Kuching is the capital of SARAWAK, the largest Malaysian state, on the island of BORNEO. It is a river city of around 600,000 people in its wider area, sitting on the SARAWAK RIVER a short way inland from the South China Sea, and the first photograph is it at night from the air.
THE SINGLE MOST USEFUL PRACTICAL FACT ABOUT SARAWAK IS THAT IT RUNS ITS OWN IMMIGRATION, AND ALMOST NOTHING WRITTEN FOR VISITORS SAYS SO. Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching is a domestic flight that you clear immigration for on arrival, and your passport is stamped with a Sarawak entry permit separate from your Malaysian one. It is a formality for most nationalities and it is not optional: keep your passport accessible on a flight you were expecting to walk off, allow time for the queue, and keep the slip you are given, because you need it to leave. The same applies travelling between Sarawak and Sabah.
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What Is Here
SARAWAK WAS A PRIVATE KINGDOM RULED BY AN ENGLISH FAMILY FOR A CENTURY, AND THAT IS NOT A COLOURFUL ASIDE, IT IS WHY THE CITY LOOKS LIKE THIS. In 1841 JAMES BROOKE was granted territory by the Sultan of Brunei and made himself Rajah; his family, THE WHITE RAJAHS, ruled Sarawak as their own state until 1946. The buildings they left are the spine of a walk: THE ASTANA of 1870, built by Charles Brooke and now the governor's residence, FORT MARGHERITA across the river, the courthouse complex, and the old Sarawak Museum. It is a genuinely strange history and the city wears it openly.
THE NAME MEANS CAT AND THE CITY HAS LEANED INTO IT ENTIRELY. Kucing is cat in Malay, the derivation is disputed, and the result is cat statues at road junctions and a municipal CAT MUSEUM. It is silly and it is also the quickest way to understand that this is a city comfortable with itself rather than a transit point.
THE SECOND PHOTOGRAPH IS ONE OF THE MOSQUES AND THE MIX IT SITS IN IS THE REAL SUBJECT. Sarawak is the most religiously and ethnically plural part of Malaysia: Iban, Bidayuh, Melanau, Orang Ulu, Malay and Chinese communities, with mosques, Chinese temples and churches within a few streets of each other, and a Christian majority in the state as a whole, which is unusual in Malaysia and changes the atmosphere noticeably from Kuala Lumpur.
BAKO AND SEMENGGOH ARE WHY MOST VISITORS COME AND BOTH ARE HALF-DAY TRIPS. BAKO NATIONAL PARK, about 40 kilometres away and reached by road then boat, is the oldest national park in Sarawak and the realistic place in this region to see PROBOSCIS MONKEYS, which live nowhere else on earth but Borneo. SEMENGGOH NATURE RESERVE, twenty minutes out, is an orangutan rehabilitation centre where semi-wild animals come to feeding platforms. BE CLEAR ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS: the orangutans are free-ranging and in fruiting season they frequently do not come at all, so a sighting is likely and not guaranteed, and any operator promising one is selling something they cannot deliver.
AND THE FOOD IS A REASON ON ITS OWN. SARAWAK LAKSA is a different dish from the laksa of the peninsula and is the city's signature breakfast; KOLO MEE is the other. The third photograph is a night seafood market, which is how the evening is actually spent here.
WHAT THE PHOTOGRAPHS DO NOT SHOW: the Sarawak River waterfront, which is the centre of the city's life, Fort Margherita, the Astana and the cat statues. The set is an aerial, a mosque and a market, and it is better to say so.
When to Go
There is no dry season, only a less wet one, and that is the honest framing. Kuching is one of the wettest cities in Malaysia and rain falls in every month. The NORTHEAST MONSOON from roughly November to February is the wettest period, with heavy afternoon and overnight rain, occasional flooding in low-lying parts of the city and boat trips to Bako cancelled on short notice when the sea is up. MARCH TO SEPTEMBER IS DRIER AND IS THE SENSIBLE WINDOW, though it still rains.
TEMPERATURE BARELY MOVES ALL YEAR: high twenties to low thirties by day, low twenties at night, humidity high enough that the number understates it. JULY IS WORTH A NOTE because the RAINFOREST WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL at the Sarawak Cultural Village fills the city's hotels, so either come for it deliberately or avoid that weekend.
