They thought she was sleeping with guests. She was actually building something for her village.

“The villagers see people coming to sleep here. For our culture, it's not common, so they think I sleep with everyone who comes to the house, and that I have so many boyfriends.”

That was the reception Saloma got for turning her father's house in Kampung Sadir, Kuching, into a homestay.

Today, people come here to stay with her, eat food cooked by her sister, hike to waterfalls with local guides and visit the village school. But getting the village to see what she was trying to build took a lot longer.

The village she grew up in

Saloma is Bidayuh, born and raised in Kampung Sadir, a village about 90 minutes from Kuching. As a kid, she was the adventurous one: extroverted, curious about people, always asking where they'd been and what they did. It's the same thing she says she loves most about hosting now: meeting someone new.

Like a lot of people who grow up somewhere, she didn't think of her village as a destination. It was just home: the place she was from, not the place people came to see.

She eventually moved to Kuching to study for a Diploma in Mass Communications, majoring in Public Relations. But she kept bringing people from the city back home.

How the idea came about

She'd invite friends to Kampung Sadir for Gawai Dayak, or to spend Christmas in the village instead of the city. It wasn't meant to be a business. She just wanted to show them where she came from. But they loved it. Many of her friends kept telling her the same thing: you should turn this into a guesthouse!

On the other side of things, she had travelled to Sapa, Vietnam, and stayed at a homestay there - the kind of stay where you're not really a guest so much as briefly part of someone's household. It left a lasting impression on her.

So in 2012, she decided to try. She renovated her father's house and called it Saloma Villagestay.

The village wasn't convinced

The idea of strangers paying to sleep in someone's family home wasn't something Kampung Sadir understood at first. Saloma spent her first months explaining what a homestay actually was. Her parents eventually understood. The village took longer. When she brought ideas to village meetings, she was sometimes reminded of her age instead.

“They don't want to accept new ideas. When new people like me come to the village meetings and give ideas, they will tell us that we're very young and don't know anything. We have to convince very hard and prove to them that we can do it.”

It wasn't just a matter of getting people to understand the business. Saloma was trying to prove that someone young, from the village, could have an idea worth listening to. And even now, she says that part hasn't become easy.

“Until now, I find it very difficult. Sometimes I almost give up. You have to be very strong. If you're not, you cannot do this.”

Coming home wasn't as easy as she thought

Building the homestay wasn't the only difficult part. After roughly a decade in the city, moving back to Kampung Sadir meant giving up a life she had grown used to. The first six months back were, by her own account, some of the hardest.

“It was a big sacrifice coming home. Sometimes I miss the city.”

But then she'd go out, meet the village kids, work on her projects and she finds herself not missing the city anymore. That seems to be the thing that kept pulling her back: there was always something else she wanted to do here.

Building it, mostly alone

For the first three years, Saloma ran the homestay herself with her family. There were no staff and no villagers hired to help.

The physical build took even longer. What's now several guest rooms took seven years to finish, alongside the rest of the expansion around it, including an open, tree-house-style building with mosquito-netted beds and shared bathrooms.

It's worth saying that this isn't a rustic overnight stay inside a traditional Bidayuh longhouse. Saloma has built something more personal: her actual home, adapted over the years to welcome guests, with a working longhouse and village school included in the day's itinerary.

If you're looking for the rawest version of Bidayuh village life, you'll find that elsewhere in Sarawak. What Saloma offers is a glimpse into how she and her family actually live, with a little more comfort for the people coming to stay.

Making the homestay useful beyond her own family

Kampung Sadir's nearest secondary school is 45 minutes away. Students board near the school during the week and come home on weekends, and Saloma has watched young people leave the village and many do not return.

So she started looking for small ways the homestay could create more opportunities at home.

She encouraged women in the village to weave and make handicrafts that guests could buy as souvenirs. Guests also bring second-hand children's books, which go into a small library at the homestay. Saloma teaches the village kids English when they need help.

“I encourage the children of the village to come here and read, and I give them lessons if they don't understand.”

And when the village needs someone to step in, she tends to do that too. She's become the translator, MC, church helper… whatever the occasion needs!

A village that feeds itself

Even the food at Saloma's stays close to home. Her sister does most of the cooking, and guests have been known to go back for three servings of the same meal. The pepper comes from neighbours' farms. Other ingredients are bought from people around the village.

It's a small, informal economy, but that's exactly what Saloma wants.

“I don’t want this to only benefit me and my family. I want the community to benefit too. If having people come here means we can create more opportunities for the village, while protecting our culture, then that’s something I really believe in.”

The homestay may have started with Saloma, but she doesn't see it as something that should only belong to her.

What guests actually experience here

Guests spend most of their time around Saloma's home and the village itself - trekking to one of two nearby waterfalls, visiting the village school, learning how to forage, or watching someone start a fire the same way they've done it for years.

It doesn't feel like a performance put on for visitors. These are things that are simply part of village life, and guests get to be part of it for a short while.

The guides are locals too, and each brings something of their own to the experience. Saie has been known to carve a bamboo flute for a guest while waiting for the kettle to boil. William, their super star jungle guide who also happens to be the village pastor, knows the plants and history of the area, instinctively often stopping mid-walk to pull something from the ground and show guests what they're looking at.

There are also trips out to Semenggoh to see the orangutans, and visits to an actual Bidayuh longhouse, giving guests a chance to see another side of the community beyond Saloma's home.

Spend a day (or two) in Saloma's village

One night barely feels like enough to take it all in — from meeting the school kids and visiting the village and longhouse, to trekking through the jungle to a waterfall and spotting orangutans at Semenggoh. There's quite a bit packed into the experience, and the slower pace is part of the charm.

If you can, give yourself another night to settle in and actually enjoy it. Book the 2D1N village stay, or go for the 3D2N version if you want more time to explore without rushing from one thing to the next. Short on time? There's also a day-trip option if you just want a taste of village life.