ASAJAYA: She wanted to preserve the family home and her Bugis traditions, so Lariwoo Laba, 76, thought the best way of doing it was to transform her home in Kampung Iboi, Sadong Jaya here into a homestay.
Located 75 kilometres from Kuching City centre, the main house which measures 80 feet long and 40 feet wide, with belian wood stilts, was built in 1971 according to the traditional architecture of the Bugis community.
Lariwoo’s daughter, Suraya, 48, first converted the house into a homestay in 2014 and since then, the Sadong Jaya Homestay has received many local and foreign guests.
“The idea to convert it into a homestay came to me as I wanted to using to preserve the traditions of the Bugis community in the Asajaya district,” she told Bernama here.
Suraya said guests at the homestay can learn about the traditions of the Bugis people as they savour traditional foods of the community.
“The (concept) of the traditional Bugis home and food is the trademark and attraction of the Homestay Sadong Jaya,” she said.
Suraya added that besides local guests and those from Peninsular Malaysia, the house was also used by the Australian under-10 futsal team last year.
Meanwhile, Lariwoo said the Bugis people first arrived in Johor from Sulawesi, Indonesia and worked as farmers, then moved to Kajang, Selangor, and later to Kedah and Perlis before going on to Sarikei, Sarawak.
“It was in Sarikei that my father met his wife-to-be who was also of Bugis descent and had also travelled there. From Sarikei, they moved to Asajaya where they settled,” she said.
There are currently 39 Bugis families comprising more than 200 people in the Asajaya district. Besides Suraya’s heritage home, there are other two more homestay houses in Kampung Iboi, and 14 in the district. — Bernama