Kuching and Bako National Park

Two short flights later we were in Kuching, the the capital of the state of Sarawak. We spent a lazy day in this relatively attractive and laid back city in preparation for heading out to another national park, namely Bako. This is an hour's bus ride towards the coast followed by a rather choppy 20 minute ride in a small motor boat to the Park HQ. After wading in from the boat to the beach and registering at the Park HQ, we installed ourselves in our basic and very musty smelling lodgings.















As lunch was well over due we headed straight for the canteen and soon discovered that the food is definitely not the highlight of a trip to Bako. In fact I would go as far as saying it was disgusting. All meals were self service from a barely warm serving station, complete with flies and ants. The only thing vaguely identifiable was the rice which was sure to be the perfect breading ground for bacteria. Needless to say the concept of vegetarianism has not made it this far so Richard resorted to supplementing his diet of rice with canned soya milk. Although pretty inedible for humans, the food is attractive to the pesky local macaques who lurk around the canteen waiting for the moment to pounce on some unguarded food. We witnessed several highly entertaining raids, one where the cunning monkey snatched a handful of chips and preceded to stuff them in his mouth with a very smug grin and a second incidence were a monkey snatched Richards bowl of muesli and tipped over his head whilst trying to guzzle down the contents. We never did manage to get the bowl back.















On a more positive not there a several very lovely treks in the park. On the first day as we didn't have much time we made the short walk through the jungle to Teluk Paku beach. Like the beach at Park HQ this is another wide sweeping cove of sand with a dramatic backdrop of jungle covered cliffs. The next day we did the 4km trek to the Tajor Waterfall and beach. This takes longer than you would think as the path, although very well marked is riddled with tree routes and includes a couple of relatively steep climbs. The waterfall is decidedly average, but the beach is really quite spectacular. Unfortunately you don't get much time to enjoy it before you have to start the walk back to try and avoid the enviable afternoon downpour (which by the way we didn't).















The main highlight for me of Bako was that it provides a chance to see the rare proboscis monkeys at close quarters. They really are quite ridiculously looking creatures with long floppy noises and pot bellies. They often hang out in the trees near the back at Park HQ were we found a large male. Unfortunately though I didn't have my camera with me at the time.















After two nights at the park (and really I wouldn't recommend more given the food) we are now back in Kuching for a night before our flight to KL and are intending to enjoy some much need food.