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Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Part 2 - Around the World 06/2015 - 02/2016

By Beyond All Maps - Portraits of our Planet by Thorsten Mehret

June 16^th, 2015

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Kuching - The City of Cats

Kuching is the capital of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. I´m not sure about the status, but interestingly even after an domestic arrival visitors need to go through immigration and get an entry stamp into the state. The name of the city is said to be derived from the Malay word for cat, emphasized with several cat monuments around the city and even a cat museum. There is a big Chinese community in Kuching, which is reflected by many Chinese shops, restaurants and temples.

It´s quite a pleasant city for Asian standards, not to big, relatively clean and with a nice waterfront area, which is especially interesting for people watching and having some chats with locals and tourist in the evening time.

Kuching Skyline

The New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building

The Astana - official residence of the Governor of Sarawak

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Carpenter Street - The old Quarter

One of several cat monuments

Chinese Temple

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Kuching Waterfront at Night

Indonesian and German Tourists

Asian House Rules - Keep your shoes OFF

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Where are my shoes?

A stylish hostel room in the Treehouse BnB

Flipflop - Feel the Rubber

Sarawak Cultural Center

30min from Kuching with a shuttle bus, the center gives an insight into the different tribes of Sarawak. Houses, traditional clothes and skills of the tribes are presented. It´s a nice half day excursion and doesn´t feel to artifical.

Bidayuh House

Orang Ulu Longhouse

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Iban Long House

Melanau Tall House - Pirate Proof

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Dance Performance

Malay

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Orang Ulu

Penan

Bidayuh

Bako Nationalpark

Just 40 min by bus from Kuching and another 20 min by boat and you are in another world. There are many different trails to explore and although not that long in km, going up an down over thousands of roots in the hot humid climate can be challenging (at least for me). Additionally there are all sorts of rain, from hefty downpours to steady drizzle. But who cares, the clothes are wet anyway.

Sunset with photo model

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sea stack

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

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Proboscis monkey

Proboscis monkey

Macaques - tricky fellows

Authentic rainforest feeling

Yes, that´s the trail

Mangrove

Coastal scenery

Faces of Sarawak

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Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

A typical handicraft workshop in Kuching

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

SemengGoh - Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

Established 1975 to rehabilitate wild animals who have been injured, orphaned in the wild or handicapped by prolonged captivity the center is now one of the few spots on earth to see semi-wild Orang Utans. Depending on the fruit season in jungle and weather condition more or less Orang Utans will show up at the feeding times. There are more than 20 around in Semenggoh and it´s fun watching this fascinating creates

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Fact: 97% of the same genetical code

Who is the king?

Feeding platform

On the Way to Mulu

It can´t be denied. Logging roads are all over and huge palm oil plantations continuously replace the primary rainforest. Flying over Borneo reveals the nasty site of the economical growth in Malaysia.

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Gunung Mulu National Park

Around one hour flight from Kuching, in the interior of Sarawak lies the Gunung Mulu NP. The park is famous for it´s caves. and lot´s of superlatives. The largest known natural chamber (Sarawak Chamber, 700m long, 400m wide and 70m high), one of the largest single cave passage (Deer Cave) and the largest cave in the world by volume (Clearwater Cave). A guide told me, that it took 14 days to bring all required equipment in the Sarawak Chamber to illuminate it completely for a picture. And as they finally wanted to switch on the lights the generator created a voltage peak causing all bulbs to explode and delaying the whole thing for another 4 days to get the spare bulbs from the mainland. And everything for one shot.

Beside the caves there is lot´s of rainforest around and therefore opportunities to spot some wildlife, although the night walk in Bako NP was far better.

Deer Cave with Garden of Eden

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

The Fast Lane - Take a shower

Clearwater Cave,......yes the green is real

Clearwater Cave

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Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Big Tree

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

Sarawak - Meeting the Orangutans

A big (almost) daily event is the bat exodus. In the evening millions of bats are leaving the deer cave for feeding. After the first attempt did not work out due to heavy rain (you can not blame the bats to stay dry in the cave) I was lucky enough to follow the event 2 days later. It´s an amazing stream of bats from the cave and after 45 minutes of watching, it still kept going. So many bats consume lot´s of insects every day and accordingly lot´s of bat pooh is generated, piling up to big pooh mountains in some areas of the cave. The stench is overwhelming and can´t be described by words.

Deer Cave from Outside...

...and inside with the outline of Benjamin Franklin

Deer Cave

Mountains of bat pooh

A tiny bid of adventure caving

© 2026 Beyond All Maps - Portraits of our Planet by Thorsten Mehret

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