Iban Longhouse stay in Borneo

I had fun times on my recent trip to the huge island of Borneo, the major highlight being my stay at a traditional tribal longhouse. There are many tribal groups in Borneo and the Iban tribe is the largest one.  Their traditional way of living is for an entire community to live under one roof in the longhouse.   The one I visited had about 30 “apartments”. They are all side by side with a communal area in the middle and their own large deck facing the riverside, not bad at all!  This way of life seems to be disappearing with logging, palm plantations, and so-called civilization encroaching on traditional tribal lands so I feel fortunate to have gotten a  brief glimpse at this communal way of life.

The longhouse common area

The front decks

the Skrang River

harvesting sting-less bee honey

cleaning the catch of the day

For more longhouse photos, click here.

I  visited Borneo in the first half of March which is the tail end of monsoon.  There was occasional heavy rain. April is supposed to be the best time to go.. The famous  Rice festival is May 30-Jun 1.

In Kuching, I stayed at Lima Tujoh. It is a perfect location on 57 Upper China Street, just off of the charming  Carpenter Street.  I stayed in Room 4, a compact, efficient double with en-suite toilet/and shower. It has wifi, TV with dvd and air-con. There is a popular cafe on the main level with good coffee. I booked through AirBnB and it was a steal at 58 rm per night.

A word about AirBnB, if you haven’t joined yet and have some travel coming up, just do it!  I was skeptical about it at first but it has been a real game changer for me.  It is great to be able to get good quality accommodation at a more affordable price (even in Europe)  but for me the major bonus is that the hosts have a wealth of valuable local knowledge and are happy to share it with you.  You generally won’t get that at most hotels or even guesthouses. If you sign up using my link and make a reservation, we both will get a substantial discount for one reservation. Happy travels!