YowCH & Grace

Esther and David had school holiday from 15 to 18 Oct for the PSLE papers marking, and we took this opportunity to travel to East Malaysia for a short trip (last year, we went to Fraser’s Hill). We flew Tiger Airways to Kuching, Sarawak and enjoyed two days of Bidayuh longhouse stay and jungle trekking at Annah Rais.
Here is the trip map, Kuching (yellow) is near the upper 1/3, then we travelled South towards the border to Indonesia for Annah Rais (about 60km, Annah Rais is in red, waterfall in green) and travelled North to Damai for the Cultural Village (about 30km, in light blue at the North). Click on the map for a larger one:

The last Grace and YowCH were in Sarawak was the Mulu trip in 2003 (Esther was only 10 months old then!)

14 Oct 2012

After church, we went home, grabbed our stuff and took a cab to the airport for catch a Tiger Airways direct flight to Kuching at 15:10.


After a short flight of 1hr20mins, we landed and took a taxi to Ariva Gateway Hotel (service apartment). After a short while of unpacking the essentials, we walked out for dinner at popular seafood hawker centre “Topspot” which is just next to the hotel.

We had grilled sambal pomfret, satay, fried oyster, midin (fern shoots) and sea-cucumber thick soup. Great tasting, all for RM100 including drinks.

15 Oct 2012

Here’s a view of Kuching from the hotel room.

We packed all ready for the jungle, with one luggage bag for the spare clothes and chargers.

We had hotel breakfast, then waited for pick-up at 08:15. Valentine drove us to Annah Rais (about 1hr45min) in a Toyota Rush.

Upon arrival, we paid a small fee at the village entrance and had a sip of tuak, the local rice wine. All three children had a sip each, too.


We were brought to our room (a loft) in Edward’s house and we quickly prepared for the first hike to the bamboo rafting activity.

Setting off at 10:40, we walked along roads, then through the jungle to reach the river for our picnic lunch. A couple from England was with us, too.

The guide, Richard, prepared bamboo chicken and rice for us. We cooked the chicken on the spot with river water.

We then waded the river while waiting for the rafts to be done by the guides. YowCH made a bow for David, and David was most pleased.


When the two rafts were ready, we boarded them and started downriver, but met some obstacles along the way, inlcuding floating bamboo from landslides and a rapids.





At about 17:15, we left the river and started hiking back to Annah Rais.

Dinner was great, we had soup, fish, midin and chicken. Edward also offered his honey-herbal liquour, very nice and strong.

After dinner, we listened to traditional music and dance. The instrument is a ‘patuok’ or bamboo drum. Sounds like a drum with ‘strings’ struck with a stick. The dancer is 82 years old!




The Annah Rais longhouse is very dark at night, but with public electricity, they have some street lights.

16 Oct 2012

We woke up early and had a good breakfast.

We then started on the second activity, a long trek to the 3 Tiers Waterfall at 10:30. It was raining, but we didn’t care much about that.



You can see that Joseph walked all the way on his own (not carried) and had to climb steep slopes, take high steps and cross bamboo or log bridges.





Near the waterfall, we reached a road, which the guide had left his motocycle. He took the children by bike to the next trail while the adults (Grace, YowCH and the English couple) hiked the windy road with steep up and down slopes.


Grace is eating fern shoot, and so did the rest of us.

We reached the waterfall at 13:40, about 3hr10min hike, and prepared lunch.



After lunch, the children went up the waterfall’s lowest tier for some fun in the water.



Armed with the underwater camera, YowCH climbed up to the second tier, rather slipery and difficult.




You can see Joseph, but if you look hard enough, you’ll see YowCH at the middle right under the waterfall.

This is the zoomed in photo of YowCH.

We left the waterfall at 15:15 and hiked the same way out.




Upon reaching the road, we walked a little more and the guides took motorcycles to bring us back along the road. It was a short 10min ride (compared to 3hr hike).

Then, Richard sowed us around the longhouse village, explaining that Annah Rais has 6 longhouses.


We visited several longhouses and there was even one kept open for tourists to see the ‘traditional’ layout (with no modern appliances except lights). The children had fun climbing up and down the log stairs.

Dinner was again great, we had soup, chicken, bamboo shoots and vegetables. After dinner, we had some fun with the blowpipes, each about 2.0m (6 feet) and made of ironwood, hard and straight, and tipped with a spear-point.

17 Oct 2012

We woke up, had breakfast and said farewell to Edward and Nancy, our hosts, before departing for the city.


The children got rather used to walking on the bamboo floor of the longhouses and the soft ground of the jungle.

Continued on page 2.

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