Sarawak Surprises!

Sarawak in Borneo was a subject of great excitement for Sup...and a secret fear for me. We both had images in our head of a the wild jungle – Malaysia at its most feral, untamed, tribal even – Sup couldn't wait and I...well, I was anxious, but open minded.

We couldn't have been more wrong!

All our previous ideas were blown out the window when we travelled to the small town of Kuching. It was a pretty little place on the waterfront with no jungle in sight and the price of a room took us a little by surprise. We then learned that the Rainforest World Festival of Music was being held that weekend, which was financially a curse, but musically a blessing, and Sup bought his ticket in a flash.

The festivities ran all day and gave Sup the opportunity to see some music tutorials on percussion and have a beer and some chicken (of course!) in the sunshine before celebrating in the evening along with 10,000 other people from all corners of the world with an array of music, from India, Indonesia, Iran and so many more.

During the day, while visiting Sarawak Cultural Village, he also saw some impressive longhouses and learned a lot about the history of the many Malaysian tribes such as the mighty Penan, unchallenged masters in the use of the jungle's silent weapon, the blowpipe, and the controversially macho Iban, who considered a head trophy to be a badge of honour.

Newly inspired, we soon went on the hunt for souvenirs and found the perfect travel sized tribal drum to accompany Sup on the rest of our journey, especially good as he was suffering withdrawal from his beloved decks! That evening we sat by the waterfront before dinner and the locals were treated to some brilliant tribal drumming for free.

The food in Kuching was pretty great – Winnie's Cafe was a clear winner and we went back so many times for their Malaysian curry that the owner took a photo of us

grinning with our food and made it their Facebook business profile picture! Milo was our drink of choice while sunning ourselves by the water and, on the last day, the Laksa at a nearby restaurant almost made us stay another day. Sup also strangely found a fantastic Chicken Biriyani – in a Chinese Restaurant!

The rest of our time in Kuching involved travelling to various destinations, one of which was a crocodile farm, literally swamped with over 1000 deathly still, prehistoric looking reptilian carnivores.

Let's just say that the safety of the place could definitely be called into question, and I most certainly wouldn't have brought any curious children there...! Sup and I naturally had no fear at all and befriended them immediately...! The highlight of the visit was of course feeding time, and the display by the amazing crocodiles can be captured far better by pictures than words.

From devilish beady eyed reptiles, to gentle ginger giants – we went to visit the wonderful Sarawak Orangutan sanctuary. While we were prepped for potential disappointment and warned that the creatures are not always forthcoming, we were very lucky and the beautiful apes made our day. A massive group of us stood in the forest watching as a mother swung delicately through the trees, a tiny baby wrapped around her waist holding on tight,

while another orangutan swung in the other direction looking for food. We then couldn't believe our luck when an almighty crash announced that 'Richie' was joining us for dinner. 'Richie' was a gigantic male, a real 'man of the forest' (the meaning of the Malaysian name Orangutan).We stayed observing these fascinating creatures until a huge gust of wind shook through the forest, and the locals announced that rain was on the way. We made our way quickly back to the bus but the showers caught up with us faster and we were soon soaked through. It was totally worth it though! We caught on fast with the weather prediction throughout the rest of our stay in Malaysia with much more success.

Our last adventure from our base in Kuching was a trip to Bako National Park. The park was reached via a gorgeous boat ride and the views were breathtaking. Due to high and low tides, we couldn't stay too long on the island, but we managed to fit in a brisk 3-4 hour stomp around, covering a multitude of different landscapes in a relatively small space and testing our muscles for future ventures.

We were learning fast that Borneo was going to be a mission with regards to some of the activities we still wanted to do, so we next travelled to Miri hoping to be able to find a way to secure a visit to Gunung Mulu for the caves and for walking. This was not to be, mainly due to cost, but we quickly found a fantastic alternative and took a day trip to the Niah caves. The car journey was precarious to say the least, and after a pretty hairy ride, we were later informed by the driver that the reason he was not working as a guide for a period of time was due to a car accident whereby he had rolled the car and broken his leg....brilliant!

The caves were thankfully a much safer experience and we loved it. We trekked through the jungle and by the time we found the awesome caves we felt like we were Indiana Jones and Lara Croft! The caves were once fully submerged under the sea and remnants of the green algae remained on the walls. Millions of bats were shrieking from high above and at one point, the trail led to a pitch black long corridor where we made full use of our trusty torches (although we also kept switching them off again to freak each other out!) Out the other side, we were met with another cave, the Painted Cave, that was home to a series of caveman drawings, thousands of years old. We also learned that the oldest South East Asian human remains were found in that very cave, placed in the region of 40,000 years ago.

Sarawak was a fantastic place, even with the constant staring and laughing at me and my lily white face...! Although the start to our jungle adventure turned out to be very different from our expectations, we had a wonderful time in Sarawak and were eager to experience the wonders of Sabah, including the biggest damn challenge of our journey so far...!

written by

SupandNic on July 30, 2010 from Kuching, Malaysia

from the travel blog: Sup and Nic's World Tour!

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