One of the main reasons we came to Kuching, or Borneo in general was the chance to see the proboscis monkey. There is a national park about 30 minutes in a Grab from central Kuching that claims to have them. Nicole and I watched some YouTube videos of other travelers documenting their trips to this park, and the monkeys were pretty sparse. Based on all this, we didn’t expect to see much, but figured we’d at least take in some scenery along the way.
After paying for our entry tickets, we had to hire a boat to take us the rest of the way. We were offered to share a boat with some other random people, but we were told that we’d all have to come back at the same time. That sounded like a logistical nightmare, so we chartered our own boat and driver for the day for the grand sum of about $20. It was about twenty minutes on the boat before we docked at Bako National Park. We then registered at the park headquarters and were shown the various hikes that we could do.
We started off with a hike that went through mangrove trees and palm forest — a popular habitat for the proboscis monkey. Before we had even technically gotten to the trailhead, we noticed two European ladies pointing toward the treetops. It took a while, but we eventually spotted it quite far away. Because of the branches and distance, it was very difficult to get a good picture, but here’s mine anyway — heavily cropped so you can see it better.
When we eventually got to the real trail, we encountered some other monkeys — Silver-Leaf monkeys to be precise. They were more social and rambunctious (and closer to ground level than their Proboscis relatives). They were jumping all over the place. I was slightly concerned that they might jump on me.
As the trail became more rugged and full of roots, the animal sightings decreased. We did eventually see one more proboscis monkey, but that was it for the entire time in the national park. Again, we weren’t expecting magic to happen. Nature is nature. I’d still rather see one or two from a a great distance in their natural environment than see them closer up in a cage.
The trail eventually emptied into a beach area with some rock formations. The sun was beating down quite hard now, whereas the jungle canopy offered a good amount of shade that helped it feel significantly cooler. With that being said, we were both sweating pretty aggressively from the humidity. We rested for a few minutes before climbing back up the trail to a junction for a longer, more intense trail to a different beach.
While the trail was interesting at times, and the beach that it led to was . . . fine, it wasn’t worth the amount of sweat, dehydration, and fatigue required to get there and back. I think the one-way distance was only like 2.5 – 3 km, but the trail was not easy. The picture above was from one of the easier parts. A good portion of the trail was climbing up over rocks, hopping over streambeds (or in our case slipping and falling into them), tenderly negotiating very narrow ladder-like steps, and jumping over logs. All of a sudden, 2.5 – 3 km takes a lot longer. Even then, we were able to return from the second beach in about an hour which we thought was pretty respectable.
We returned to the headquarters drenched in sweat. We had each brought our own water since we were going to an isolated national park on Borneo, but that had long since been depleted. Shockingly the national park had a small cafe with refrigerated drinks! We stockpiled some water (though I felt the need to toss a Tiger beer into the mix for extra refreshment). I then sent a WhatsApp message to our boat driver who relayed that the tides required that he station himself off the beach. We took off our shoes and had to wade through the water to get to the boat.
We spent the rest of the day in recovery — our legs gelatinous. Our feet full of stank. Nicole’s stomach — craving salt. After watching a part of the regatta races, I watched the sunset behind the India Mosque along the Sarawak river. Then we went out for dinner at a place called Southside Cafe and Bistro. I had a local 1602 pale ale with fish & chips. Nicole ordered a margherita flatbread and fries (for the salt). We couldn’t get involved with the Hilton this evening because there are thousands of children running amok for perhaps some sort of event. It was just . . .a lot, so we thought it best to leave the chaos. More on that tomorrow.
passports & pepto bismol 