The best moment in Kuching lasts a few seconds: a vine bends, and then an orangutan drops out of the canopy and swings down to the feeding platform. A few metres away from you, in the forest where it actually lives. Nobody says a word. And not long after, you are back in town having breakfast.
That is what makes this city. The best things are just outside it, a bus ride or a short boat trip away, and in between you have an old town on the river that is lovely to hang around in. Concrete cats, wooden sampans and kopitiams where the laksa is gone before lunch.
Three or four days, two national parks and an awful lot of noodles. This is how we would split them.
How to get there, where to sleep and how many days to give it is all on our Kuching page.
Orangutans at Semenggoh
At Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, semi-wild orangutans live free in the forest. They are not in cages and nobody calls them in: twice a day there is fruit waiting on the feeding platform, and whoever is hungry comes to eat. Then you are standing a few metres from an orangutan that is simply at home here.
Feeding times are around 9am and around 3pm. Entry is about €2, and you get there on the city bus from the centre or with a Grab. Listen to the rangers and keep your distance: you never feed or touch an orangutan.
It is never guaranteed. In fruiting season there is plenty to eat in the forest and they stay away more often. So go in the morning, and come back in the afternoon if you missed them. Two chances a day for a couple of euros is not something you pass up.
Our verdict: the reason to come to Kuching, so go on your first morning
Bako National Park
Sarawak’s oldest national park is a day that has it all. You arrive by boat along the coast, walk through rainforest and mangroves, and spot proboscis monkeys with their droopy noses in the trees around park HQ. Bearded pigs root around on the beach like it is their own terrace, and pitcher plants grow beside the path. The jungle trail along the coast takes you to the sea stack at Teluk Pandan Kecil, a rock standing on its own in the sea.
Take bus 1 to Kampung Bako, about 45 minutes, and then a boat of twenty to thirty minutes. The boat costs about €40 return for up to five people, and entry is about €4. Register your visit online with Sarawak Forestry before you go. At low tide you walk the last stretch through the water, so shoes off and a towel ready.
Go early, share your boat with other backpackers and book your return as late as you can, three o’clock at the latest. Do not leave food lying around: the macaques take everything.
Our verdict: a full day of Borneo in miniature, and expect wet feet
Laksa for breakfast in a kopitiam
In Kuching, breakfast is soup. Sarawak laksa is creamy and spicy, with prawns, chicken and vermicelli, and locals eat it in the morning. The best places sell out around midday, so if you sleep in, you miss out.
You eat it in a kopitiam, an old coffee shop where every stall does one thing. Order your laksa from one stall and your drink from another, then grab a seat at a shared table. A meal costs about €1.50.
Still not tired of laksa after a few days? Order kolo mee: dry noodles with roast pork, and what the locals eat pretty much every day.
Our verdict: every morning, plus an extra bowl on your last day
The waterfront and the sampan
The waterfront along the Sarawak River is the heart of the city. Main Bazaar on one side, the golden parliament building on the other, and in between the wooden sampans still go back and forth. Locals have crossed the river this way for centuries.
A crossing costs one ringgit, about twenty cents, and you pay with exact change when you get off. Come around sunset, when the Darul Hana Bridge lights up. That is when the little evening markets and street performers set up along the bank.
Cross over, wander a bit along the far side and ride back. That is all the plan you need.
Our verdict: the best twenty cents you will spend on Borneo, at its finest at dusk
Mount Santubong
The green mountain above the coast near Kuching is a proper jungle hike, right next to the city. The trail is steep, and on the last stretch you climb with ropes and ladders. At the top you look out over the coast and the South China Sea.
Start early: set off too late in the day and you are not allowed up to the summit. Bring plenty of water and gloves for the ropes. Afterwards, cool off in the sea at Damai.
Planning more hikes further into Borneo? This is good training. You will still feel it in your legs for the rest of the week.
Our verdict: a tough morning that pays you back in views
Sarawak Cultural Village
An open-air museum at the foot of Mount Santubong, with the traditional houses of the peoples of Sarawak. You walk into a longhouse, see the crafts of the Dayak peoples and watch a dance show with live music.
It is near Santubong, a good half hour’s drive from the city. Entry is about €17 if you book online. Combine it with the beach or the climb, and one ride out there covers both.
Our verdict: the best place to understand who lives on Borneo
The cat city
Kucing means cat, and Kuching makes a party of it. There are cat statues on roundabouts and squares, the best known by the Grand Margherita on the waterfront, and there is even a cat museum full of cat art and cat history, for about €0.60.
Slightly bonkers, and that is exactly why it is fun. Pair the museum with the far side of the river, and save it for a rainy afternoon between the wildlife trips.
Our verdict: light, cheap and made for a wet afternoon
Got time to spare in Kuching?
A night in Bako
Want to see the proboscis monkeys in the late afternoon, when the day visitors are already on the boat back? Stay a night in the park. Check with Sarawak Forestry beforehand that there is space, because without a bed you have to catch that last boat.
Flying to Mulu
Gunung Mulu National Park can only be reached by plane, just over an hour and a half from Kuching. Waiting for you are enormous caves, including one of the biggest cave chambers in the world, and at sunset millions of bats pour out into the sky in long ribbons. Give it at least two nights.
Semenggoh in the wet season
Coming in the wet season? Then there is more fruit in the forest and the orangutans come to the platform less often. Good news for them. Plan two visits, one morning and one afternoon.
The Rainforest World Music Festival
Every June the Rainforest World Music Festival is held at the Sarawak Cultural Village. If your trip falls in that month, see whether you can fit it in.
Our top five in Kuching
Got three or four days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- Orangutans at the Semenggoh feeding platform, on your first morning
- A full day in Bako National Park, with proboscis monkeys and the sea stack
- Sarawak laksa for breakfast in a kopitiam
- The sampan across the river at sunset
- The climb up Mount Santubong, early in the morning
Time left after that? Head to the longhouses of the Sarawak Cultural Village, and spend a rainy afternoon on a lap of the city’s cats.
So what do you really have to do in Kuching?
Two mornings. One at the Semenggoh feeding platform, waiting in silence for the trees to start moving. And one on the bus to Kampung Bako, with your shoes in your hand for the last stretch through the water and a day of proboscis monkeys and pigs ahead of you.
Start both of those days with a bowl of laksa. It is not just delicious, it is how this city works: up early, eat first, then into the forest.
And leave your evenings open. Sit down on the waterfront, take the sampan across as the bridge lights up, and you will understand why so many travellers stay a day longer in Kuching than they planned.