UK FCDO: Malaysia has ONE advised-against area and it is maritime rather than territorial, which is the thing to read carefully. The FCDO advises against ALL BUT ESSENTIAL TRAVEL TO ALL ISLANDS AND DIVE SITES OFF THE COAST OF EASTERN SABAH FROM SANDAKAN TO TAWAU, INCLUDING LANKAYAN ISLAND, DUE TO THE THREAT OF KIDNAPPING. Note what that does and does not cover: it is the ISLANDS AND DIVE SITES off that coast, not the Malaysian mainland and not Peninsular Malaysia, so Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Melaka, Langkawi, the Cameron Highlands, Johor and the whole west of Sabah including Kota Kinabalu and Kinabalu Park carry no advise-against at all. The zone is in the FAR EAST OF SABAH, on the Sulu Sea side facing the southern Philippines. Travelling against FCDO advice can invalidate your travel insurance.
Getting There
Kuching International Airport is twenty minutes from the centre and the flights are domestic. There are frequent connections from Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu and Singapore. Remember the immigration desk on arrival described above. There is no rail network in Sarawak and the long-distance road journeys across Borneo are extremely long, so flying between Sarawak and Sabah is the normal answer rather than driving.
IN THE CITY YOU DO NOT NEED A CAR. The centre is walkable, the river is crossed by small wooden PENAMBANG boats for a few ringgit, which is the pleasantest way to reach Fort Margherita, and Grab works well. For Bako and Semenggoh a tour or a Grab out and back is simpler than hiring.
Four Malaysian rules change what you pack or carry. BY LAW YOU MUST CARRY ID AND THE FCDO SAYS TO ALWAYS CARRY YOUR PASSPORT, which sits awkwardly beside its own warning to take particular care of your passport, so a certified copy plus the original in a zipped inner pocket is the working compromise. ON DRESS, dress modestly particularly in conservative and rural areas, and you MAY BE REFUSED ENTRY to places of worship or government offices without shoulders and knees covered or if you are not wearing CLOSED SHOES, which is the detail nobody packs for in a tropical country. ON DRUGS there is a ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICY, cannabis included, with penalties the FCDO lists as arrest and detention, a long jail sentence, A POSSIBLE WHIPPING, AND A POSSIBLE DEATH SENTENCE BY HANGING FOR TRAFFICKING; airports scan transiting passengers' baggage, police often raid venues frequented by foreigners, and you may be required to give a urine or blood test and will be arrested if it is positive. Malaysia is a multicultural, majority Muslim country, SAME-SEX SEXUAL ACTS ARE ILLEGAL under federal law with raids on LGBT+ spaces reported, and IT IS ILLEGAL FOR FOREIGN NATIONALS TO TAKE PART IN DEMONSTRATIONS OR PROTESTS, where police use tear gas and water cannon. During RAMADAN, check opening hours, follow local dress codes more closely than usual and expect fasting to make afternoons slow; the dates move each year, so check them for your own travel dates rather than trusting any printed month.
The Kuching Packing List
Equatorial heat and humidity in every month, rain that arrives hard and stops, a boat landing at Bako that is frequently a wade, rainforest trails, and strongly air-conditioned interiors.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is a better tropical garment than it sounds, for a reason specific to a humid city: it manages odour over several days in heat where a cotton shirt is finished by lunchtime, so two tops cover a week, and it is the right weight for the aggressively cold air conditioning in Malaysian malls, museums and long-distance coaches.
A long sleeve sun hoodie, which does three jobs here: sun on the boat to Bako, mosquitoes at dusk, and modesty when visiting a mosque or a longhouse without having to carry a second outfit.
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, packable, because the rain here is vertical and heavy rather than blowing and it arrives within minutes. An umbrella is honestly as useful in the city, but on a Bako trail a jacket leaves both hands free.
DEET insect repellent. DENGUE IS PRESENT IN SARAWAK AND THE MOSQUITO THAT CARRIES IT BITES BY DAY, so repellent is a morning routine and not an evening one, which is the opposite of what most people assume.
A waterproof dry bag. The Bako boat is open, takes spray, and the landing at the park end is often a wade from a small boat onto a beach, so anything that must stay dry needs to be in something sealed rather than in a daypack.
A quick dry travel towel, which earns its place on the same trip and in a climate where nothing cotton dries overnight.
Not linked and worth packing: SUNSCREEN, which this registry does not carry at all and which matters on an open boat at four degrees north; SUNGLASSES, with no eyewear entry in the registry; SANDALS OR WATER SHOES for the Bako landing and the river boats, where the only registry entry is marked contested and is not used here; and SOME CASH IN RINGGIT, because the river boats, the small markets and the park entry are cash.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Kuching
Emergency numbers: 999 reaches police, ambulance and the fire service in Malaysia, and 112 works from a mobile. The TOURIST POLICE operate in Kuching and the state tourism office can direct you to them. For a marine incident on the Bako boats the operator radios the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, which is reached through 999.
