Kuching, River City of the Hornbills
Day one of your Sarawak tour. Welcome to Sarawak, the Land of Hornbills. We recommend arriving before 11 am to enjoy this first day in full, or come a day early and start slowly. (This journey also makes a beautiful extension to a Malaysia or Singapore trip.)
Welcome to Sarawak, the Land of Hornbills. We recommend arriving before 11 am to enjoy this first day in full, or come a day early and start slowly. (This journey also makes a beautiful extension to a Malaysia or Singapore trip.)
Your base is the Sheraton Kuching Hotel, the city’s striking curved tower on Jalan Padungan, minutes from the Waterfront: contemporary rooms with river or city views, an infinity pool, and the whole of the Old Town within an easy stroll.
A licensed guide leads your three-hour walk through the Old Town: the Main Bazaar’s shophouses, Carpenter Street, the Old Courthouse, Round Tower and Central Post Office, with stories of gambir, black pepper and the White Rajahs at the Sarawak Museum. Then down to the Waterfront, where sampans still ferry locals across the river as they have for generations.
Late afternoon, a sunset cruise on the Sarawak River: the Astana, the State Parliament, stilt villages, golden light. Dinner follows at a farm-hut style restaurant: manok pansoh (bamboo chicken), terung asam soup, midin fern salad, and Bario rice wrapped in isip leaf.
Bako’s Proboscis Monkeys & a Night Market
An early start: twenty miles by road to Kampung Bako, then twenty minutes by boat to one of Southeast Asia’s smallest, and richest, national parks. Bako packs jungle trails, hidden beaches, waterfalls and an astonishing cast of wildlife into a single peninsula.
An early start: twenty miles by road to Kampung Bako, then twenty minutes by boat to one of Southeast Asia’s smallest, and richest, national parks. Bako packs jungle trails, hidden beaches, waterfalls and an astonishing cast of wildlife into a single peninsula.
The star is the proboscis monkey, all pot-belly and comic nose, but keep watch for silvered leaf monkeys, long-tailed macaques, monitor lizards and flying lemurs. Your private nature guide shapes the day’s treks to your interests and reads the forest as you go.
Back in Kuching by late afternoon. If it’s a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the evening takes you to Siniawan, a lantern-lit street of wooden townhouses that comes alive with its weekend night market. Try the pitcher-plant rice (lemang periuk kera), and don’t miss the lui teh and ngo hiang.
Orangutans, Longhouses & Dolphins
An early drive to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, Sarawak’s largest orangutan rehabilitation reserve, for the 9 am feeding. For an hour, semi-wild orangutans emerge from the forest, a rare, humbling encounter with creatures who share 97% of our DNA.
An early drive to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, Sarawak’s largest orangutan rehabilitation reserve, for the 9 am feeding. For an hour, semi-wild orangutans emerge from the forest, a rare, humbling encounter with creatures who share 97% of our DNA.
Then the Sarawak Cultural Village near Damai Beach, a 17-acre living museum of the state’s peoples, where a cultural show opens the visit with Orang Ulu hornbill dances and the Iban warrior ngajat. Lunch follows just down the road at Cove 55, a beautiful boutique resort at the foot of Mount Santubong: a set lunch at its Kechala restaurant with a soft drink, enjoyed between the forested mountain behind and the South China Sea in front.
The afternoon is for wandering the traditional homes: the gongs and war drums of the Bidayuh longhouse, Iban weaving up a notched-log stair, Orang Ulu beadwork and sape music, a Chinese pepper farmhouse, the towering Melanau tall house, Malay congkak games, and a Penan hut where you can try a blowpipe.
Late afternoon brings a two-hour cruise through the mangrove-lined Santubong and Salak rivers in search of Irrawaddy dolphins. Sightings aren’t guaranteed, but this is one of Sarawak’s best chances, with crocodiles, otters and water monitors along the way.
Into Mulu & the Great Bat Exodus
An early flight from Kuching to Mulu, gateway to the UNESCO-listed Gunung Mulu National Park, one of the world’s great karst landscapes, riddled with immense cave systems. Flights are not included in the journey price; we book them for you with AirBorneo, Sarawak’s own airline, which took over the rural air network from MASwings, and simply add them to your proposal at cost. Your home for two nights is the Mulu Marriott Resort & Spa: longhouse-style buildings on stilts, Deluxe rooms with balconies over jungle or river.
An early flight from Kuching to Mulu, gateway to the UNESCO-listed Gunung Mulu National Park, one of the world’s great karst landscapes, riddled with immense cave systems. Flights are not included in the journey price; we book them for you with AirBorneo, Sarawak’s own airline, which took over the rural air network from MASwings, and simply add them to your proposal at cost. Your home for two nights is the Mulu Marriott Resort & Spa: longhouse-style buildings on stilts, Deluxe rooms with balconies over jungle or river.
Park activities here run in small groups (private guiding available on request). At 2:15 pm you’ll meet the park guide and walk three kilometres of rainforest boardwalk to Deer Cave, a colossal passage 2.2 km long and up to 220 metres high, with a rock profile uncannily like Abraham Lincoln’s.
Neighbouring Lang’s Cave is smaller but exquisitely decorated with stalactites and stalagmites. Then, as dusk gathers, take a seat at the bat observatory: around 5:30 pm, millions of wrinkle-lipped bats pour from the cave in swirling ribbons, bat hawks in pursuit. Dinner and a deep jungle sleep follow at the resort.
Wind & Clearwater Caves by Longboat
After breakfast, a traditional longboat carries you twenty minutes up the Melinau River, past dense rainforest and limestone outcrops, with a first stop at a small Penan handicraft market.
After breakfast, a traditional longboat carries you twenty minutes up the Melinau River, past dense rainforest and limestone outcrops, with a first stop at a small Penan handicraft market.
Wind Cave’s King’s Chamber rises in towers of ancient stalagmites; then it’s back on the river to Clearwater Cave, 200 steps up to the mouth of a 227-kilometre system that holds Asia’s longest underground river, its passages lit by crystal streams.
Lunch is a simple riverside picnic, followed by a swim in the spring-fed Clearwater Pool, cold, clear and unforgettable. The longboat returns past Penan villages to park headquarters.
The afternoon is yours: unrestricted trails through the park, or a treatment at the Mandara Spa tucked into the forest. Dinner at the resort.
Farewell to the Rainforest
After breakfast, transfer to Mulu Airport for onward flights, or let us shape the next chapter: Sabah, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.
After breakfast, transfer to Mulu Airport for onward flights to Kota Kinabalu, Kuching or Miri, with easy connections beyond.
Your Borneo journey doesn’t have to end here. Continue into Sabah, or fly west for Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. We’ll shape the next chapter with you.
