The Sound of Tuak Hitting Bamboo
The first thing you notice isn’t the dancing or the costumes. It’s the sound — a hollow, woody clunk as someone pours tuak rice wine into a bamboo cup, followed by laughter that doesn’t need translation. Gawai Dayak falls on June 1st every year in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, and for the Dayak communities who celebrate it, the date marks the end of the rice harvest and the start of something looser: a two-day public holiday where the entire state seems to collectively exhale.
I should be upfront — Sarawak isn’t on most Southeast Asia itineraries. People fly through Kuala Lumpur or hit Bali and call it done. But Gawai is one of those festivals that rewards the detour, partly because it hasn’t been packaged for tourists yet. The celebrations happen in actual longhouses, in actual villages, with actual families who are genuinely happy to see you show up.
Inside the Longhouse
The word ‘longhouse’ undersells it. These are communal wooden structures built on stilts, sometimes stretching the length of two football pitches, housing dozens of families under one roof. During Gawai, the ruai — the shared corridor running the length of the building — becomes a kind of open-air party venue. Families set out food on mats, the tuak flows, and visitors move from door to door along the corridor.
The etiquette is simple but matters: take off your shoes before stepping onto the wooden floor, accept whatever food or drink is offered (refusing is rude), and bring a small gift for the host family. Biscuits, fruit, or anything from the nearest town works. Nobody expects anything fancy.
The ngajat dance is the centrepiece. Dancers in feathered headdresses and beaded vests perform movements that tell stories — harvests, hunts, the movements of hornbills. The costumes are genuinely impressive, heavy with silver ornaments and hand-stitched beadwork that takes months to complete. Each community has its own variations.
One thing the tourism brochures don’t mention: the tuak is strong. It’s fermented glutinous rice wine, and your hosts will keep refilling your cup with the toast ‘Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai’ — long life, health, prosperity. Pacing yourself is wise. I’ve heard stories of visitors needing to be walked back to their accommodation by their hosts, which is apparently considered a mark of good hospitality.
What Happens in Kuching
Not everyone makes it to a rural longhouse, and that’s fine. Kuching, the state capital, puts on its own version of Gawai with street parades, cultural performances, and food fairs along the waterfront. The parade usually runs through the main streets on June 1st — expect traditional costumes, sape (a kind of boat-shaped lute) music blasting from speakers, and a general atmosphere of people having a good time.
The food stalls are worth seeking out. Bamboo-cooked rice (pansoh) is the signature — chicken or fish stuffed into bamboo tubes and roasted over fire, so the rice absorbs a faintly sweet, smoky flavour. Wild jungle ferns (midin) stir-fried with garlic and shrimp paste are everywhere during the festival. Neither of these is easy to find outside Sarawak.
There are also beauty pageants, which are a bigger deal than you might expect — the Kumang Gawai (Harvest Queen) competition draws contestants from across the state and gets serious local media coverage.
Getting There Without Overthinking It
Kuching International Airport is the entry point. AirAsia runs multiple daily flights from KL, and there are connections from Singapore and a few other regional cities. Flight time from KL is about an hour forty-five.
From the airport to central Kuching is straightforward — maybe 20 minutes by taxi, and Grab works here. If you’re planning to visit a longhouse upriver, you’ll need to arrange that separately through a local tour operator. Some of the more accessible longhouses are a few hours by road from Kuching; the more remote ones involve boat rides.
A note on timing: arrive by May 30th if you can. The pre-Gawai night markets in Kuching start a few days before June 1st, and honestly, the buildup is half the fun. By June 1st morning, the city already has that holiday energy.
The Honest Downsides
Sarawak in June is hot and humid — mid-30s Celsius with humidity that makes everything stick. If you’re visiting a rural longhouse, expect basic facilities. Some longhouses have been renovated for guests; others haven’t. Mosquitoes are a real consideration in the evenings, so bring proper repellent, not the gentle stuff.
Accommodation in Kuching books up around Gawai, especially the mid-range hotels near the waterfront. Agoda is probably the easiest way to compare options — there’s a decent range from riverside boutique places to no-frills guesthouses, but don’t leave it until late May or you’ll be choosing from whatever’s left.
Also worth knowing: if you want a longhouse experience, you generally can’t just show up. Most require an invitation or arrangement through a tour operator. KLOOK and KKday both list Sarawak cultural tours, though availability specifically during Gawai varies year to year — check a few weeks ahead.
The Sape at Midnight
The sape is Sarawak’s signature instrument — a carved wooden lute with a surprisingly melancholic sound. During Gawai, you’ll hear it everywhere: in formal performances, at longhouse gatherings, from someone sitting on a veranda after the main celebrations have wound down. The best sape players can make the instrument sound like it’s having a conversation with itself.
Late at night in a longhouse, after the dancing has stopped and most people are either asleep or deep into their tuak, someone usually picks up a sape and plays quietly. It’s one of those sounds that fixes itself in your memory.
Staying Longer
Sarawak has enough to fill a week easily. Bako National Park is about 40 minutes from Kuching by road plus a short boat ride — it’s one of the most reliable places to see proboscis monkeys, those odd-looking creatures with oversized noses. The Semenggoh Wildlife Centre has semi-wild orangutans that come to feeding platforms twice daily. The Niah Caves, further away, have some of the oldest evidence of human habitation in Southeast Asia.
None of these are particularly difficult to arrange from Kuching. Trip.com bundles flights and hotels if you want to extend without rebooking everything separately.
One Last Thing
On the flight out, the woman in the next seat had a Tupperware container of leftover pansoh rice balanced on her knees. The bamboo smell filled the whole row. She offered me some, and it was still good — a little cold, but that smoky-sweet taste was all there. I think that’s the thing about Gawai: the hospitality follows you out the door.