Holidays and Kuching

The Cultural Village

A talented Bidayuh woodcarver

Yes at last I am on holiday and this morning arrived in Kuching. I could bore you with the details of our End of Year Review staying at the 5 star hotel last week but to be honest apart from being nice to catch up with some people and managing to get food poisoning there isn't much to report. We were all tired and keen to depart to a hundred different destinations. The reason I have returned to Kuching is that it is on the way to Singapore where I will be flying home next weekend and it was a place I wanted to return to after getting a little glimpse before.
  So I am installed in Chinatown in a cheap backpackers and this afternoon spent a very interesting time at the Cultural Village about 30 km outside the city. It is one of those "living museums" with real people doing real work and they have reconstructed seven authentic ethnic houses from the diverse ethnic groups in Sarawak. It is set in the foothills of Mount Santubong with the beach and sea in front. I know I will start to sound like a guidebook soon but I need to try and record the information before I forget! Most of the houses were based on communal living so were either long houses or the most amazing tall house from the Melanau people. These houses were built 15 metres above the ground for protection and made out of ironwood which lasts forever. There were at least four stories and it reminded me very much of the timbered houses in Normandie.

Melanau tall house

The Orang Ulu longhouse

My favourite house, I think was the Orang Ulu's, which again was made out of ironwood but it was highly painted and the longhouse was beautiful. The Sarawak design that is seen everywhere is either based on an octopus or a hornbill - tell me what you think! The house of the Iban's of whom there are a third of Sarawak's population, was also lovely and traditionally the longhouse is only reached by the river and they are built to last about twenty years when the farming in the area is exhausted. There are still many Iban people who prefer to live in longhouses today.

Iban wall hanging

Rice wine containers

A Bidayuh bamboo bridge

 The Penan people live in the virgin forests in the interior and are nomadic.Their houses are built to last a short time but their speciality is making blow pipes. Which brings me on to the last interesting house of the Bidayuh's. Again longhouses and communal living and they were famous for their headhunting (Iban too) and there was a circular hut where the fire was lit and the heads were cured up in the ceiling. Last official head cured was 1960's so not that long ago! Before you fall asleep there was also a Chinese farmhouse and a Malay house and I would recommend a visit if you ever visit Kuching. In fact it is the setting for the Rainforest Festival every year and I am going to try and go next year.

An Iban warrior with his blowpipe