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2021 Tailor-made Borneo Adventure
Sarawak Adventures
15 Days
Draft itinerary
from
$1,950 per person twin share not including Sabah tours
click map for larger view
KUCHING-MULU--KOTA KINABALU
Sample a taste of adventure as you kayak and trek through remote and pristine rainforest. Luxuriate in nature’s wonders cruising remote riverways by longboat. Experience the heartwarming pleasure of meeting people still grounded in a traditional way of life.
And take in natural scenery and wildlife of such magnificence that it will quite simply take your breath away in wonder.
Our tours enable you to connect with the locals, walk the path less travelled and have some flexibility and ‘down time’ not available in mainstream tour packages. Whilst planning our tours we also include, where possible iconic sights and local festivals of the region.
The tour starts in Kuching and finishes in Kota Kinabalu, leaving you to explore Sabah or fly direct to a variety of destinations.
You’re most welcome to call or email to talk through your needs or any other concerns you may have.
Tour includes:
Kuching experiences: Semonggoh Wildlife Centre, Bako National Park, Sarawak Cultural Village, cooking classes, sunset Wetlands Cruise.
Mulu National Park experiences: Show cave tour of Deer and Lang Cave, Bat
Exodus, Clearwater Cave, Cave of Winds, Batu Bungan longhouse craft market, night walk, canopy skywalk.
Flights: Kuching-Mulu-Kota Kinabalu
Accommodation: The Marian Boutique Lodgings, Kuching, Mulu World Heritage Area, Kota Kinabalu The Marriott Hotel
Meals: Breakfasts: All | Lunches: Whilst on tour (3)
Tour Itinerary
Day 1 Let the adventures begin!
Saturday 23 January 2021
Kuching is a beautiful old city, interlaced with quaint back streets and boasting a riverside promenade that rivals the lively river fronts of Europe.
Kuching’s streets are alive with the aroma of street foods, colourful wares and the smiles of the super-friendly locals.
Your hotel is situated amongst the bustling traders and Chinese Temples near Kuching’s Main Bazar. It also just a short walk to the riverside promenade of Sarawak River, a great place to take a stroll at any-time of day or night.
If you arrive early, check out the tin merchants in Carpenter Street, visit one of the many local museums or simply take a seat near the river and chat with the locals as you watch the world go by.
We'll offer some options for dinner or drinks to suit your interests prior to travel.
Let the adventures begin!
Day 2 -Sunday 24th January
Cooking Class & Sunset Wetlands Cruise
8.30am-12.30pm Weekends are the best days for Cooking Classes as this is when the fresh markets are at their best.
Optional tours will be provided later:
Visit local market and Cooking Class: Approx $65 for half day tour
Cycling Tour: Approx $45 for half day tour
Day 3 Monday 25th January
Semenggoh Wildlife Sanctuary
I'LL REMOVED THIS DAY IF YOU VISIT SEPILOK IN SABAH
Depart 8am for a half day of Borneo at its best. Kick start the day with a visit to Semenggoh Wildlife Sanctuary to witness orangutans in a relatively natural setting.
Semenggoh was established more than 40 years ago as a rehabilitation center for endangered animals and now has expanded to become a research facility into orangutan biology and behavior, providing vital information to safeguard the orangutans’ precarious future.
Semenggoh also provides a successful breeding environment for orangutans unable to be rehabilitated into the wild.
You’ll have the chance to see the sanctuary’s semi-wild orangutans, ranging from heart-meltingly cute infants and boisterous adolescents to the powerful male adults, as they enjoy life in a secure natural habitat.
Optional overnight stay at Bako National Park
Day 3 Monday 25th
Bako National Park/ Sarawak Cultural Village
Depart the hotel at 8am. Breakfast on famous Sarawak laksa, popiah or roti at a popular local cafe.
Journey to Bako National Park on a 20-minute boat ride through a stilted water village bustling with local fisherman.
As the inlet opens to the calm waters of the South China Sea we pass traditional fish traps, mangroves and islands.
Look out for the bottle-nose dolphin, crocodiles, water monitors and coastal sea eagles.
Bako National Park provides the perfect introduction to your wildlife encounter with regular sightings of the proboscis monkey, long-tailed macaque, silver leaf monkey and wild boar.
Explore a trail or two and enjoy a picnic lunch before returning to town.
Afternoon: Sarawak Cultural Village. An award winning living museum located just 32km from Kuching. It’s easy to spend a few hours photographing the local culture and lifestyles of the various ethnic groups in Sarawak (a similar experience is available in Kota Kinabalu )
Day 4
Mulu World Heritage Area
Tuesday 26th
Pack your bags and get ready for the next leg of your journey as we fly into the heart of Borneo and Malaysia’s iconic World Heritage Area, Mulu National Park.
With no road into this area you can expect a pristine wilderness full of all the weird and wonderful things that awarded it UNESCO’s world heritage status in all four criteria.
Find yourself captivated by enchanting underworlds – enormous caves home to great flocks of bats that cloak the sky in darkness as they swirl through the heavens. Wander through misty rainforest viewing claws of jagged rock and jungle-cloaked mountain peaks through breaks in the jungle canopy.
Admire the riot of wildlife – from the tiny pigmy squirrel, to some of the largest insects on Earth. See exquisite orchids emerge from the dense leaf litter cloaking the jungle floor. Fall under the spell of this pulsing, breathing, living utopia.
