I thought that I would do a round-up of some of the places that I plan to visit on my forthcoming backpacking trip – Part 1 Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo
I’ve always wanted to visit Borneo since I watched a BBC program called the’ big trip’ about twenty years ago. The program followed three sets of backpackers as they travelled the world. The episode that grabbed my attention the most was the one on Borneo, the program showed them trekking the jungle and climbing/hiking up the Kota Kinabula mountain. I will be in Malaysian Borneo for about three weeks here are some places I hope to visit when I’m there.
1. Bako National park
As I will be in the Sarawak part of the island, I won’t be able to make it over to Sabah unless I take a flight, My friend Rachel, who used to work at an Orang utan sanctuary in Borneo also told me that it is very difficult to get into the Indonesian parts of the island from Sarawak. But it is not all bad news as Sarawak has the Bako National park.
This park has lots of trails to walk around and a wide range on nature within its rainforest and mangrove swamps; these include pitcher plants and proboscis monkeys. There have been over 180 species of birds recorded at Bako, many of which will be of the exotic variety (I would love to see some hornbills). Additionally there are 24 species of reptiles to see and 37 types of mammals.
2. Semenggoh wildlife rehabilitation centre
Also from my Kuching base I plan to visit the Semenggoh wildlife rehabilitation centre. This place has Orang utans. Unfortunately I will be visiting in the spring so this makes the chance of sighting them slim.
I visited an Orang utan sanctuary before when I was in Indonesia and took this picture.
3. Kuching
I will be mainly basing myself in Kuching. The city has a population of around half a million people and is largely situated on the south banks of the river sungai sarawak. I plan to spend a bit of time there wandering around and carrying out one my favourite hobbies of people watching. I’m staying in the riverside area, and am looking forward to sampling the Malaysian cuisine. The place is meant to have an awesome food market at the weekend, I will be hoping to take lots of pictures of the goodies. Other places that I hope to see from the Kuching area include the Bidayuh longhouses, and I am hoping to take a cooking course on Malaysian food.
4. Gunung Mulu National park
After Kuching I will travel Borneo a little, I hope to get as far as the Gunung Mulu National park, though I may need to go by air to visit there, I will consider my options nearer the time. Gunung Mulu has a dramatic setting of limestone mountains, caves and jungle. One of the caves, the deer cave has a 2km long passage with a 174 metre height. And one of the highlights of Gunung Mulu is the Mulu canopy skywalk; this is about half a klick long and allows you to view the canopy of the forest.
5. Batang Rejang
If I don’t get to Gunung then I will probably go to Batang Rejang; this is an area of jungle, river and long houses. Travel in the area is done by boat and I will probably head up to Kapit.
Of course as I’m backpacking I will probably fall in love with some places and not be attractive to others, so my itenary is very flexible. I have a flight to Phuket and Hong Kong to catch so only have about three weeks in Borneo, but that said I may spend a little bit of time on the other side of Malaysian Borneo, Sabah before I fly off to India.
Deano