Tag:longhouse

On one of my day hikes around Mulu we passed this longhouse or communal dwelling. Raised up off the jungle floor, they would have been roofed with leaves in the days before corrugated iron was invented.

Daily Photo – Mulu Longhouse

These buildings are multi-family dwellings with a public space along one side and private divided spaces on the other. The raised floor protects against flooding when it rains and allows air to circulate keeping the structure cooler when it’s not raining. Traditionally, the roof would have been made from leaves but that lost out to the technology of corrugated iron many years ago. I can’t image how noisy it is in there during a storm!

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This was the boat I took for the 75-mile ride from Marudi to Long Terawan up the Batam Barang and Tutoh River on my way to Mulu in 1989.

Daily Photo – Tutoh River Taxi

Clearly the boat had seen better days. The windshield and side glass had long since disappeared. I wondered if in fact they had been plexiglass that had turned yellow and opaque. Note also that there is no-one steering up front! As you’ll see in tomorrow’s photo, even this wire and pulley arrangement was no longer in service, the steering mechanism having been superseded again. But despite the engineering modifications, the boat floated and it got the job done.

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