17/04/2019 to 18/04/2019 - Kuching / Borneo / Malaysia

17/04/2019

Refreshed after a long time. Today we went to the city center of the cat city, which is what Kuching translates to. We went by scooter and then walked through India Street, shops upon shops, but we didn't have any space in our luggage. We walked along the waterfront, crossed the pedestrian bridge, and went to the other side of the Sarawak River. Our walk took us past the DUN, the parliamentary building, and the Astana Palace, until we reached the Orchid Park. We saw some colorful plants and took a short break. We returned to the other side of the river with a water taxi or Malaysian gondola. We strolled through the streets a bit more and captured the first monkeys as street art. Between 3pm and 4pm, it's feeding time for the orangutans at the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. We didn't want to miss that. So we hopped back on the scooter...

18/04/2019

We woke up early to catch the first ferry to the Bako National Park. So at 8 am, we got on our boat and sailed for 15 minutes. We weren't quite at the headquarters of the national park when the water suddenly became shallow due to low tide, and the motor didn't work well either. So our boatman got out and pushed us for the next 30 minutes. We had to walk through the water for the last 20 meters to reach the beach. We registered, determined our trail in the park, and our hiking tour began. We walked over roots, rocks, and some elevation. We were rewarded with beautiful views, great nature, unusual plants, and wildlife. At 3 pm, it was time to return with our boat, and we were almost there when the motor stalled again (it was the same boat as in the morning). So we had to be towed. As a farewell to Kuching, we watched the daily evening light show at the waterfront before heading to Mulu tomorrow.