Santubong Kuching Resort

A Santubong Beach Resort

by SanguiniA about Holiday Inn Damai Beach Resort

I was really impressed with this hotel ... It overlooks a wonderful beach and has a backdrop of jungle covered mountains. It is a stone's throw away from both the Cultural village and the start of the jungle trails on Gunung Santubong. They also arranged our visit to Bako, and offer a shuttle to the city of Kuching at a cheap price. What more could you want?

The rooms were very spacious, clean and very nice. The hotel's restaurant is quite chic and the food was delicious. The pool is nice as well, a great way to cool yourself a bit in between an activity and another!

KUCHING ~ CAT CITY

by longsanborn

"Kuching, the capital of the state of Sarawak"

I was in Kuching many many years ago. I was actually working there for 3 months before I moved back to Miri, my hometown. I would visit Kuching several times after that, either with my family or alone. I have fond memories of Kuching city. It is a nice quiet city, clean and the most well-planned city in Sarawak. It has to be since it is the capital city of Sarawak state and the Sarawak's Chief Minister lives there.

Note: Since it's been years since I've been there, I have to depend on my memories to write this Kuching page.

Whenever I visited Kuching, I used to stay in Kuching Hilton or Holiday Inn Kuching Hotel. These 2 hotels are located near the Sarawak river and the waterfront/riverside esplanade and very close to downtown Kuching.

"Main Tourist Attractions in Kuching"

Within the town, there are several museums such as the well-known Sarawak Museum, Chinese Museum, Cat Museum, etc, which are definitely not to be missed when visiting Kuching.

Interesting landmarks are the Astana (the Rajah's former palace), Fort Margherita, Tua Pek Kong temple and Main Bazaar. The Kuching waterfront, which is really a riverside esplanade, is situated right next to the main hotels and commercial heartland of the city, and offers a pleasant walk in the evening.

When you are tired of strolling, the old shops on the opposite side of the waterfront will gladly sell you all manner of 'antiques' and tradecraft.

Some other interesting areas near the centre of town include Padungan Street, which is the main Chinatown area of the city. Shops here appear virtually unchanged from 20 years ago, and offer fascinating insights into life as it was then.

Meanwhile, Carpenter Street and India Street still maintain their old world charm. The old Courthouse building forms the link between Carpenter Street and India Street, and is well worth a quick stroll as you re-live the faded colonial splendour (now restored and modernised).

Kuching also has many well-manicured parks dotted around the city and they are also great to visit.

"Gunung Santubong and Damai Beach"

Gunung (Mount) Santubong and its village is an area outside of Kuching city, located across the Sarawak river, on a peninsular which jutts out into the South China Sea. Because of its close proximity to the sea and natural tropical rainforests, major hotel resorts sprung up and claimed the best corners and beaches to set up their business.

Damai Beach is Sarawak's main beach resort area. Pristine sandy beaches by the South China Sea are Damai's main draw, but there are also fine jungle trails all the way to the jungle-covered Mt. Santubong for hikers to explore.

Damai boasts three international-class resort hotels - the Holiday Inn Resort Damai Beach, Damai Lagoon Resort and Santubong Kuching Resort. Each is well-landscaped with its own secluded beach and free-form swimming pool. All the resorts offer jet skiing, windsurfing, water-skiing, tennis, mountain biking, squash and a fitness centre.

Sprawling over 90 acres of prime sea-front land, the beach resorts are framed by the lush tropical forest of the majestic Mount Santubong. All of the idyllic resorts offers an abundance of land and sea-sports activities for complete fun and relaxation.

All along the Santubong beachfronts, privately-owned seafood restaurants opened up business and you can enjoy your evening dinners while watching the sun sets, and eating the most freshest seafood you'll ever tasted.

Once accessible only by river, Damai, on the Santubong Peninsula, is now just a 40 minutes drive from Kuching by bus or drive.

RUMAH BIDAYUH @ SARAWAK CULTURAL CENTRE

by balhannah

Visiting the Cultural centre is a good way to see the homes and people of the different ethnic tribes, as well as learning about their different cultures.

The 1st Longhouse we came to, was the Bidayuh, these people account for 8% of the Sarawak population. They live mostly along the water catchments, with their main activities being rice farming, fishing and arts crafting. Their longhouses are very similar to the Iban ethnic group.

We had a look inside and watched the ladies weaving, and the man carving Bamboo, then moved onto the home, a round house (Baruk) made out of Bamboo, as in here was a Dance performance about to begin.

The Baruk is the congregation place for the Bidayuh warriors, and is filled with weapons, gongs, wooden masks and other personal effects. There is a raised platform right in the middle of the Baruk. If you look straight up from the platform, you will see human skulls hung from the roof top, these were once the enemies killed by Bidayuh warriors.

Plenty of loud music and entertaining dancing, we had learnt a little more about the Bidayuh!

Included in the entrance ticket to the SARAWAK CULTURAL VILLAGE

Moon Cake Festival

by MaryannPteo

Moon Cake Festival is once a year celebration celebrated in the month of September every year and the moon cakes are made specially for that occassion. One of the Chinese custom for Chinese to celebrate besides the Chinese New Year

Items tourists should bring along

by MaryannPteo

If a tourist have the interest to visit Kuching, an ideal place for nature and culture, and when visiting the longhouse, they will go for the longboat trip and nearby the longhouse will be surrounded by trees and surely thee are mosquitoes around.
Travel light when going for longhouse or junggle trekking, along with you bring along necessary items , with a small bag contain a towel, a suite of clothings ( light clothings ) a cap, insect replellent, torch light, container of water ( or else you can by mineral water in bottle at any shop ) usual items one used e.g. toothbrush, toothpaste, etc..
For those going to the caves if you do have sleeping bag, might as well bring along or else you can rent it too from here Normally in our country the weather is warm, so we suggest you to bring and wear light clothings, and can bring a jacket along
Sport shoes or rubber shoes will be most suitable going for longhouse trip, and good grip shoes for mountain climbing or caving. A pair of sandals to bring along , so that you can relax your feet once you entered the guest house All depend on certain tourists, if they must take their vitamins and supplement please bring them along with you. In all tour there ia a first aid box for accidental happenings, like slip down, fall off track, etc..
And ofcourse there is a normal toilet in guest house, where if necessary to bring along your own soap or shampoo, and well toilet paper are provided somehow at the guest house It is good to bring along a video or digital camera as you know today is easy as you can save all pictures inside the computer and can take as many pictures you can. For the longhouse and its people , it will be better to ask their permission to take photographs of the people as they are not custom for foreigners to simply take their pictures If going to a 3D/2N trip longhouse of Mount Climbing, one needs a sleeping bag, and if you find it hard to bring along, then there you can rent it just for the second night especially climbing Mount Mulu Visiting a longhouse it is a courtesy that a tourist should buy a little gift for the longhouse people, and could share among your own group of people. Longhouse normally have over 20 doors where there are 20 families, most people will busy them food to eat ( snacks or cookies ) something useful. If you cannot bring along from your country, then you can buy it here , stopby at some shops and the guide will brief you what is best to buy. You do not have to spend more money on that