Culture
and adventure: A villager from the Annah Rais longhouse preparing rice
cooked in bamboo, a delicacy normally served during Gawai, in this file
pic. The Bidayuh longhouse is located in the Padawan District,
approximately 60km from Kuching.
Of all the attractions in Kuching, I believe Padawan District has a wide variety in terms of culture, adventure and ecotourism.
Padawan Municipal Council chairman Lo Khere Chiang together with its tourism unit has been very supportive of this, aggressively promoting the region and working closely with groups and individuals in the business, such as myself.
Recently, a colleague from Kuala Lumpur had the opportunity to see for himself what Sarawak had to offer.
We continued our journey to the 10th Mile bazaar where I introduced him to Lo. From there the adventure started.
The next stop was the Pitcher Plant and Wild Orchid Centre located in the heart of the bazaar where we saw a fascinating display of the plant species.
It was interesting to note that foreign tourists who came either by coach or private arrangement, were charged RM2 per person but for local visitors, it was only RM1 per adult and 50 sen per child.
After the tour at the centre, we drove to Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, a famous tourism attraction that featured the “man of the forest”, the orangutan.
The centre is listed in TripAdvisor as the top attraction site in Kuching. Of course, the “star” was 30-year-old Ritchie, a 150kg alpha male orangutan named after the journalist who saved it in 1989.
If you’re lucky, you could catch Ritchie during feeding time between 9am and 3pm and if not, you might spot his bevy of wives and offspring, of which their acrobatic moves would be an entertaining spectacle.
We proceeded to the Bunuk longhouse afterwards, about 16km down the road, where the main attraction was the round-shaped Rumah Panggah, a Bidayuh ceremonial headhouse.
At the far end of the village was a mini museum, established by the late Otor, a Bidayuh collector of old items, about 40 years ago.
His family’s private collection of antiques is now under the charge of ceremonial chief Peka.
The mini museum has been transformed since Otor’s days in that now there are items for sale.
My colleague bought some pepper at the small shop near the entrance.
Entry to the museum used to be free but now, it’s RM5 per person, which is a nice way to help the community.
For RM15, a guide will help you with the tour inclusive of a drink — either a glass of juice or tuak (rice wine).
After that, we headed to the Annah Rais longhouse and its famous hot spring, some 3km away.
It was truly an interesting experience for outsiders like me and my colleague at the old Bidayuh longhouse, home to several hundred villagers.
The highlight of that trip was dipping our weary feet into the clear hot water at the natural stream near the village.
Entrance fee to Annah Rais hot spring is RM5 per person.
Legend has it that their ancestors discovered the hot spring 250 years ago.
At the time, the early settlers would soak their feet in the hot mineral spring to treat diseases, heal injuries and improve blood circulation.
Feeling refreshed, we then headed to our final destination, the Borneo Highlands Resort.
Before I came to Kuching, I heard that it was dangerous to drive up to the resort — you had to be a risk-taker to manoeuvre along the narrow and winding road leading to the place.
I found out later, however, that it was a myth. It was just as winding as the roads to Cameron Highlands and Fraser’s Hill in Pahang, which I have travelled on many times before.
As the foothill entrance to the resort came into sight, we greeted the security guard and then continued our uphill journey.
The gradient on the first stretch was not as steep as those on some of the hill resorts in the peninsula.
After a while we reached the plateau that led us to the resort.
After experiencing the Kuching smog, it was certainly a refreshing welcome, with amazingly green ambience right at our doorstep.
We slowly passed the Chinese Tea House, the garden and the horse stables before going to the Herbs Garden, which had over 100 types of plants.
After some refreshments at the restaurant, we went to the Kalimantan border lookout point, from which we could have a breathtaking view of West Kalimantan, one of Indonesia’s largest provinces.
In fact, it is as large as Sarawak which has a landmass of 125,000sq km. Being on that lookout point, we were at over 900m (3,000ft) above sea level — even higher than Mount Santubong.
Our next respective stops were the Horticulture Nursery, which housed a variety of flowers and the organic farm, which provided the resort with Agriculture Department-certified organic produce.
The resort even offered us a special drink called Misai Kuching (cat’s whiskers).
Our last stop was the Simangas Waterfall, to which we had to traverse the jungle and tiptoe over a narrow bamboo bridge. But once there, we could see beautiful crystal-clear water cascading majestically into a green pool.
We spent a few minutes enjoying the scenery there while relaxing in the set-up gazebos.
It was like paradise.
Thanks to Mother Nature, our final stop gave us a chance to rejuvenate our mind, body and soul.
The Star: Friday, 1 November 2013- by muhammad syafiq nair
