Travel Features > Getting Around
Self-Drive Sarawak - Roads, Rivers and Rainforests
Mike Reed hits the road for a Borneo adventure on four wheels
Day One - Kuching to the Iban Heartland
All journeys have to start somewhere, and Kuching is the ideal
place. Once you can tear yourself away from the former seat of
the White Rajahs, all you need is a rental car and a few changes of clothes for the journey. You don't even
need a map, as there is only one major road between Kuching and
Miri and it's almost impossible to get lost on it, though you
can probably scrounge a free copy of the excellent Periplus map
from the Visitors Information Centre in Padang Merdeka. While
you're there, make sure you grab a copy of the Sarawak Hotel and
Tour Operator Directory, for details of accommodation in out-of-the-way
places.
The first part of the journey is actually the hardest. If you
are setting out from anywhere within the city centre, you will
immediately encounter Kuching's extensive network of one-way systems.
Once you manage to break out, head for the airport and just before
you get there, follow the signs for Serian. Keep going straight
ahead at every roundabout, until the city and its suburbs gradually
thin out to farmland and small industrial and commercial estates.
Once past Kota Padawan (16 km) the landscape changes, and the
countryside is dotted with jungle-covered limestone outcrops,
with small villages sheltering in between.
Kuching - The start of the journey.
Wayne Tarman ©Adventure Images Sdn Bhd
Serian, the first stop on the route, is an hour's leisurely drive
from Kuching. It's a small country town, an eccentric mix of old
wooden houses, modern civic architecture and Chinese shophouses,
dominated by the mist-enshrouded presence of Gunung Ampungan (755
m). The town is at its liveliest mid-morning, with a bustling
farmers' market (behind the bus station) where traders sell such
delicacies as live snakes and sago worms, as well as the usual
array of colourful tropical fruits and vegetables. The ladies
selling their produce are friendly, chatty, and very generous
with free samples of fruits, preserves and candies.
If you've forgotten to bring film, video tapes or camera batteries,
the photo shops across the road from the market are your last
chance to stock up before you get to Sibu. Serian's also a great
place for a late breakfast. There are some good food stalls on
the upper floor of the market building, and the coffee shop next
to the Shell filling station does excellent curry noodles. Just
past Serian is a turnoff to the Ranchan Pools, a cascade of small
waterfalls. It's no Niagara, by any stretch of the imagination,
but a nice place to relax and swim in the cool mountain water.
After Serian the landscape changes again. The road picks its way
across gently rolling hill country, flanked on both sides by farms
and forest. It's well worth stopping at one of the occasional
roadside stalls, to stock up on tiny delicious golden bananas,
and succulent green (yes, green) oranges. After about half an
hour the road passes parallel to the foothills of the Klingkang
Range, a series of limestone peaks rising to almost 1500 m that
form a natural barrier between Sarawak and Indonesia. The steep,
forest covered slopes look almost impassable, but nobody seems
to have told the Iban people from just over the border, as they
walk over every day to barter their produce and handicrafts in
the small bazaars along the road. One of these bazaars, Lachau,
is the ideal place to stop for lunch.
Lachau's greatest claim to fame is that it has probably the best-kept
public toilets in the whole of Malaysia. A cleaning team from
the district council drives 60 km from Sri Aman every day in an
unremitting crusade for public hygiene. But then Lachau - all
sixteen shophouses of it - is probably the busiest truck-stop
in the whole of Borneo. About half-a-dozen Chinese and Malay restaurants
serve up simple and tasty local food to a remarkable cross section
of patrons. This is one of the few places in Sarawak where large
concentrations of tourists can be spotted (if two or three busloads
can be called large), but that's hardly surprising as there's
only one road from South to North, and the call of nature has
to be answered somewhere.
From Lachau, the road becomes steeper, with a slow climb to the
top of Bukit Begunan. You won't have seen a timber truck or oil
tanker all day, but suddenly there's ten of them slogging up the
hill at walking pace, and overtaking is strictly forbidden (and
moderately suicidal!). At the top of the hill a spectacular view
is revealed - the whole of Sarawak's Second Division lies before
you, the Iban Heartland, and on a clear day you can see as far
as the distant purple peaks of the Boyen Kapuas mountains, almost
100 km away.
Just before Sri Aman, the main road turns right and heads through
rolling countryside dotted with pepper gardens and padi fields,
and there is a longhouse to be seen on almost every bend. After
about an hour you come to a turn-off, with a signpost indicating
'Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort.' A 40-minute drive along a narrow, winding road brings you to
the foot of the massive Batang Ai Hydro Dam, 120 metres high and
holding back 24 square kilometres of water. Follow the signs for
the resort and you arrive at a building that looks like an Iban-style
summer house, overlooking a vast stretch of water surrounded by
rugged hills, rubber gardens and secondary rainforest. This doesn't
look like much of a place to stop for the night (spotless toilets
though), but don't panic; it's only the car park. The friendly
attendant will summon a boat on his walkie-talkie, and within
a few minutes you're whisked across the surface of the lake to
what is probably the world's most unusual Hilton.
If you're just stopping for the night, make sure you arrange a
one hour jungle trek with the legendary Winston Marshall for the
next morning. What Winston doesn't know about the rainforest isn't
worth knowing, and after an hour with him most city slickers feel
like jungle survival experts. If you plan to stay for a few days,
fascinating trips to local longhouses can be arranged, and you
may even spot a wild orang utan in Batang Ai National Park.
Day 1 Alternatives
The Hilton at Batang Ai isn't the only place for an overnight
stop. Instead of turning off for Batang Ai, carry on for another
15 minutes until you reach Nanga Enteban, a sprawling Iban longhouse
on the right hand side of the road. This is the jumping-off-point
for the longhouses of the Skrang River, home of the pirates that
plagued the reign of the first White Rajah. There's a small jetty
here with longboats available to transport you upriver.
View from the longhouse door.
Wayne Tarman
©Adventure Images Sdn Bhd
A pleasant boat ride past bamboo groves and pepper gardens will
deliver you to some of the best-preserved Iban longhouses in Sarawak,
but don't expect a primitive backwater - every longhouse has electricity
and TV, and there's not a loin cloth or bark waistcoat to be seen
unless you attend one of the dance performances laid on for tourists.
Accommodation can be in a lodge built next to the longhouse, or
traditional style on the ruai (covered verandah). However, even
though most of the longhouses here welcome visitors, this doesn't
mean they're overrun with foreigners; just that the locals are
familiar with outsiders and skilled at interpreting their culture
and lifestyle for their guests. A small fee (RM 20-30) is charged
for food and accommodation, but dance performances and suchlike
are usually extra. The Skrang area is a good place to buy handicrafts,
particularly pua kumbu, an exquisite hand-woven textile unique
to the Ibans.