In my tiny home country of Singapore, we're all obsessed with overseas travel. Our closets are stuffed with a baffling quantity of winterwear, considering we live in year-round tropical heat. Supermarkets stack suitcases for sale next to carts of durians. Grocery runs to neighboring Malaysia are weekly affairs. A study by Visa once ranked Singaporeans the most frequent leisure travelers in the world. But when the 2020 lockdown happened, we were forced to do something we'd never done before: look inward and consider what our own 280 square miles had to offer.
5 ways to explore Sarawak, Malaysia's rising adventure hotspot
18.09.2023 - 11:35 / nationalgeographic.com
With large swathes of rainforest waiting to be explored, Malaysia’s beautiful island region of Sarawak is fast becoming a prime destination for travellers seeking adventure.
Here you’ll find fairytale caves, crashing waterfalls, forests of towering tapang trees and limestone sea stacks in weird and wonderful shapes. Trek under the canopy and you may be lucky enough to spot orangutans, proboscis monkeys and even a rhinoceros hornbill bird, which takes pride of place on Sarawak’s coat of arms.
Sarawak has more than 24 national parks and reserves open to the public, all protecting habitats including beaches and coastal mangroves, hilly inland regions and mountains along the Indonesian border. Here are five adventurous ways to get a taste of the region’s extraordinary flora, fauna and geology.
Bako National Park, on a finger of land poking into the sea north of Kuching, has an excellent network of hiking trails criss-crossing its nearly 11sq miles. These come in a whole range of lengths and difficulties to suit all travellers, from gentle meanders from the park visitor centre to more challenging treks of up to six miles that will fill a few hours. Base yourself in one of the forest lodges so you can hit the trails first thing to avoid the midday heat and see the best of the wildlife.
The park has seven separate ecosystems, including mixed dipterocarp forest, areas of mangrove and stretches of grassland. The vegetation can shift within a few hundred metres from tropical rainforest to varieties of flora that grow on stonier ground. Much of it comes supersized; you can pass between the folded trunks of vast durian trees and wind beneath umbrella-like palm leaves. All around is the undulating rattle of cicadas, and at times the sound of water falling into hidden pools.
Among the animals living in the forests is the endangered and endemic proboscis monkey. Its protruding round belly and large pendulous nose make this unique animal easy to identify within the dense rainforest foliage. There are also long-tailed macaques and silver-leaf langurs, with their characterful tufted hairdos. Look for soil by the trailside that’s been disturbed by bearded pigs, and perhaps a green pit viper curled around a branch. The particularly beady-eyed might spot a flying lemur resting among the trees.
Beyond the lush rainforest and the trails, Bako National Park’s coastline is also truly inviting, with quiet bays and secluded beaches, craggy clifftops and some spectacular rock formations — including a famous natural sea stack that looks like a rearing cobra.
The former gold-mining region of Bau, an hour from Kuching, offers some excellent outdoor activities to get the heart pumping, from rock climbing to mountain biking through
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