The Best Places to Visit in Sarawak

Sarawak Cultural Village

The Sarawak Cultural Village has seven unique houses scattered across the 17-acre landscape, each housing information and insight into each ethnic group’s daily life.

Each house is interconnected by the Plank Walk – a circular blueprint that unites each domicile; the first longhouse beside the main entrance is the Bidayuh Longhouse. At this house you’ll get to crush sugar cane, pound paddy, winnow rice and watch bamboo carvers at work. The Iban Longhouse – located next door – is a wholly different experience; watch an Iban warrior perform a traditional war dance, listen to the drums and gongs and watch as the womenfolk plait exquisite pua – a mat weaving.

Further along the Plank Walk is the Rainforest Stage – the site for the Rainforest World Music Festival; the Penan Hut lies beside it – it houses the last of the hunter-gatherers and here you can try your luck at blowpipe shooting. Enjoy the cool mountain breeze amidst the humid tropical air as you walk to the next house – the Orang Ulu Longhouse. Home to the Kayan peoples – the gentlest and most graceful of the indigenous tribes – you can check out the amazing displays of wood-carvings and ‘tree-of-life’ murals at this abode.

At the Melanau Tall House next door, you’ll be entertained by shaman tales, watch traditional sago-palm processing and get to taste sago-based titbits. You’ll get to experience a truly traditional Malay experience at the Malay Town House where you’ll get to play traditional Malay games such as gasing and congkak. Finally at the Chinese Farm House you’ll get to sample true traditional farmhouse life, visit the pepper and vegetable gardens and taste conventional Chinese herbal tea while enjoying the view of the sprawling countryside.

Beyond doubt a visit to the Sarawak Cultural village is more than worth your time and a true treat for those seeking to experience Sarawak at its most authentic. The village represents the best of this slice of Borneo heaven and encompasses everything that the state has to offer – nature, culture, customs and tales to thrill.

Gunung Mulu National Park

The largest national park in Sarawak, the Gunung Mulu National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site dominated by three mountains - Gunung Mulu, Gunung Api and Gunung Benarat. 

Spanning 52,865 hectares of primary rainforest, Mulu is dotted with swiftly flowing rivers, vertical cliffs and jungle streams.

Mulu’s greatest attractions – an approximate 300-kilometre stretch of snaking passages – lie buried underneath the forested mountains. They’re home to the largest cave chamber in the world, the Sarawak Chamber – which can house 40 Boeing 747s!

The surrounding area is a hotchpotch of above-ground attractions – the park is covered in rich primary rainforest and boasts excellent jungle treks and mountain hiking trails. One of the park’s top draws are the Pinnacles – 45 metre-high, razor sharp limestone spikes that jut out from the slopes of Gunung Api.

Gunung Mulu National Park boasts one of the most impressive cave systems in the world. Calling Sarawak its home, the park is a well-preserved wilderness with an abundance of caves to explore, treks to traverse and wildlife to observe. 

Experienced enthusiasts can enjoy challenging caving expeditions while other visitors can simply enjoy the park’s exotic surrounding beauty. Between the sandstone peak of the 2377-metre Gunung Mulu and the 1750-metre limestone Gunung Api, are rocky mountains, deep gorges with swiftly-flowing rivers and an inimitable montage of wildlife habitats. Listed as a UNESCO site in November 2000 due to its dramatic landscape and its biological importance, the park is home to large caverns with alien insects and countless bats. 

The surrounding tropical rainforest has an exotic collection of over 20,000 animals and 3,500 plant species; the park boasts an array of accommodation options from camp grounds to the exotic Royal Mulu Resort.

Highlights and Features

• Deer Cave: Once listed as the largest cave passage in the world, Deer Cave now holds the record as the largest traversable cave passage. The two-kilometre-long, 174-metre-high passage takes approximately an hour to navigate; the caves are home to countless bats that cling to the ceiling. The highlight of these caverns is the bat observatory – watch as an endless stream of bats exit the caves close to sundown to search for their nightly mealtime fix in the jungle. A unique feature of this cave is the formation at the mouth of the cave which resembles Abraham Lincoln’s profile.

