About Annah Rais Longhouse
Annah Rais Longhouse is located at about 60km away from Kuching City. It is a large & old Bidayuh Tribe's Longhouse that houses over 80 families. Majority of the villager there are still live in a traditional way of longhouse's living. They plant paddy, cocoa, pepper, rubber & etc. for living.
Annah Rais longhouse has a written history of 175 years old (over 500 years old of unwritten history, which counting to approximately 8 generations old) to date. Many tourists from all over the world come to visit Annah Rais Longhouse everyday, & they just fascinated with the traditional way of living there.
Live with them under one roof!
The longhouse living's concept is, everyone of them in the village live under one roof - a longhouse style. A longhouse consists of many doors (one door one family with 2 to 3 bed-rooms per door). In the community of Annah Rais Longhouse, some of them (families) actually participate in the homestay programme too by offering a clean guestroom for you & other guests to put up a night. You will be staying with one of the family during the night time, & the rest of the time you will be grouped together for meals, tours & activities.
** Please note that Mr Edward - the Homestay Coordinator reserve the right at his sole discretion to arrange the guestroom for you to stay & overnight when you participate in the Longhouse Adventure's programme.
Guestroom
The guestroom is basic, just exactly like their own bedroom, if not better. Mr Edward will put in all his effort to make sure that they are always clean, cosy & comfortable place for you to overnight during your stay. They will also ensure that everything will be prepared & in place for you before you come in to have your rest of the day. Guestrooms come with a fan, comfortable mattress, blanket, pillow & etc.
Facilities
Facilities include luggage storage, use of the kitchen (if you bring your own food), laundry service, 3 meals daily (serve local traditional delicacies), free flow of coffee & tea (ask for traditional herbal tea too), traditional costume for photographing, musical instruments, traditional water-based tobacco & still counting. Best of all, they are all FREE of charge.
Meals
You will be served 3 meals daily with the traditional local signature dishes, especially the world famous bamboo rice & bamboo chicken. The rice they serve is most likely from their own cultivated paddy field, the vegetables are from their farm, & the ferns ("paku" & "midin") are collected from the surrounding jungle. They grown up without pesticide. They taste sweet & juicy, because no pesticide applied, & it's simply healthy & "organic". Please note that Mr Edward's family practise the Halal kitchen so no pork will be served during your stay.
Drinks
They prepare coffee, tea, or Milo (chocolate drink) with boiled water. All their drinking water is boiled, so rest assured that all gems are killed (if there's any) before you get to drink it. Their water supply in fact is pumpep from the mountain's spring water and they are clean, fresh, & best of all, chlorine free.
You will be served with their very own organic herbal tea too. It just taste so good, & also known to be good for health, especially for those who have hypertension. At night, you will be served with their precious home-brewed rice wine that simply taste better than any commercial wines or liquors found on the market. They have added the special ingredient of fresh honey & some herbs too. According to one of the guest, it smells like a Remy Martin, but taste 10 times better than that. Well, talk is cheap, you got to try it yourself.
Swimming
Just right beside the longhouse, there's a small stream with the crystal clear & cold running water from the mountain. You can simply relax yourself by soaking yourself into the water. You can even trek through the jungle to a beautiful 3-tier waterfall. The homestay programs have a guided tour that bring you to this exotic waterfall for swimming, relax & picnic. Besides, many other waterfalls or beautiful streams can be found around the village too. They are absolutely beautiful, natural & completely untouched by the modern world. It is safe to swim at any waterfalls or streams, no crocodile, no shark, so no worry.
What to bring
There's no hypermarket, not even a shops nearby the longhouse. They only have a small mini-mart run by their fellow villager for the basic supply only. You are advised to purchase all your stuffs at Kuching before heading up to the Annah Rais longhouse. Below are some general packing list for your reference:
Insect repellent, personal medication, cigarette, tooth paste & brush, soap & shampoo (you can use theirs too, just in case you are particular on certain brand, pls bring your own), lotion, sun block cream, comb, shaver, long-sleeve shirt & long pant (in case it gets cold at night), underwear, towel, casual clothes, shoes/boots (for jungle trekking), swim-suit, sandals, flashlight (if you plan for night jungle trekking), camera, camcorder, lenses, memory cards, films, charger, binocular, hat, sunglasses & watch.
A recommendation for Jungle Trekking - local Rubber Shoes
You are advised to prepare a shoes for jungle trekking, or you can buy the rubber shoes at any local footwear shop. Seperate shoes for all jungle activities is advisable, so that your expensive shoes will not get dirty. Sandal or slipper is not suitable for jungle trekking, as it will get very slippery if it's wet. To buy this shoes, please ask your taxi driver to drop you at the shop along Kota Padawan town when you are on your way to Annah Rais longhouse. It cost only around RM10 a pair. Cheap? It's dead cheap!