Check in to your room and regroup before your afternoon/evening tour to Deer Cave and the bat exodus.
Take an easy 2.7 km trail to Lang and Deer Caves. As you saunter through the rainforest and by jungle steams your guide will regal you with captivating stories of the plants and wildlife you encounter, and the traditional roles and customs for people who live in the jungle.
Lang Cave is possibly the most stunning cave in Mulu with a low ceiling that makes spotting the swiftlet and bats nesting in the bell-holes easy.
It is adorned with lavishly decorated walls of shawls, layers of rim stone pools and spectacular stalagmites and stalactites.
Not far away is the jaw-dropping Deer Cave. With a cathedral-like cavern snaking two kilometres under the earth and a ceiling never lower than 90m high, Deer Cave is the biggest show-cave in the world.
Its cavernous reaches are also home to around three million wrinkle-lipped bats that emerge from the cave most evenings around sunset.
Your tour is timed to witness the phenomenon of these bats streaming from the cave entrance – a stand-out scene in David Attenborough’s Planet Earth series. Watching the bats swirl through the sky in meandering rivers of black is a truly heart-stopping experience.
From within the cave you can also visit the ‘Garden Of Eden’, one of the most pristine collapsed cave systems in the world.
Witness its dazzling beauty by peering through a 30-metre column of water streaming from above, like a giant shower for the jungle gods.
It will be late when you return and, although the pathway is lit, the scout and brownie guide rules of ‘be prepared’ are advisable in the jungle, so take your torch.
BIRTHDAY DAY
-itinerary to be confirmed
Day 5
Visit a local longhouse handicraft market on the way to Clearwater Cave and a relaxing picnic at Clearwater Cave
Wednesday 27th
You leave the park by longboat at 9.30am and travel up river stopping at Batu Bungan Craft Market. Here you can test your skills with a blowpipe, pick up some local crafts direct from the women who collect and weave the products or try your hand (or should we say nose!), with a Penan nose flute.
As you journey further up the river and out from under the forest canopy you’ll start to see the breathtaking beauty from a different perspective. Any boat ride on these rivers is like a meditation in nature and this one is no exception. You can’t help but feel alive, relaxed and complete as Mother Nature soothes your very soul with her beauty.
Next you'll travel through an intriguing underworld of cave passages, formed over two million years to create a winding network of tunnels snaking 220 kilometres under the earth.
Visit the Cave of Wind to enter the lavishly decorated halls of King Chamber, adorned with stalactites, stalagmites, flowrocks, helitites and rock corals.
Enjoy a meandering walk along a boardwalk perched precariously along the cliffs to Clearwater Cave Picnic Area were you'll recharge with a light snack and refreshment before venturing through the ancient underground river passage of Clearwater Cave.
A picnic lunch is provided at this scenic and tranquil swimming location before you cruise by longboat back to the national park HQ and your bungalow under the rainforest canopy.
Free afternoon
You'll be staying near the park cafe, discover centre all of which is embraced by a series of self-guided walks trails through the rainforest.
You may choose to walk, rest or swim. Here’s your chance to breathe out, ahhhh, you’re here, among one of the world’s most treasured natural environments.
7pm-9pm night-walk
In the evening meet up with your guide for a leisurely night walk on the walk trails around camp headquarters. This two-hour guided tour will give you an insight into nocturnal jungle life.
Immerse yourself in the sounds of the rainforest, interpret the cacophony of jungle noises, watch the courtship dance of the firefly, search for luminescent fungi and scorpion and perhaps spot an elusive marsupial or two.
Day 6- OPTIONAL DAY TO CHILL
Canopy Skywalk, Free Day
Thursday 27th
OPTIONAL OVERNIGHT or DAY TOUR
Take a boat ride down river and visit the remote longhouse of Long Iman. Home to around 38-Penan families this longhouse is one of the most remote in Sarawak. Spend time with this peaceful community and assist in community project.
You can also buy craft direct from the women who are some of the best weavers in all of Borneo.
NOTE: This activity may be affected by the longhouses availability, cultural events and/or weather.
Day 7
Mulu- Kota Kinabalu
Friday 28th
The next morning is yours to explore Mulu's self-guided walk trails, take a refreshing dip at Paku Waterfall or pop back to the markets for last minute ethical shopping!
Boat rides or morning tours can be arranged on request.
After lunch you'll catch 90 minute flight back to Kuching and transfer to your hotel on the bustling waterfront.
Free and easy evening
Day 8
Kota Kinabalu-Sandakan
Saturday 29th
You'll still have time in these last few days for sunset cruises on RAMSAR Wetlands site, frog spotting in Kubah National National Park, a cooking class or just relax with a massage and a bit of shopping.
Kuching Fringe Festival kicks off around this time- so there is likely to lots of activities around town
to be confirmed...need to discuss...looks like a lot of travel for 2 small children
DAY 9 Sunday 30 Jan- Turtle Island
Monday 1 Feb - Sepillok- Kinabatangan
Tuesday 2 Feb- Kinabatangan
Wednesday 3 Feb- Kinabatangan
Thursday 4 Feb-Kinabatangan- Tabin
Friday 5 Feb- Tabin-KK
Saturday 6th Feb KK- Perth
Impressions from this Tour