• Cave of the Winds: Filled with hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites, the Cave of the Winds, has several chambers. Along the way you’ll pass the Batu Bungan settlement where you can purchase knick knacks under the shaded green canopy.

• Clearwater Cave: Most people enjoy a trip to Clearwater Cave because the longest cave in Southeast Asia has an inviting swimming hole just outside its entrance.

• Sarawak Chamber: It may be hard to traverse the distance necessary to get to this cave that, figuratively, seems to lie at the centre of the Earth, but the trip is well worth the effort. The yawning cavern is simply magnificent and the 12-hour long journey will simply be forgotten – at least until you’re making your way back. Accommodation available.

• Mulu Canopy Skywalk: This 480-metre long walkway may not sound like such an interesting attraction but the views from this bridge are unforgettable.

• The Headhunters’ Trail: Sarawak is well-known for its tales of the legendary headhunters; in Mulu make sure you take the winding journey through the park from Gunung Mulu to Limbang – the trail traverses an old tribal warpath.

• The Pinnacles: The deadly sharp crags may not sound like an interesting attraction yet the bleached-white tips are an incredible not-to-be-missed photo-stop opportunity.

Damai Beach

This is Sarawak’s most popular and scenic beach. Damai, located on the Santubong Peninsula, is about 35 minutes away from Kuching. Besides the beautiful sandy beaches to relax on, you can engage in water sports such as jet-skiing and windsurfing. 

The rich jungle in the background is also suitable for trekking and climbing. Bird-watchers will enjoy sighting a variety of birds such as Sandpipers, Egrets, Terns, Collared kingfisher, the White-bellied Sea Eagle and Brahminy Kites.

Court House

The Court House is surely one of the most magnificent buildings in Sarawak The imposing facade has intricate local art patterns incorporated in its door and window grilles and roof panels.

Completed in 1874, it was the seat of government during the reign of the white Rajahs. The beautiful clock tower was added to the architecture in 1883, with the obelisk memorial to Rajah Charles Brooke officially commissioned in 1924.

Kuching Waterfront

Situated at the Main Bazaar along Sarawak River in Kuching. 

The waterfront is about 1 km long and is also known as the People Place.

Built for the people of Sarawak. It has many facilities such as restaurants, handicraft shops, entertainment hall, and the dancing water fountains

Bako National Park

This is one of the smallest national parks in Sarawak but one of the most interesting, containing a wide variety of vegetation and terrains which can be accessed by a well-maintained network of nature trails.

 It is only 37 km from Kuching. There are some fine beaches here too - Telok Sibur, Telok Pandan Besar and Telok Pandan Kecil among them. Bako Sea Stack is a much photographed unusual rock formation jutting out of the sea. You need to hire a boat to access it. 

Semenggoh Wildlife Centre

The Semenggoh Wildlife Centre was established in 1975 to care for wild animals which have either been found injured in the forest, orphaned, or were previously kept as illegal pets. The centre is situated within the boundaries of the Semenggoh Nature Reserve, approximately 24 km from Kuching.

When established, the three main aims of the Centre were:

• To rehabilitate wild animals who have been injured, orphaned in the wild or handicapped by
• prolonged captivity, with the objective of subsequently releasing them back to the wild.
• To conduct research on wildlife and captive breeding programmes for endangered species.
• To educate visitors and the general public about the importance of conservation.

The Centre has been a resounding success, caring for almost 1,000 endangered mammals, birds and reptiles from dozens of different species. However it is the orang utan rehabilitation programme that has made the Centre famous. In one respect, Semenggoh has been too successful – so many orang utan have been successfully reintroduced into the surrounding forest reserve that the forest’s carrying capacity has been reached, and rehabilitation activities have been transferred to the Matang Wildlife Centre, part of Kubah National Park.

As a result of its success, Semenggoh’s role has changed and it is nowadays a centre for the study of orang utan biology and behaviour, as well as a safe and natural haven for dozens of semi-wild orang utan, graduates of the rehabilitation programme. It is also home to numerous baby orang utan, born in the wild to rehabilitated mothers, a further testament to the success of the programme.

A visit to Semenggoh is a once in a lifetime experience - a chance to see semi-wild orang utan, ranging from tiny infants and boisterous adolescents to dignified mature adults, enjoying life in a secure natural habitat.