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Published: March 25th 2013
Astana
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo15-20 March
Kuching
Sleeping late at the Lime Tree hotel in Kuching is just not an option - the breakfast is too good to miss. Sarawak Laksa, fresh papaya, and great coffee I am not prepared to forego. I have promised the Lime Tree as much limelight as I can muster in this blog, as they really deserve the honours. What a fantastic little hotel. So, advertising done; on to Kuching.
Kuching is the capital of Sarawak province in Malaysian Borneo and is situated almost at the southern tip of Sarawak. Unfortunately we only had four days here before we had to rush off to Singapore for a business meeting. We had three main things on our to do list for here: Semenggoh Nature Reserve, Bako National Park, and Food glorious food.
Our first day in the city happened to be a Sunday and we were surprised to find that almost everything, except India Street and some of the big shopping malls, was closed. It felt like we had the place all to ourselves, which is just how we like it. We wandered slowly along the deserted waterfront and through the old town centre. Central Kuching is
the waterfront
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo compact with pretty, colourful shophouse lined streets and well kept gardens and public spaces, and the old Residence, a remnant from the colonial era, is immaculately restored and is a cool shady place to stop and just sit for a while; or get married if you are so inclined.
After an easy Sunday we ended up at Top Spot seafood court. The most amazing food court on the roof of a parking lot. Counter after counter of fresh fish and seafood costing next to nothing and prepared in any way you could possibly like it. We settled for razor or bamboo shell clams, fat king prawns, clams, aubergines and forest fern, with a little nasi goreng thrown in for luck. All for just £ 18 - and these were no small portions - see pics!! What a spoil!
The next morning our rental motorbike arrived at the hotel and we headed off to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. I am going to devote an entire entry to this so won't go into too much detail here, but Semenggoh is a small (tiny actually) forest reserve which is dedicated to the rehabilitation of Orangutans and other wildlife which has been confiscated
Waterfront view
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo from illegal owners, orphaned, or handed in by the public. They now work hand in hand with Matang Wildlife Centre in Kubah National Park not far away. They are not as tourist oriented or high profile as the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Sabah but have done an amazing job. There are 27 semi wild orangutans in the reserve and they are the main reason why we wanted to visit, though we were also keen do do one of their forest walking trails.
Semenggoh is about 30km south of Kuching. We arrived just before mid day, too early for the afternoon orangutan feeding session, in the hope of doing the forest walk first. Sadly they would not let us in. It seems that they have had some problems with unchaperoned tourists and orangutans not mixing so well, and so they have closed their hiking trails to the general public.
We decided to drive on a little further towards Borneo Heights, to explore and kill time; but about 6km past the reserve, kind of in the middle of nowhere, our little motorbike began to swerve wildly across the tarmac and dragged us into the oncoming traffic sideways. How Andrew
blue hat blue boat
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo managed to keep us upright, I don't know. Back wheel blow out!! I had visions of leaving half my hide on the road, but we got so lucky! We breathed a sigh of relief at still having all the skin on our bodies and started walking back towards the park in search of rescue.
Needless to say it was HOT and the sun was relentless. Also, every bit of activity feels twice as far and takes twice as much effort on the equator; but fortunately, in Asia you never need to go that far to find a motorbike fixer. We walked for about a kilometre and stumbled on a grocery shop, and a mechanic's shop and of course they had the right tyre in stock. Andrew had to run back to fetch the bike, while lady Muck sat in the shade sipping cold canned coffee and sharing the experience on FB. Within an hour they had us back on the road with a brand new wheel. Lucky Lucky!!
We arrived at Semenggoh just in time for the afternoon feed and loved it. It is far more relaxed than SORC and there are far fewer onlookers, but it is
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Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo also a little unorganised in that orangutans often arrive at the park HQ where you are asked to wait before the feeding session starts; and tourists are not always as responsible as they should be under these circumstances. We were appalled at how many people just ignored the park wardens' warnings about not getting too close to the orangutans. They are amazing creatures but they can do some serious damage if provoked or threatened especially if they have babies around. There are some pictures of nasty incidents at the HQ desk, but these seem to be blithely ignored by most people.
Anyway, for us the whole orangutan experience was incredible as usual, and these beautiful creatures continue to inspire us. But more on them later, along with loads of pictures.
Back in town that night and it was Sarawak Laksa for dinner at a food court on Lorong 2, followed by red bean steamed buns and then the most expensive but delicious capuccino frappes in the world at Bing Cafe. ( no, I take that back - Coffee Bean is more expensive). Dinner set us back £3.00 in total and the coffees double that! We really try hard
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Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo to avoid the Starbucks, Costa and Coffee Bean coffee shops, but sometimes it gets too difficult and we have to capitulate... It's just so hot here and neither of us likes iced coffee , which is the standard cold coffee offering in Asia. For frappe you pay....
Next morning and off to Bako National Park. This forested peninsula lies slightly north of Kuching on a river mouth. It is not so well sign posted from Kuching, but we found it eventually and this time the bike did us no damage. The only way to reach Bako Park is by boat from the arrival desk near Bako village. We shared a boat with a Singaporean couple who arrived at the same time as we did and saved half the fare. Motoring down the river we were not really sure of what to expect. We had passed by two villages, one that was littered with garbage, and so we were not holding out too much hope for a pristine environment to come, but...as we left the river and rounded the corner of the peninsula, it was like buzzing into an episode of Survivor. Forested cliffs diving into the water, mangroves swamping
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Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo indigenous palms, jungle jungle jungle, and not an oil palm in sight. Bako is beautiful.
It was high tide so we landed at the jetty next to a cluster of surreal, silver stemmed, spiritless mangrove trees. On the beach to meet us was a wild boar with her four sucklings, sniffeling for snacks in the sand. You have to register at park HQ before you head off into the forest, so that they can come looking for you if you go missing. It was almost midday by this time, and if you are not staying overnight - which we will do next time - then you have to leave by16h00. With limited time and flip flops instead of proper shoes on our feet, we had to choose a suitable hiking route.
As mentioned before, on the equator everything takes a lot longer and in the rain forest, where the humidity is indescribable, things get epic. After about 30 minutes worth of walking we were drenched. This was not polite perspiration, it was heavy sweating!! Clothes literally dripping, we eventually stumbled onto a beach where we caught our first glimpse of wildlife - proboscis monkeys in the trees. We
beautiful boatman
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo dried out in the breeze and then started back to do it all again. The high tide salt water marks on my clothes were quite special by the time we had dried off again at park HQ.
Bako is worth so much more time than we had to give it. There are several trails ranging from 1-6 hours, and if we could do it all again, we would definitely stay over night to fit in more jungle time. The sweltering rainforest is truly awesome to experience so intimately, albeit uncomfortable and tropical acne inducing! A least we didn't meet any leaches.
Back in town after narrowly escaping a massive thunder storm, we have Kolo Mee and Mee Goreng for dinner. It is sad to say goodbye to Sarawak. Our time here has been far too short. When we embarked on this trip we thought 6 months was a long time. But it is flying by so fast.....
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