Well I decided to book a holiday with my mate who had joined me in Singapore for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. We both wanted to venture to East Malaysia/Borneo, and as I was scheduled to be in Kuala Lumpur for Business on Friday, 30th September,, I took a couple of days holiday at the end of this and flew eastward from KL to Kuching on Air Asia to join him, he had already toured South Malaysia already during the week whilst I was at work (lucky for some hey?) – so off to Kuching we went.
After a busy and hectic (not to mention the miles of walking we experienced) F1GP weekend last week, we decided to go for a … ergh … “relaxing” one this weekend. Well when I saw relaxing, I mean lots more walking, sweating and sightseeing (oh and eating and drinking – but that goes without saying!). So what did we get up to…? Well here’s an outline of the Kuching Adventures!!! It is called Koo-ching…but really should have been called Kaa-Ching…in the sense of $$$ (Kaa-ching, gettit?) – okay my lame attempt of humour!!!
Well having arrived late on Friday, we wanted to take the opportunity to get our bearings around the City of Kuching, which is the Capital of the East Malayisan state of Sarawak. It seems quite a quaint and relaxing place, with a “chilled” attitude, which we could certainly acclimatise too.
We chose to stay at the Lodge 121 Hostel, a nice place to base ourselves which was located at Tabuan Road in Kuching, about 10 minutes walk to the main centre of the City. It seemed that everyone booked hostels on HostelWorld.com, and it came up to be S$12 per person per night (that’s equiv to GBP £6 pppn)! So that’s shy of S$100 for our whole stay (or equiv. to £50) – you will agree that this is a real bargain! And I must definitely state, it was an enjoyable and comfortable stay. The place was very clean and comfortable; the owners were very friendly, helpful, and were very welcoming to us during our stay. There are 4 shared shower-rooms/toilets, there’s free breakfast, and free wi-fi/internet access available. Well what more do you really need for such a relaxing stay? The taxi from the Airport was around RM25, which isn’t that bad, and the place was very easy to find near to the centre of town.
We asked about the things to visit, and quickly confirmed our plans (following the initial research we carried out via reviewing our Lonely Planet and Rough Guides). We narrowed down the following key things to visit during our stay:
- Sarawak Cultural Village – visiting the Tourist Longhouses
- Bako National Park – a visit to the Borneo rainforests, secluded beaches and trekking trails
- Semenggoh Wildlife Centre – a visit to the Semenggoh Orang Utan Sanctuary
And most importantly, a bit of relaxation…well all work and no play makes Aaron a very dull boy 🙂 Ideally, I wanted to go to see a more iconic Longhouse, but these were quite a way around from Kuching, and in reality it would make sense to stay-over at one of these, and thus a longer trip all-in-all, but we would be able to make the most of our stay in any case!
Day 1 – Getting Our Bearings Around Kuching and Sarawak Cultural Village:
After adventuring around Kuching, we started to determine where the key ‘attractions’ were. The City can be easy navigated by the Waterfront, the Bus Terminus and the very easy distinguishable central ‘colourful’ building. I am still not sure what’s located in this building, but it did help us (actually me!) get our (my) bearings no end. Whilst walking around we noticed the bike ride that seemed to be ending at Kuching, Raffi (a fellow cyclist!) was really pleased to see some fellow race cyclists around 🙂 Hehe! The weather was a bit dreary and misty for the start of our visit, but we hoped it would soon clear and the sun to burn through (but hopefully not to burn us though). We would make sure that this wouldn’t dampend our adventures – well, we are British afterall and we will not be deterred by the weather!
We finally got to where the ‘meeting point’ is for the shuttle bus pick-up to the Sarawak Cultural Village. We were told to go to the Singgahsana Lodge on Temple Street where we could go in and book the Shuttle Bus. We did this around 9am for the 9.15am pick-up. At least we could have a nice lie-in for the first day! Ha!
