Doing the tourist thing at Kampung Annah Rais

In July, I played both a host and tourist in Malaysia.

Wanting to know more about my country, I jumped at an opportunity to stay with a Bidayuh family for 2 nights in the rumah panjang (long house). Traditionally, the longhouse is one unit where many families occupy their own space in the house divided only by minimal bamboo partitions. In modern times, I guess the concept of privacy has sipped into the minds of the Bidayuh.

The Bidayuhs here are land Dayaks. It was not too long in the past that some still practised head hunting (yeps..nothing to do with HRM!). In fact, part of the village tour includes a stop at the "head house". With the death of half of the four shamans and a conversion of one to Christianity, most probably this practice will not be preserved. Although I am told that some sea dayaks still practise cannibalism in Borneo.

Annah Rais itself has been in existence for over a hundred years. Many of the young villagers left to work in Kuching, the capital which is about 45 minutes drive away. Although many move back later in life, the villagers started offering outsiders homestay packages to generate income and preserve their way of life and culture. Hence, I do not mind the tourist prices at all. 

One of the things I learnt after staying here for so long is the concept of value for money. In Annah Rais, we paid about DKK 400 for full board 3 days 2 nights including guided tours to a hotspring, waterfalls and night cultural activities. In Copenhagen, I get dinner, a sulky waitress and no service. Not to mention the 25% VAT. What is the government's value-add in this process that it amounts to 25%?  Makes me wonder.

Most villagers at Annah Rais are independent farmers. When we were hiking around, there were the sporadic lone farmer cutting down trees. After of which, they would burn the soil to enhance fertility. They do this one big patch of land at a time. The villagers know the nature around them inside out. At the longhouse, most if not all things are made from bamboo. Different types for different purposes.

Everytime we past villagers on the way, they smiled but were very camera shy. We were told the rules of the longhouse. It was obvious that the younger villagers came up with the homestay idea as some older villagers were not so keen to open their home to outsiders.

On the first day we were there, it rained heavily in the afternoon. Our host's grand daughter, a litte girl about 4 years old, went and play in the rain. She waived for me to join her. After a while, I gave in. So there we were, playing in the rain, laughing. It was a magical moment in every sense. The sound of our laughter, the rain hitting the bamboo, the long long endless of bamboo soaked, the host family sitting in a corner watching us. Then the girl's father came to her with some soap. He shampooed her hair and send her out to the rain again.

Being a city person, I felt a sense of liberation. In KL, parents would be forbidding their kids to even go near the rain.

In the trips out to the waterfall and hotspring, we were shown how to make bamboo chicken. The guide put pieces of chicken into the piece of bamboo about 1.5m long, stuff it with different plants from around. There were wild ginger, lemon grass etc. Then he lits a fire and place the bamboo on top. Rice is also cooked inside a bamboo.

At night, we learned to play the pratua'ng, the Bidayuh's music instrument made wholly from ..yes..you guessed it - bamboo. Even the strings are from bamboo. The sound is very soothing. Our teacher was to perform in the Rainforest Music Festival's opening the next day.

The second night, other guests joined us for some traditional Bidayuh dance. Most of the pieces were about celebrating fertility of the land.

As a city girl, I also enjoyed seeing the fruit trees. I love tropical fruits. In fact, it is one of those things I miss at most when I am here in Denmark. I miss eating tropical fruits fresh. Not from Føtex, not from Irma.

One of my danish friends was shocked to find pineapples growing from the ground. Ah well, I was really excited when I first saw an orange tree in Greece. So I shouldn't give the fella a hard time.

The other thing I miss is being able to swim outdoors. Danes laugh at me when I say the water is too cold in the summer. Well, they should try it in Malaysia where the water and land temperature does not differ 10 degree celcius!

All in all, I would really recommend people going to support Annah Rais. The hosts are caring, friendly and have integrity. I left my belongings in the house and nothing ever happened to them. When my friend misplaced something, she called them. They looked high and low and even call us back to follow up afterwards. She had placed it in one of her bags and found them later.