Kuching Borneo Malaysia
8
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Frequently Asked Questions
Downstream, in the Sarawak river port area, a good ten kilometres from the centre. As the immediate surroundings are industrial, plan on the ship's shuttle or a taxi; allow twenty to thirty minutes. Once there, almost everything is walkable along the water.
The name echoes the Malay word for cat, and the city embraces it with a smile through feline statues scattered through the streets. There is even a small cat museum, an openly claimed wink that families enjoy. The exact origin of the name is still debated, but nobody here seems in a hurry to settle it.
An English dynasty that governed Kuching for a century. In 1841 the adventurer James Brooke received Sarawak from the Sultanate of Brunei and founded a line of White Rajahs that ruled until the Second World War. The city kept from that singular history a fort, a palace and its bazaars.
The riverfront, a tambang crossing and the old streets fill a half day. If the Semenggoh orangutans interest you, you must book early and accept that the feeding times dictate the whole programme: it is one or the other, rarely both.
It is a wooden water taxi that has crossed the Sarawak river for generations, for a few ringgits. The crossing takes only minutes, but it gives the finest view of the city and is one of the local rituals. It is the simplest way to reach the north bank for Fort Margherita.
Yes, at Semenggoh reserve, about half an hour's drive south, which protects rehabilitated orangutans living semi-wild. Morning and late afternoon, fruit is placed on platforms; the apes come to feed when the forest does not provide enough. Sightings are never guaranteed, as these are free animals.
The Waterfront esplanade follows the bank for nearly a kilometre, among lawns, kiosks and views of the golden roofs of the state parliament. On the north bank, Fort Margherita has raised its white crenellated silhouette since 1879 and houses a gallery on the Brooke era; the Astana, the second rajah's former palace, is admired from the gardens or from the water.
Along Main Bazaar and Carpenter Street on the south bank, where Chinese shophouses line up workshops, cafés, incense-scented temples and antique dealers. You can turn up beads, textiles and Borneo carvings. It is also the best quarter for understanding the island's human mosaic without setting foot in a museum.
Sarawak laksa, a vermicelli soup in a spiced broth at once rich and lemony, and mee kolok, noodles tossed with meat. The old quarter's traditional coffee shops serve both from morning to night, amid old tiling and ceiling fans.
The large museum devoted to Borneo's cultures is an excellent air-conditioned refuge in the hot hours, and the finest introduction there is to the island's human mosaic: Iban, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, Malay and Chinese, with their longhouses, their textiles and their relationship with the forest.
