Sarawak
Photo Gallery
Between 2000 and 2001
I've been
twice in Sarawak, the first time between April 12th and April 19th,
2000
(visiting Kuching and west Sarawak), the second time between January
4th
and January 12th visiting east Sarawak and Sabah. What follows below
are
excerpts of the emails I sent to my fiancee in KL (who couldn't join me
as she had to work).
12.04.00,
KL -> Kuching
Kuching
is a nice place - you maybe just need a few hours to visit it, but it's
nice. It has a 'Sarawakian' flair, a Bornean athmosphere. Sarawak looks
like an interesting place. Tomorrow I'll visit an Orang-Utan
rehabilitation centre.
13.04.00,
Kuching
I woke up at 11:30am,
then
rushed
to the Semenggoh
orang utan
rehabilitation
centre. But there was only an orang utan in a cage, no one running
around free. Was a bit disappointing.
15.04.00,
Kuching -> Sibu
I made it to Sibu
today. At first I wanted to take the boat from Kuching to Sibu. It was
supposed to leave at 12:30pm according to the brochure of the tourist
office.
But when I arrived there shortly after noon, they told me the boat only
leaves once per day at 8:15am. So I had to take a bus. Tomorrow I'll
try to make it to Kapit,
this time by boat.
16.04.00,
Sibu -> Kapit
I'm in Kapit now - took the express
boat from Sibu this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll visit a longhouse
or go further upriver. This evening I asked the
restaurant
girl, how to visit a longhouse. She told me of a place and offered to
be
my guide tomorrow. We chatted for a while. Then she said that I should
not travel alone. I said that I have a fiancee in KL. She looked a bit
disappointed and asked why my fiancee is not travelling with me... what
can I say. Kapit is a small town. Nothing to
do here. Both my mobile phones don't work.
17.04.00,
Longhouse -> Kapit -> Sibu -> Kuching
Today I took the boat from Kapit to Sibu and then the plane from Sibu
to Kuching. The flight cost only
77 RM, while a bus would have cost 32 RM. Tomorrow I'll go to the Bako
national
park.
18.04.00,
Bako NP
Right now I'm in the Bako
National Park in Sarawak. It looks nice. Maybe I'll stay one more
day
and come back on Thursday.
2nd trip to Sarawak
03.01.01, still in KL
These are my plans for the trip to Sarawak/Sabah:
- 4 Jan:
- fly from Subang at 7:15am
to Kota Kinabalu
(KK),
- then fly
from KK to Miri at 10:50am,
arrive at 11:45
- then in Miri organize the
permits for
Mulu National Park
- then take the bus to Batu
Niah
(2 hours)
- arrive there maybe at 3pm
- Visit the
Niah Caves National Park
- 6 Jan:
- Take morning bus from Batu
Niah
to Miri,
- at 13:35 fly from Miri to
the Mulu National
Park,arrive 14:10
- Visit the
Mulu National Park
- 8 Jan:
- 15:45: Fly from Mulu
National
Park to
Miri, arrive at 16:20
- 18:40: Fly from Miri to
Kota
Kinabalu,
arrive at 19:20
- try to make
it to the Kinabalu National
park (unlikely because it will be very late)
- otherwise travel to the
Kinabalu
National
park early morning of the Jan 9
- 9 Jan:
- Trek to the summit of
Mount
Kinabalu
- spend the
night in the Laban Rata resthouse
at 3300 m
- 10 Jan:
- early morming wake up
(3am),
make it
to the summit of Mount Kinabalu,
- go back to Park headquarter
- 11 Jan:
- Take morning bus to
Sandakan,
from Sandakan
to Sepilok orang utan rehabilitation centre or
- straight to Sepilok orang
utan
rehabilitation
centre and stay there
- Visit the Sepilok orang
utan
rehabilitation
centre
- 12 Jan:
- Make it to Sandakan airport
- 12:45pm fly to Kota
Kinabalu,
arrive
13:25
- 16:10 fly to KL, arrive at
18:35
04.01.01,
KL-> KK > Miri -> Batu Niah
I made it to Batu Niah, a
village
just out of the Niah
Caves National Park.
I arrived here at 3pm and it was too late to go to the Park and watch
the
caves. So poor me, stuck here with nothing to do until tomorrow. This
afternoon
it started raining like HELL for hours, raining, raining, raining. I
hope
it's not going to rain like this when I climb Mount Kinabalu. Digi has
no network in Batu Niah
(but Celcom does).
05.01.01,
Miri
Have visited the Niah
National
park
in the morning then have gone back to Batu Niah. In the afternoon,
since
there were no more buses to Miri and I didn't want to spend one more
night
in Batu Niah, I took a taxi to Miri arriving in the evening.
I'm in Miri as planned and will
fly to the Mulu National Park tomorrow. Flight is at 13:35 and the
return
flight to Miri is at 15:45 on January 8th. I expect a
communications
blackout while I am in Mulu.
06-07.01.01,
Mulu National Park
Yesterday I went to the
caves
(Lang
cave and Deer
cave).
Especially
the Lang
cave is beautiful,
probably
the nicest cave I've ever seen. On the way back from the caves to the
park
HQ it started raining. Heavily. Very heavily. I had an umbrella but my
trekking boots got soaking wet. They are still wet now and tomorrow I'm
leaving this place. I used the hair dryer to dry (at least a little
bit)
the boots. Today I went to other caves
(Wind
cave and Clearwater cave). The interior of the Wind cave is
breathtaking,
absolutely fantastic. Stalagmites and stalagtites everywhere - it's
called
the "King's chamber". You can see the pictures here. Unfortunately when
I was there the lights were off so it was 100% dark. I had to use a
torchlight
to get the camera to focus and the flash. Still the pictures look nice
(I'm an expert...).
The travelogue continues with the Sabah
travelogue - click here.
Copyright (c) 2002
Alfred Molon
|
|
|
