Long weekend in Kuching, Borneo

Best Bits

• Trekking in the jungle
• Semmengoh Park to see the feeding of orangutans
• Fairy Caves – massive cave and really interesting
• Kuching is an easy, interesting and inexpensive weekend trip from Singapore
• A great trip for adventurous children (in this case, a 9 year old)

Worst Bits

The mosquitos and leeches in the jungle.

Trip Dates and Comments on Timing

Beginning of March. Weather is hot, humid and wet – pack appropriately!

Main Activities

Jungle trekking, overnight at a longhouse village, orang-utans, shopping, markets, boating, caves

Food and Drink Highlights

• Miri Cake shop where they make the famous layer cake and try some in lots of different flavours
• The beer is cold and the roti is great and there are plenty of these to be had

Essential Packing for this Trip

Insect repellent, Sun screen, Jungle shoes, Long pants

Alex’s Experience…

Jungle If you are trekking in jungle, suggest taking trekking shoes and long pants because it is wet at the moment and it’s very muddy and slippery Long pants to cover legs from the mosquitos, branches and leeches. The jungle is really cool and think Sarawak is best for outdoor adventure like trekking, cycling and kayaking. Saw a really cool waterfall, it’s quiet and clean. We went overnight to the “Longhouse Village” – it’s cool to see the traditional way and good enough for a day trip only.

Orangs Semmengoh Park to see the feeding of orangutans – only a few kms out of Kuching, can organise a taxi to wait for you – Feeding times are 9-10am and 3-4pm (check this!) We saw 3 orangs but very cute and worthwhile.

Caves Fairy Caves – massive cave and pretty cool – nothing much else there – you can cover it in less than an hour – not sure why its called Caves because to me it looked like one big cave! About an hour out of Kuching. Windy cave – you just look at from the outside and its around the corner from the Fairy Caves.

Kuching Small town – clean and easy to get around. Infrastucture is pretty good, airport is close to town. Small and efficient! If staying in Old Town it runs along a river, can walk around easily enough, plenty of Malay style cafes / food courts and restaurants too. Can take boat trip up and down the river (“sunset cruise”)! plenty of market style stalls. Lots of museums and old shop house style places to see. Can visit them in a day (or less) – most places are shut during day on Sunday and everything seems to open up and come alive at night.

Paradesa Borneo – can hire bikes – can hire bikes and cycle around on own or can do one of their tours – look cool but didn’t do because it was raining and didn’t fancy that. Can take a “ferry” across the river (1 MYR) to the Astana Palace and also see the Miri Cake shop. There are lots of new shopping centres opening – bought some new runners for as a lot cheaper than Singapore!