Sarawak Cultural Village - The Houses (2)

To get to the Iban longhouse, we crossed the bamboo-made Bidayuh bridge. I was quite sceptical but hey, since my mother in-law could do it, why not me? With Vivien behind me and guiding my steps, I made it across. Before we entered the compound, there was a set of family sculpture to welcome us. Vie said it represented the spirit of the family and the house. At Iban house, we saw the weaving of their cloth. When I talked to the lady weaver, she would take about 3 months to complete the piece she was weaving. Vie and I checked out the beads on sale at one corner of the house.

Crossing the Bidayuh bridge with Vie guiding me ..

She will take 3 months to complete this piece

The totem pole that welcome us into the village

The bamboo bridge leading to the Iban longhouse

The sculpture welcome us to the Iban longhouse - the crockery above them are offerings

From here we proceeded to the Melanau house. Every house seemed to be higher than the others. Here there were children demonstrating the bamboo pole dance. When I interviewed them they said that they were children of the village's staff. They were trained to do the dance and played the traditional drum. I sat and listened to the hypnotizing rhythm and watched the agility of children jumping to avoid the poles. Theyw ere very friendly and invited others to join them. One elderly man were taught the steps but gave up before they started with the music as he was out of breath. The jumping got faster as they jumped. It was interesting and fun. The children - 6 of them would be in primary school level - fully utilised their school holidays.

Rumah Orang Ulu was the tallest so far. And beautifully, intricately carved. Maybe the carvings were to ward off evil spirits and scared off enemies. Rumah Melayu was typically Malay as was the ones found in the Peninsular. There were ladies making the traditional "bahulu" and "kueh kapit" using charcoal instead of oven.

Rumah Orang Ulu - the highest and tallest of all

One step at a time ... ;-))

One of the many sculpted stones that represented the spirits