The Shuttle Bus arrived and drove us to the Sarawak Cultural Village, it was about 45 minutes drive north to the northern-most tip of the area, in an area called Damai. We entered the attraction, at a cost of RM60 (about £12), that was a bit steep, but I guess it was to preserve the Village in all its glory. We wondered around the place, taking in the sights and sounds of the various Longhouses, set-up based on the different tribes and nomads that exist around East Malaysia. It was quite interesting to see the types of designs and structure of the various Longhouses, as well as meet the people talk about them.
At around 11.30, once we were about 2/3 of our way around the Village, we made our way back to the main show area, where they presented a Cultural Show of song and dance for us (from the various groups / villages) which lasted about 30 minutes or so. That was quite interesting, and they even got one of the visitors to try their luck at the blow-pipe shooting (similar to pea-shooting). Seemed tougher than it really is, it is one of those actions that appears easy, but I know it’s not as simple as just blowing hard!
We then continued our tour where we left off to finish the rest of the Village tour, and then we arrived back at the starting point again.
The bus was about 30 minutes away, so we decided to walk to the nearby Damai beach opposite. It was low-tide, but the pristine sands looked amazing, especially as the sun started to break through the dull-clouds. Maybe we should come back here to relax, if all else fails 🙂
We finally jumped onto the Shuttle-Bus and arrived back at Kuching, where we departed to continue on very own City Tour.
We were told about the Saturday Night Market, so in the early evening we strolled around the area, the selection of products at the market was fascinating. From fruit, veg, meat, fish, children’s toys to pet rabbits, gold fish, orchids, hardware bits and bobs, malaysian sweets – what a nice variety! Ha!
We had a nice meal off the Night Market, chosing the infamous Nasi Ayam – very tasty! The night’s entertainment was the Starlings creating an animating display in the skies – there must have been hundreds of them flocking around. Reminds of the beautiful scenes around Brighton’s West Pier on a calm clear evening.
Well I knew I had a few Mosquito bites from the day, as I didn’t spray enough of the mosi-repellent – what a mistake! I had experienced yet another bad reaction, this time on my left hand, as it started to swell quite badly and created the classic numbness feeling again in my pinky finger – bugger! We managed to locate a Pharmacy in town, and I managed to spend about RM24 for some steriod cream and anti-histamine tablets (again!) – looks like I am building a pharmacy supply of my very own! The last few parts of the evening was to relax and unwind ready for another busy day ahead.
Day 2 – Bako National Park:
Well it is an early-start for Day-2, as we have to take the 7.15am bus to Bako. We walked from the hostel to the main bus terminal, but we knew the No.1 bus was from another point. We noticed that another tourist had asked where the bus to Bako was, and one of the bus drivers explained that it was a parallel road opposite a Food Centre. We walked down and located the bus – a big red bus, we knew it was the one! Most importantly, the price advertised at the back of the bus said it all – RM3.50 (that’s about £0.70p!) – cheap as chips – you are getting to see the theme of our trip – ha! How to create a value-pack trip whilst seeing as much as we can…well, you must know me by now…want to maximise those $$$’s 🙂
We hopped on and the bus went on its way. We were heading north-east to bako, and it took approximately 45 minutes to arrive at Bako. At Bako, at the National Park, there was only about 7 people at the centre off the bus. This is actually good as we had to go by boat across the river to the National Park, and the boat would cost RM47 in total, so if there was 7 of us, this would be about RM9 each! So this made it a cheap way to enjoy the place! We have been advised that we should take the 4.30pm bus home (the last bus was around 5pm, but was recommended not to wait for the last one home), so we had to ensure the boat returned on time to enable us to catch this bus!
The boat ride was very nice and refreshing, as the clouds were in the sky, it didn’t feel that hot, but we could see that the sun was rising and was starting to burn through, so expected it to get HOT very soon! As we approached the landing point, we slowed down around some of the sea-stacks, amazing lime-stones that protrude out of the waters, a great photo opportunity. We arrived at the Jetty, and we walked to the Park HQ.
