Kuching, Borneo

We almost didn’t make it to Kuching. Our original plan had us walking out of Mulu on the Headhunters’ Trail and heading north to explore Sabah. Civil unrest in East Sabah in April derailed this plan, but we had heard lots of good things about the south of Sarawak, so we headed there instead. We were really glad that we did, as we had some cool CouchSurfing experiences, more National Park time and got to enjoy a lovely riverside city.

Kuching felt like a really liveable city – the downtown area is not too busy and it’s pleasant to walk around (with the exception of the heat). The waterfront area is one of the nicest parts, with a great promenade and nice view.

There are plenty of museums to visit, including the hilariously tacky cat museum. Kuching means ‘cat’ in Malay and they’ve gone a bit crazy on being the cat city. Our first CouchSurfing hosts (Alex and Lucy) took us to see the Cat Museum as well as the “Nazi cat statue” (obviously not its official name).

Sally inspects the Friskies exhibit

Alex and Lucy were amazing hosts and drove us to lots of places around town (particularly helpful since public transport in Borneo is terrible). They took us out to the Semenggoh Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre where we saw semi-wild orangutans up close at feeding stations. The most incredible thing was seeing these huge apes moving through the trees. They clung onto thin saplings that hardly looked strong enough to hold them. Then they would shift their weight, bending the whole tree over until they could grab onto the next tree.

Later that week, we spent a couple of nights in the nearby Bako National Park. To get to Bako, you catch a bus and then a boat to the park headquarters.

Bako is most famous for being home to around 200 of the endangered Proboscis Monkeys. These monkeys are, um… distinctive, with huge pot bellies and long proboscises protruding from their faces. It was exciting to come across a bunch of these monkeys near the beach on an evening walk. We also saw them the next morning near our accommodation.

Unlike the Proboscis Monkeys, Macaques are aggressive bullies. One stalked us down a beach until we picked up a big stick, which only just deterred it, keeping it a few metres away. Other animals that hang around the park include the hilarious bearded pig and our neighbour the Pit Viper.

A six lane wide ant highway

After Bako, we returned to Kuching to stay with another CouchSurfing couple. John and Cynthia took us to see a sunrise from a fishing village on the Borneo coast, followed by a morning swim. Swimming in 30 degree water at 9am felt pretty foreign to us! We also managed to have a bit of Frisbee time, as John and Cynthia also play Ultimate.

Although we managed to see and do a lot in Kuching, our time was also relaxed. From here we head north to the state of Sabah. We’ve booked a course to learn how to SCUBA dive in Kota Kinabalu.

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson