The Rafflesia and Bako National Park

Thursday, February 24, 2011
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Since the Singgahsana Lodge where I was staying was so good, I booked the rest of my stay in Kuching there, 3 nights in the my same twin room at RM98/night and then I had to move to a double room at RM108.

I had a free day on Monday as I was waiting to see if any of the tour agencies I'd left my number with would contact me if they got anyone going on any tours. As it turned out, I was in luck. Interland, right next door to the hostel, offered me a day trip to Gunung Gading NP on Tuesday to see the Rafflesia flower (RM125) and a Bako NP day tour for Wednesday at RM120. I hadn't originally planned to visit the Gunung Gading NP but given that I had a few spare days and that the Rafflesia flower was the biggest in the world, I thought "Why not?" and booked the tour. Interland turned out to be very good as they managed to book a few others on the trips to fill them up, thus reducing the price per person. They were run by a really friendly ex-Tour Guide and I can highly recommend them!

For the rest of the day, I did a walking tour of Kuching, visiting some Chinese temples, the grand Kuching Mosque, Chinatown and India Street, among other places. Since Kuching means "cat" in Malaysian, the city had played on this fact and there are cat statues dotted around the city, mainly on the roundabouts, so it was a bit of fun trying to track them down during my walking tour.

The Sarawak Museum had a large collection of cultural artefacts and consists of two wings connected by a footbridge. Downstairs of the Old Wing housed a massive collection of stuffed Bornean animals (apes, birds, reptiles and snakes) and two whale skeletons. It was very sad to see the stuffed orangutans in particular. Upstairs, there was a recreated full size longhouse display and an interesting collection of cultural artefacts (magical charms, baskets, weapons, masks, musical instruments, wood carvings, etc). The New Wing (upstairs) displayed a comprehensive history of Sarawak from prehistoric times to modern day. I found the WWII section very interesting, detailing the Japanese occupation and subsequent liberation by a mainly Australian force.

I also made a quick visit to a couple of other nearby museums - the Natural History Museum (a few stuffed animals, the rest of it was closed) and the Art Museum (mildly interesting, great air con). However, in these and the Sarawak Museum, photos were prohibited; I'm sure why, it was a real pain and it wasn't because they were trying to sell you some expensive illustrated book on the museum as you left!

Tuesday was my visit to Gunung Gading NP to see the Rafflesia, the biggest flower in the world - it can grow up to one metre width at full bloom and is very rare! The spores can only germinate on a few specific vines. They settle on the host plant and develop into a bud which then becomes a gigantic flower. It takes them about 9 months to mature and then the flower stays in full bloom for only about a week before it withers and dies. While blooming, the flower gives off a smell like rotting meat to attract it's pollinator, the carrion fly. Considering all that, its pretty remarkable that the flower manages to reproduce and grow at all.

We had a guide with us to take us to where the flower was blooming. There were up and down boardwalks through the park but because "our" flower was off the boardwalk, we had a short hike through the forest to reach it. It was quite an impressive sight and there was a bud next to it too, it was definitely worth the trip to see it considering it was so rare. The smell wasn't too bad though unless you stuck your nose right up to it because it was only about a day old. We had lunch included which was very nice and consisted of a chicken sandwich, large spring roll, chicken drumstick and cake, and then we drove back to Kuching. Note that you could do the trip cheaper yourself by catching a public bus to the village of Lundu, then trying to arrange onward transport to the NP entrance.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the net (England v Holland in the Cricket World Cup) and had another McD's in the evening. Oh, and there was a beautiful sunset over the waterfront too.

I had an organised tour booked for Bako NP on Wednesday. Bako NP sits on a peninsular jutting out into the South China Sea. The coast of the park comprises secluded beaches alternating with mangrove swamps, while the interior is marked by dense rainforest and kerangas (sandstone plateaus with poor soil). The park is crossed with walking trails of varying difficulty and length. The park is incredibly biodiverse and is most well known for its proboscis monkeys. These weird monkeys are only found in Borneo and have tubular noses, large potbellies, and in the males, a state of constant sexual arousal! Apparently, due to their potbellies, they earned the nickname 'the Dutchmen' from the locals as they looked like Europeans.

Our group set off at 7.45am in a shuttle bus to the fishing village of Kampung Bako, from there we got a boat over to the park itself. You could do the trip yourself via public bus but if there was only one of you, you might have to get the boat over to the park yourself making it expensive, although there probably would be other people waiting around to share a boat. We'd left the hostel early so we could be one of the first groups into the park before masses of tourists arrived.

Just near the Park HQ, we were really lucky in seeing a group of proboscis monkeys. They were extremely agile, crashing through the trees and jumping onto cabin roofs. Their appearance was comical, with their long noses and potbellies. It was fascinating watching them and we must have stayed for half an hour there. We then set off trekking through the start of the Lintang Trail which involved much clambering through dense forest over tree roots before we reached a keranga, where there were many different species of pitcher plant. Humidity in the jungle was 97% so it was a complete sweat-fest. We then branched off to the Telok Pandan Kecil trail, which had a small running stream down it due to the previous day's rain so was pretty wet, and led to a secluded beach backed by steep cliffs and thick rainforest. The path here was open to the sun and it was scorching hot, there was a real extreme of climates through the park. From the beach, our guide had arranged for a boat to meet us to ferry us back to park HQ, which was a relief as none of us wanted to have to walk back to Park HQ! We had lunch in the Park cafe - I'd read that the food was re-served meal after meal until it was finished. Considering the times I visited the toilet the next day, that's probably right.

As well as seeing some more proboscis monkeys along the trail. we also saw long-tailed macaques, silver langur monkeys, a monitor lizard, flying lemur, pit viper (which was poisonous!), and lots of bearded pigs. The pitcher plants were fascinating. They are carnivorous plants. Insects such as flies and ants are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf by a nectar bribe. The sides of the pitcher are slippery to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. The small pool of liquid contained within the cavity drowns the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved so the plant can receive its mineral nutrition. You could also do a night walk if you were staying overnight at the park and you'd probably see quite a lot of different wildlife.

A free day on Thursday so I went to do some shopping and buy some tourist tat for a few people back home. There was a street round the corner from my hostel, the Main Bazaar, along which the stores sold most of the same stuff - wooden statues, colourful masks, key-rings, fridge magnets, plus of course cat-related items since this was "Cat City". There were stands along this street selling a local cake called Kek Lapis, which comprised many different coloured and flavoured layers in intricate patterns. They were a real work of art and must be very difficult to make, as can be seen in the link at the bottom of this entry. I had my final supper in Kuching, a very average Thai green chicken curry at a restaurant with very average service. There was another superb sunset over the waterfront, the best yet, to see me off. Tomorrow, I fly to Mulu to visit some caves.

Expenses (excluding food and shopping): RM692 (~£138) £1=RM5
Accommodation: Singgahsana Lodge 4 nights RM402
Gunung Gading NP day trip RM125
Bako NP day trip RM150 (includes RM10 extra boat trip and RM20 tip)
Laundry RM15

Links:
http://www.singgahsana.com/main.html
http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/np/gading.htm  (Gunung Gading NP)
http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/np/bako.htm    (Bako NP)
http://www.travelguideskuching.com/http:/www.travelguideskuching.com/kek-lapis-sarawaks-specialty-by-design/     (Kek Lapis cake making)

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