Annah Rais is a Bidayuh longhouse in the Padawan hills, and it is the one most visitors to Sarawak actually reach — close enough to Kuching for a day trip, and still a working community rather than a reconstruction. The structure is the point: a long bamboo-and-timber platform, the awah, running the length of the settlement, with family doors opening off it.
It also keeps a baruk, the round communal headhouse, and a collection of skulls that predates the Brooke era — a part of the history the community neither hides nor sensationalises. There are hot springs a short drive further on, and homestays for anyone who wants to stay the night rather than pass through. Our fuller account is in the Annah Rais article.
