Kuching Tour: Anna Rais Longhouse At Jalan Borneo Height, Sarawak

Approximately one and a half hours drive from Kuching town we reached here. We registered ourselves at the small tourist information center, with a minuscules entrance fee. Later we went to the Anna Rais Hot Spring via the bridge.

We were invited to have the Tuak, the local rice wine once we entered the Longhouse. It tasted sweet and gave a hot sensation once we drank. I think I would probably drunk after 3 full cups of Tuak... concentrated, sweet and supple.

See how they are 'linked'! The longhouses are built few meters above from the ground. The corridors and interiors are made mainly from bamboo. Also we witnessed the modernization of the longhouses whereby some longhouses are built in bricks and store rooms are constructed using zinc instead of bamboo.

Most of their activities are done outside, at the corridor of the longhouses such as dining, selling, chatting, playing as well as drying their corns and home made crackers.

Poultries are kept below the longhouse. Many of the house owner kept the squirrel as pet.

This is the head house, there are two of them in Anna Rais. It is used to keep the skulls of the defeated neighboring warriors from the old days. The chief of the longhouse is called the "Tuai Rumah". The residents here are very hospitable and friendly, everyone in the longhouse are willing to share the history of their tribe to you if you ask them. According to one of the resident, Anna Rais is a place that gathers two Kampungs (villages) of Bidayuh in Kuching.

A clear river is used by the people here to bathe and wash their clothes in the old days. More often or not, they commute to another Kampung via the river using bamboo rafts. Also, they planted some fruits and flowers at their backyard or potted plants hanging at the edge of the bamboo platform.

Usually they keep the woods and bamboos in a separate 'store room' . As we were to leave, we saw a group of tourists visiting the Bidayuh's sugar cane crusher.