A couple who were among the the group of 7 were looking to stay overnight, so whilst they discussed the options with one of the Rangers, the 5 of us discussed about which trail to take. One of the groups asked the Ranger, which trails we could do in a day, and was advised that we could only do the Lintang Loop Short Trail in a day, as the other ones would only work if we were staying on the island, where time is not as much of an issue. As we were just day-trippers, we agreed to restrict ourselves to the Lintang Trail, the loop was about 5.25km and expected to last 3 and a half hours. Raffi and I told the group that we recalled that the Hostel recommended us to start the trail at the Park HQ but finish at a different point up the coast on one of the beaches (at T. Pandan Besar) to see the sea-stacks and the beach, where we could arrange for the boat driver to pick us up from. But we had forgotten to tell the boat driver, so we thought we could do the reverse journey, start on the northern beach and then walk down and join the short trail and do the reverse loop back to the Park HQ. That way, we would end up somewhere safer without issue. We walked back to the Jetty and the Boat Owner was (luckily) still there, he agreed to take us there for RM35 (RM7 each for the 5 of us) – not bad at all!
We arrived and we paddled onto the beach. It was a beautiful secluded beach, that was mesmorising. It was soooo peaceful, and we were the only soles in the area. We saw the steps leading from the beach, and we started to realise that it was going to be quite a trek if the finish part of the trail was anything to come by (i.e. steep!)
We commenced our trail at around 09:15 and it was quite good going with a group of people, so we could chat, get to know each other and most importantly have some fun along the way. The funny thing about the trail is that there was various wildlife and bird noises, but very little wildlife around. However, there were a plentiful supply of mushroom species and ants-trails. Ha!
We eventually arrived mid-way and it took us about 1 and a half hours. We were making quite good progress over all. We continued our way and made it to the Park-HQ, it took us over 4 hours in total, so it was coming until 13:15 by the time we arrived.
Wow – luckily we didn’t do the extended trail…we noticed that the monkey’s were hoovering around the Chalets and Lodges, I guess due to the potential of food 🙂 They are quite clever (if not mean and cheeky) animals!
We were also in need of rejuvenating ourselves and re-suppling our drinking water. A couple of us had lunch at the Park HQ, and the rest of us just had some drinks and relaxed.
Raffi then suggested that he wanted to try out the nearby Ulu Assam trail – it was listed as 700 metre and to last a duration of 1 hour 15 minutes one-way (meaning a 2 hour 30 minutes loop), but Raffi wanted to know if that was true, we were told it was a steep trail, so we’ll see. So the two of us made our way whilst others relaxed on the beach. On our way past the Chalets, we noticed a strange monkey. From the back it looked like a short man running towards a tree and jumping up the tree, it turned slightly, and it had a strange looking nose and face. We have subsequently noted this to be Proboscis Monkey(the monkey reminded me of Jim Henson’s Muppet Show creatures!) – we took some great photos of the large monkey as it was eating and as it stayed right at us – simply brilliant!
We started strong, and for the first 400 metres, it was an easy trek, and then the steepness hit home – but Raffi continued running up, whilst I had to pause a couple of times on the way up. We finally made it up the 700 metres of trail, and it took us around 20 minutes. Not bad at all! We were sweating loads so we just wanted to relax and enjoy the view from the top – and it wasn’t bad at all! After about 10 minutes went by, we then navigated our way down the trail again, it was pretty tough work, but we made it, I think it took us another 35 minutes or so. So in total just over an hour we made it round. Cool or what! I think you do have to add another 10 minutes to and from the Park HQ to the start of the trail, so you could argue that it took us 1 hr 30 minutes in reality.
Once we arrived back at the beach and re-grouped with the others, we relaxed for about an hour on the beach until our boat was ready to leave at 4pm.
We marvelled how low the tide was, as we had to walk quite a bit to join our boat. It was amazing that where we were now walking was under water at the start of our trail – ha!
We re-joined our bus, and returned back to Kuching. We then decided to go for dinner, as we were all hungry, so we departed at the old-Holiday Inn Hotel (now the Grand Margheritta Hotel) and ventured towards the Top Spot Food Centre. It was highly recommended to us, and I must agree – it was a fantastic dinner. I am glad that we had a few people together, as it is the best way to enjoy the fine seafood!
