6
Kampung Love
One of the things that I really missed about home when I was in KL was the rumah panjang mood. If people in KL have this "balik kampung" mood, our kampung is our rumah panjang, orang putih call "longhouse". In Iban we call it "rumah panjai". Not much different though.
A long house lives up to its name. It's a basically a very long house. There you go, easy to understand. My rumah panjai is located in Batu Niah, well actually just a few kilometres away from Batu Niah town itself. Have you heard of Niah Cave? My rumah panjai is just around the corner. (Don't get the wrong idea that Sarawakians lives in caves!)
Basically, I go back to my longhouse every Gawai safe to say and sometimes during Christmas, it depends but Gawai, it's a must to go back. That is the only time of the year that relatives from all over the place will come together and celebrate the togetherness within the family.
Usually, a few days before Gawai (some even a week) relatives will start to fill in the "bilik". Eventhough the direct translation of bilik in Malay would be room, in this case "bilik" refers to a house, a unit of within the longhouse. So, if everyone is back for Gawai - the "bilik" will be like a mass grave at night. Everybody basically just sleeps everywhere around the house. It's like dead bodies everywhere!
And for our family, on the eve we will always have BBQ at the back part of the house which we called "tanju". It's a nice, cool and cozy place. Great hang out spot, especially with Tsing Tao or Tiger in hand. Most of the time it's cheap beers because you can't afford to filled in everyone's stomach with Tiger or Heineken all the time. It doesn't matter.
The chit chat will go on and on till God knows when ...
The dishes will keep on coming after one after another. You'll never see the end of it ...
That's mum
And off to the pitt they go! Whooooooa!
Even these taste nice if your whole family is around.
And it won't be complete without this. A nice bottle of "tuak".
Cheers!
A long house lives up to its name. It's a basically a very long house. There you go, easy to understand. My rumah panjai is located in Batu Niah, well actually just a few kilometres away from Batu Niah town itself. Have you heard of Niah Cave? My rumah panjai is just around the corner. (Don't get the wrong idea that Sarawakians lives in caves!)
Basically, I go back to my longhouse every Gawai safe to say and sometimes during Christmas, it depends but Gawai, it's a must to go back. That is the only time of the year that relatives from all over the place will come together and celebrate the togetherness within the family.
Usually, a few days before Gawai (some even a week) relatives will start to fill in the "bilik". Eventhough the direct translation of bilik in Malay would be room, in this case "bilik" refers to a house, a unit of within the longhouse. So, if everyone is back for Gawai - the "bilik" will be like a mass grave at night. Everybody basically just sleeps everywhere around the house. It's like dead bodies everywhere!
And for our family, on the eve we will always have BBQ at the back part of the house which we called "tanju". It's a nice, cool and cozy place. Great hang out spot, especially with Tsing Tao or Tiger in hand. Most of the time it's cheap beers because you can't afford to filled in everyone's stomach with Tiger or Heineken all the time. It doesn't matter.
The chit chat will go on and on till God knows when ...
The dishes will keep on coming after one after another. You'll never see the end of it ...
That's mum
And off to the pitt they go! Whooooooa!
Even these taste nice if your whole family is around.
And it won't be complete without this. A nice bottle of "tuak".
Cheers!
