The visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village was an exciting and enjoyable trip indeed. During the visit, we saw different designs and building structures of longhouses. These longhouses resembles those that are built by the different tribes and ethnic groups. They share some similarities but still differ quite a lot from each other.

The picture above shows the longhouse of the Orang Ulu (the upriver people). When I first saw it, I feel that it is bold and stands strong against everything.

This type of longhouse is taller and supporting it underneath are wood shaped into poles. They are properly shaped and aligned and work together with a cement cube to act as the piling of the whole house. We are not sure but we don’t think that they actually have a piling like the buildings nowadays.

We got a good view of the Sarawak Cultural Village here because the longhouse is tall and therefore we could see further. And only then we realized that we have actually climbed a long staircase before we got up here! But we didn’t feel anything at all! The urge to visit another house to learn more took away the tiredness and the sweat!

We stopped to take a snap of ourselves after we have climbed up the stairs and reached the main entrance of the longhouse.

This is me posting before we climbled up a type of narrower longhouse stair. We are not sure what or how they made them but these stairs are similar at all the other longhouses. They are not easy to climb but they are unique and it was such a great experience to us.

Special carving patterns or murals on woods as well as on clothes can always be seen in longhouses. The one in the picture above is just near the staircase. The bigger woods that support the longhouse all have this special murals on them.

They have decorated the staircases with palm leaves. The leaves are as tall as a person. It feels like a person is welcoming you to the longhouse. It looks even more real if the wind blows and the leaves move because it is as though the person is bowing and saying welcome to you.

However, we have to be careful as the longhouse can only support 50 people at a time. I wonder how they manage the amount of tourists who come to visit during the peak season of the year.

Another one of those narrow staircase at the main entrance. It is also needed when you want to enter the rooms of the longhouse! We are really fascinated by the design of the longhouses!

They are display items inside the longhouse. These items show the culture of the Orang Ulu and give us some idea of what they do to make a living. However, I am not too sure what are those baskets for. My guess is they used them to catch fish. Please correct me or tell us the real answer if you happen to know.

A good view from the longhouse. This is the Sarawak Cultural Village. We like it because it is well preserved and everything is so green and natural.

This item was found in an open space in front of the rooms of the longhouse. It is previously used as a commonly shared source of fire.

As we were educating ourselves inside the longhouse, we smelt some cooking. When we entered this room, we met this friendly lady sitting on a bench on the ground. She was frying some tapioca cookies and asked if we want to buy some. We talked to her for a while and continued our journey.

Like the front, they also have a corridor at the back of the longhouse.

The floors are made of the wooden sticks.

Among all the longhouses we like Orang Ulu’s house the most, mainly because it is tall enough to view the scenery.  :)  and not forgeting the Sape’.