Day 3 – Semenggoh Orang-Utan Sanctuary:
Another early-start, as we left on the Bus 6 to the Orang-Utan Sanctuary. It was another 45 minute drive out of Kuching. It was an interesting journey as we saw the outskirts of Kuching City. The bus journey cost us RM3 each person, that’s not bad at all.
Upon arriving at the Sanctuary, there was only about 8-9 of us, and we thought that would be a brilliant session, the entry fee was just RM3 – a real bargain compared with the Cultural Village’s RM60! After about 10 minutes, a hoard load of other people arrived, more tourists, but also a school bus, so there must have been at least 50-60 people around by the time the main feeding session started. Grrr!
Feeding commenced around 9am, and you can see that the older Orang-Utans knew the routine and were preparing themselves. We were advised that this doesn’t meant that they come into view during feeding though, as sometimes they stay away for some time. We managed to see about 4-5 Orang-Utans in total, which wasn’t too bad at all. Bako, the youngest, was actually in the trees before the feeding started, so that gave us a great photo opportunity, just before the hoards of people arrived. Murray and Manap were the stars of the day though, as they joined us at the main feeding platform. What fun it was to watch them play around and play with the Rangers too – ha!
At around 11am we decided to leave, as there wasn’t actually a lot else to do after feeding, as the Orang-Utans don’t usually make an ongoing appearance – and when you seen one or two, you’ve seen them all in theory.
We went to the bus stop, and waited, and waited and waited. We noticed that the bus was no where to be seen. After about 45 minutes, I went to the Sanctuary Ticket Office and was told that it would come at 12.30pm – that’s another 45 minutes, so we agreed to wait for it. Moral of the story, ask the bus driver the return journey times 🙂
We returned to Kuching and noticed some interesting Chinese-themed Gravestones at a graveyard on the outskirts of the City. These were quite interesting.
We ventured around looking for a place to eat for lunch. We had a look at the Hawker Food Stalls, but nothing really took our fancy, although we could eat in any of these in reality (they serve similar food). We decided to go for one of the Food places on a side-road, which seemed to have a lot of local people inside. You basically pick and choice your selection from a range in front of you – so you can really personalise your dish 🙂 It worked out to be about Rm6-7 each – bargain!
After lunch, we continued our way around Kuching again, repeating some of the areas we had previously visited, but most importantly seeing what else we could photograph, to remember the occassion 🙂
Raffi wanted to buy a few post-cards and purchased two of the Kuching City view, and I had an idea. We could try to re-create them and take a photo of the before (post card) and after (current day). What a brill idea, so we did, and here’s the result. Ha!
We then relaxed at the hostel before retreating to our room for a well-deserved sleep!
Day 4 – My Last Day in Kuching
Well we decided to have a lie-in (that means waking up at 8am instead of 6.30am!). After breakfast, we toured Kuching once again (it was still good fun walking around, watching the City-life in action!).
We visited a local tea-shop and had some Rose-Tea – very fragrant and refreshing. We purchased some local snacks and sweets things – nice, but very filling indeed! They remind me of the type of dessert snacks you get in Hong Kong and other places – like the Coconut covered dessert, or sticky rice-layered snack etc.
We continued our treak down India Street and China Town and then went on to the Water-front. We took a shuttle-boat to the other side of the river – it takes about 5 minutes, and costs Rm0.50 (yup that’s £0.10p!).
This side of the river seems very residential – the ‘real’ village-life, very quiet, very slow but pleasant. Everyone we saw wanted to say hello to us – it seems that they come up to all of the tourists and say “Hello, how are you?” – probably to test their English 🙂 Ha! We went to visit the Fort, which overlooks the main City, and looked across the City from this great vantage spot.
For my last meal in Kuching, we visited one of the Food Centres here, and had our Nasi Ayam with Black Pepper Sauce – and it was truely delicious. Accompanied with Iced Tea – just made it perfect.
We took the boat back and returned to the hostel, just in time for my taxi pick-up to the Airport. What a way to enjoy a few days away from the hustle and bustle of Singapore to this quite different but much quieter City life of Kuching. I would highly recommend a visit in any case 🙂
Whilst Raffi will continue his onwards adventures, I prepared myself for a busy remainder of the week at work. Ho-hum!