A visit to Sarawak would not be complete without a tour/trip to a longhouse. But without specifying whether you want just a visit out of curiosity or a more in depth trip to an actual longhouse, some misunderstanding may arise between you and your guide. Here’s a quick and easy guide to tell your tour guide or tour agency what you want.
A day trip – You are short on time and just want to visit a real living longhouse. You don’t care whether its a Iban or Bidayuh or whatever tribe’s longhouse, whether journey includes riding a boat on a river or not, and so on. Go to Annah Rais longhouse. This is a Bidayuh tribal longhouse and is only slightly over an hour’s drive from Kuching. It can be done in a tour day together with other attractions along the way like the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre (orangutan), Jong Crocodile Farm etc. And there’s a cool jungle stream you can dip in, with hot spring water sprouting out from the river bed – the Annah Rais Hot spring, and is just an extra 15 minutes’ drive from this longhouse.
The outer corridor of the Annah Rais Bidayuh Longhouse. This is where laundry, crops and other foodstuff are dried.
A day trip – You are short on time but want to know more of the longhouse and its people (the Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu) and culture and you do not mind rubbing shoulders with the horde of tourists there. Go for the Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV). This award-winning attraction (just under an hour’s drive from Kuching} is at the foothill of the scenic Santubong mountain by the sea, and has 3 tribal longhouses (the Bidayuh, the Iban and the Orang Ulu longhouses) which are all very authentic life-size replicas and most important, very traditional. Then there are 4 more abodes – the traditional Malay village house, the Melanau’s tall house, the Chinese farm house of the 50’s, and finally the humble hut of the wandering nomadic tribe, the Penan. Visitors also get to see a spectacular cultural dance show of different tribes in their exquisite traditional costumes. A good guide is a must to fill you in on the history, culture, traditions etc of the various tribes. This tour take about 6 hours including the show time and commuting time to and fro.
The Orang Ulu Longhouse of the Sarawak Cultural Village. This is a replica longhouse and very traditional, though a real one would be much longer than this one. Orang Ulu means “people of the upriver” and this denotes the tribes of Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, Lun Bawang etc. of the upper reaches of the Rejang, Baram, Limbang and Lawas rivers.
Overnight trip 1 – You do not want to visit the above 2 packages as you think they are too touristy, you want a “real longhouse” where you can actually sleep overnight and experience first-hand life in the longhouse. Yet you want some basic amenities like running water and proper toilet and bathroom, proper sleeping area with mattress and mosquito netting. For this category you have several options in term of area. First you can opt for the 3d2n/2d1n Batang Ai (BA) Iban longhouse tour, OR also a 3d2n/2d1n tour to the Lemanak River Iban longhouse. These two options (BA and Lemanak) are both in the Batang Ai area, which is a 4-hour drive from Kuching followed by an hour or so of water transport via motorized longboat. BA is a sunken river-lake created by the the BA Hydro Electricity Dam, thus the waters are not actually flowing, but Lemanak River is for most part of the river journey, under the canopy of trees and is often swift flowing with mild rapids and shallow river. Both have their own attractions in term of scenery, just think scenic views of a jungle-fringed lake or jungle river. Another option is for those who can’t live without the creature comforts of home yet want to see a real longhouse, then the Aiman BA Resort (former Hilton Batang Ai) will fit the bill – you overnight in the luxurious resort of a 4-star hotel by the edge of the lake and make side trip to the nearby longhouses during the day. All very convenient! Obviously you may meet some like-minded travelers like you at the longhouses within this catergory.
(Latest update: Lemanak River tour is now temporarily suspended as the longhouse there was razed by fire last year. As facilities there are not being rebuilt for visitors, so this area is out of bound until further notice).
The Lemanak River, on the way to an Iban longhouse
Overnight trip 2 – The difference between this package and trip 1 is the journey. Whereas final part of trip 1 is by long boat via river/lake, this option is wholly by road and it takes only about 2 hours vs the 4 hours road journey of trip 1. This is the Mujat/Mongkos Bidayuh Longhouse near the Indonesian border. The Mujat longhouse is still very traditional and is wholly built of wood, though modern amenities like electricity and satellite TVs are present here. Included in this package is a pleasant jungle walk of about an hour through oil palm plantations, secondary forest with many types of fruit trees, and even fording some shallow streams to reach a small waterfall. You may meet a couple of tourists here and occasionally a van load of tourists for day trip visit. Bathroom amenities is quite basic as they do not have a lot of overnight visitors.
Overnight trip 3 – You’re an adventure traveler an not a tourist! You don’t want to meet any tourist at the longhouse that you go to, and looking at trinklets and handicrafts on display for sales to the visitors like those in Lemanak and Batang Ai. Then try your luck by going to central Sarawak where there are many Iban longhouses. You may stumble onto a charming traditional longhouse (their numbers are declining rapidly) or modern brick an concrete longhouses with electricity supply and satellite TV antennas and even car-ownership from many households (those accessible by road) and this type of longhouses is getting more and more. Or you can get a good guide that can show you little visited, authentic traditional longhouses in which you can experience by staying for a night or two. Trip like this needs advance booking as the longhouses are usually very remote and has no regular commute in term of time schedule thus the village headman (usually the host) will have to be informed beforehand (when he is reachable), logistics arranged, food prepared, accommodation in the longhouse etc. My tour to the Katibas, which I have been bringing guests for the past 9 years falls into this category.
The long covered corridor or the “ruai” runs the whole length of the longhouse and is where longhouse folks live out their lives, doing household chores, socializing etc.
The hard-core no-hold-barred tour. There is no itinerary, no schedule, you just follow your nose, play by ear, watch your head and hope for the best. And oh, bring lots of cash too.
