 days 3 nights.

Journey begins here…

stepping in Joshua was alittle too tall touching the celling of a certain part of the longhouse…with me along this trip was Rebecca Saw aka the nomadGourmand, Christopher Tock aka Spinzer, and Joshua aka Tallboyz

one thing, if your carrying baggage, this is an issue. Stairs but for the local they call it ladders to haven.

Firstly before introducing our rooms, this fire never dies for 23 years. Am only 21 fyi. Its even Older than me!!!

plus, a dead skull actually hangs from above the fire, this way it will keep evil spirits away as we are living in a jungle as we speak and the old days, Longhouses means one big family living under one roof hence, usually they stay very far from any other tribes or mankind. The smart thing about this fire is, it’s the stove and to sustain the wood of the longhouse. Why? because by continuously burning the wood (fyi, they have different types of wood for different purposes some to keep evil spirits away, some to keep away mosquitoes and bugs etc) hence, by burning it, the wood which Iban Longhouse is made out of the wood will become longer lasting! Amazing isnt it? It’s passed down by generations!

the longhouse is about 1.5 level. So each room there’s 2 floors and I took the bed on the top floor hence, climbing this narrow stair with my 12kg luggage. No i did not travel light as I didn’t know I was Literally staying in an actual longhouse!

plus the steps is just half the size of me feet, I wear size 6 shoes so dudes who’s feet are bigger…Tip-toe up! There’s also skills to climb up and down the stairs you tip toe going up and use the back of your feet to support yourself while going down. Another way for girls is to walk turning yourself sideways like a princess and slowly climb down =D

the tiny window

my bed or rather mattress is the center one. Don’t expect too much no 5 star accommodation. No air conditioning only fans it’s nice weather when we got there as it stopped raining and usually the place is pretty cooling but the guide told us around mid January to February the CNY season will be supper humid and hot. So choose the season to visit. As to stay overnight at the longhouse needs to pre book and is available to public. However you need to book the entire room which can fit around 20 pax.

don’t worry! You don’t go toilet by the traditional nature way…there’s proper toilet facility and basin including a shower but only cold shower no hot water and it’s quite small so far for me is fine. At least it’s tiles =) You need to share this one toilet in each room with 20 people by the way – advice is to get up early or in my case later than the others 😉 

Joshua chilling…

me enjoying the swing at night.*Nerds* Oh you don’t need to dress pretty in a longhouse~

Day 2 at longhouse as it only left the 4 bloggers in the house while the other photographers, singers and musicians went out for their project…yes, the local artist stayed with us in a longhouse! Anyways, we did morning exercise, we were abit late…exercise at 8am by the waterfall! How cool!

then for the last day as usual, people over sleep so only the few of us went Penghayatan Alam (in English it means experiencing the nature around us) Hence, after some “yoga” we relax and lay by the river of the waterfall technically we just sleep on the river!

yes, it’s wet and cold. Enjoying the nature and thinking about dreams. Cool experience to start of 2011 but I got 4 mosquito bites! Can you guess which is me? Am below Joshua so am wearing shorts 😉

We had to ourself the entire Cultural Village. So it’s half a day tour around for us.

Bidayuh Longhouse, it’s a baruk, basically they store food each family have a Vase and they keep their food in there. It’s for the warrior to stay guard.

skull again… Get use to it as it will be in every longhouse

Gongs and drums to welcome us!

touring along some foreign guest

in Bidayuh the olden days, women needs to learn how to pound padi and winnowing rice only then your eligible to get married. So I tried and they said am now eligible to get married xD

The different types of wood used to build the longhouse also choosing of quality lasting woods.

amazing? Whats that? It’s an amazing innovation! don’t think too dirty 😉

it’s a sugar cane crusher! Have fun crushing sugar cane the traditional way!

Rumah Cina aka Chinese Farm House. Why farm? well cause mainly Chinese used to be farmers then.

the interior inside. Reminds you of your grandparents kampung house? it look similar to me for my grandmother aunt house in Seremban =)

a very old calendar yet again 1971 am not even born yet! wth! this is ancient!

bed room

next stop, we head to Rumah Melayu aka Malay Town House.

living room

the Malay Wedding setting

very different from the way you see KL city makes it.

choice of original taste and chocolate flavour it’s RM 3 only per packet.

it’s fresh and yummy

Malay traditional game, the Congkak it’s a strategy game.

Melanau Tall House from the side. it’s super tall I tell you!

it’s thick and tall too! Now I look so tiny

 
snapping and camwhoring =D

this is how the front looks like.

another Tall house the Rumah Orang Ulu. The Kayan, the Kenyah, the Kelabit, the Lun Bawang – these gentle and graceful people are famed for their handicraft, songs, music and dances.

the Sexiest man in Sarawak Cultural Village as being introduced 😉 sitting behind beautifully wood-craving and “Tree of life” murals.

dances behind the background is Tree of Life. Usually that’s the room where the Chief of the Longhouse stay.

interested in traditional tattooing? They use wood to hit onto your skin to get tattoo. sounds painful enough for me. But if you are not up for it there’s a temporarily tattoo available for guest to try the traditional artwork =)

Interested in Blowpipe? Penan Hut is your destination!

Penan Hut is small and on the ground it’s also movable as they can close up the house and move around!

Blowpipe!

it’s sticks but it can really travel far. These are without poisons of course. But when hunters use it they put snake poisonous venom so onces the victim gets hit you’ll die.

Tock trying his Blow

in my hand

my take! Blow from your stomach not from your mouth that’s the tip.

it’s long and heavy alright!

Traditional Viqgra known as the Gambir. It solves your upper tooth problems as well your below (for guys) it enhances blood circulations xD

Kayu Tas for prevention of bugs and so on depending what wood you can buy and burn by lighting it up with lighter then you can inhale the aroma…

well thats your virtual tour of Sarawak Cultural Village, I’ll be posting up how Traditional games and food look like soon. 😉

and after being eligible to get married before we leave everyone gets to learn how to make a bead ring. And there, I made myself a ring. Funny~

Opening up your mind and heart to experience Sarawak Cultural Village enables you to experience more. Speak out and ask question and you’ll learn more. Though our FAM Trip is in SCV, I get to enjoy lots of the traditional stuff compare to some other staying in Hotels. We walk out without envy on what others get but gained lots of experience to share with many. I’ve received tweets from friends who are from Kuching but never stepped into a longhouse or some never even experienced staying in a longhouse before. I’ll say it’s a great experience all in all (Traditional games, Traditional longhouse dishes, cultural performances, and our stay in a longhouse)