Eventually Bong did manage to drive us to Annah Rais, after the first stop at Semenggoh to catch a glimpse of some Orang Utans.
There's a map at the entrance that outlined the vastness of a long house and also for guidance in case you get lost.
JK. It's not that massive.
But it does tell you that the natives in the Long House don't just build houses when one becomes independent or gets married and starts a family.
Extension of the family or village (eventually it will become a village) just extend from the original Long House and build their shelter next to one another.
But first, mind I remind you that Annah Rais is rather a "more commercialized" long house you'd find in Sarawak. In fact, it's kind of a popular tourist destination location considering it's the nearest long house one can access from Kuching town.
If you want real native long house, then brace yourself for 3 hours of off-the-road 4 wheel drive into the jungle and then a rapid shoot up the river to find yourself a native long house, in the middle of the jungle, and coincidentally next to a very prestigious 5 star Hilton resort.
more specifically - the Hilton Batang Ai Resort
Ironic? Welcome to commercialism.
Back to entering Annah Rais, we were each welcomed with a drink of Tuak, a strong local brew,
well technically it's rice wine, but sort of like whisky, or vodka in the local community.
Pretty strong stuff and watch how many shots you down if you don't want to end up naked in the jungle without a trace of previous night's memory.
I did some awesome stuff with Tuak later on in the trip after I returned from my "adventure", but let's talk about it later.
There's not a lot to talk about or to show of the Annah Rais Long House. If you know of the tribe, then it's just that it is, a super long stretch of endless walking on wooden platform raised high up meters above grounds.
Else it would definitely be an experience for you to understand and obverse such a bizarre culture yourself.
I would imagine it would be fascinating to foreigners who've never heard of such community before to walk through this place.
Everyone lived together in harmony and next to each other, sharing almost the same "common area" or front porch.
Even sharing the same pet.
For people who came from big cities and were used to leading a sort of independent life where each apartment/condo/house were built to ensure privacy, a sight such as this would be mind-boggling and twisted.
In the olden days, where each long house expanded large enough, it eventually becomes a tribe or a small community of its own, and each tribe would have a leader that represents the village.
Males of the community would go out on battles, to conquer or defend one's own tribe, for personal or general gain, and bring back trophies of the enemy's heads.
Gathered the skulls and put them in a sacred "trophy" room where it represented the community's head ego.
But of course those were in the past, now you can come to Annah Rais and buy yourself a RM4 banana from sellers cum residents here who served tourists as their part time.
Visit a river that led to a waterfall, if you're keen to trek with a guide you hired earlier.
Or just check out some of the other houses that were on display.
Cats here were so cool. Ladder climbing and all.
And a couple of fancy plants photo made of and fertilized with organic materials to end the post.
So that's one end to my Kuching short detour, on with my GREAT adventure in the next few posts. (next post I'll be doing live posts on a place I'm visiting in two days, stay with me :) )