THE MALAYSIAN KIDNAPPING ADVISORY DOES NOT REACH SARAWAK, AND SAYING SO IS AS IMPORTANT AS CARRYING IT. The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to the islands and dive sites off the coast of EASTERN SABAH, from Sandakan to Tawau, because of the threat of kidnapping, and it adds explicitly that this DOES NOT APPLY TO THE MAINLAND OF SABAH. That is the only advised-against area in the whole of Malaysia. EASTERN SABAH IS ABOUT 900 KILOMETRES FROM KUCHING, on the other side of Borneo and in a different state, and SARAWAK IS NAMED NOWHERE in the advisory. A reader who sees a Malaysian Borneo kidnapping warning and does not know the geography will assume it covers this trip, and it does not.
The eastern Sabah advice exists because of a specific, named and still active threat, and the FCDO does not soften it. It records a threat to foreigners of KIDNAPPING in coastal areas of eastern Sabah from terrorist groups, PARTICULARLY HIGH ON ISLANDS CLOSE TO THE SULU ARCHIPELAGO in the southern Philippines. It names the ABU SAYYAF GROUP, based in the Philippines, as having previously kidnapped foreigners FROM THE EAST COAST OF MAINLAND SABAH, THE ISLANDS AND THE SURROUNDING WATERS, and states plainly that THE GROUP HAS MURDERED SEVERAL HOSTAGES. It adds that British nationals are seen as legitimate targets including tourists, that IF YOU ARE KIDNAPPED THE REASON FOR YOUR PRESENCE IS UNLIKELY TO PROTECT YOU, and that long-standing British government policy is to make no substantive concessions to hostage takers. The same section notes maritime incidents in the Sulu Sea between Sabah and Mindanao, the Sulu Islands and Palawan.
Bag snatching is the characteristic crime and the FCDO's description of the consequence is unusually blunt. It records that bag-snatching is COMMON, PARTICULARLY IN MAJOR CITIES, that thieves on motorbikes target tourists, that they CUT STRAPS OR PULL OFF BAGS CARRIED ON THE SHOULDER CLOSEST TO THE ROAD, and that THEY HAVE SOMETIMES PULLED PEOPLE TO THE GROUND AND KILLED OR INJURED THEM IF THEY TRY TO HOLD ONTO THEIR BAGS. That last clause is the operative one and it inverts the instinct: if it happens, let the bag go. Carry it across your body on the side away from the traffic, keep nothing in your hand at the kerb, and do not use a phone while walking beside a road. The FCDO also names CREDIT CARD AND ATM FRAUD as widespread, and tells you to take particular care of your passport while walking, in cafes, on aircraft, in airport and railway terminals and at hotels.
Spiking and methanol are both named, and the spiking clause removes the precaution most travellers rely on. The FCDO records cases of strangers offering tourists a SPIKED DRINK, EVEN IN REPUTABLE BARS OR RESTAURANTS, and then robbing or assaulting them, so the venue's respectability is not a defence. On methanol it records an increase in cases of serious illness from alcoholic drinks containing it in popular travel destinations worldwide, that EVEN SMALL AMOUNTS CAN KILL, and that IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY METHANOL BY TASTE OR SMELL. The practical rules are the same in every country that carries this warning: bottled beer opened in front of you, no free-pour spirits and no buckets, never leave a drink or a plate unattended, do not accept a drink from a stranger, and treat dimmed or blurred vision, breathlessness or confusion in the hours AFTER drinking as an emergency needing urgent medical attention rather than as a hangover.
Dengue is the health issue that actually affects a trip here and Malaysia has had severe years. The mosquito that carries it bites in DAYLIGHT rather than at dusk, which inverts the usual repellent routine, and it breeds in clean standing water in towns and cities rather than in swamp, so an urban itinerary is not a lower-risk one. There is no vaccine a traveller can rely on and no prophylaxis, so the whole defence is bite avoidance through the day. Treat a high fever with severe joint and muscle pain as a reason to get a blood test rather than to wait it out, and avoid ibuprofen and aspirin until dengue has been excluded.
THE RAINFOREST IS THE REAL HAZARD AND IT IS MUNDANE RATHER THAN DRAMATIC. At Bako the specifics are these: the trails are slick clay and tree root and are genuinely slippery, the park's boat service stops when the sea is rough and people do get stranded overnight, there is no shop on the trails, and LEECHES are normal after rain and are harmless. Macaques at Bako are habituated and will take food out of a bag, so nothing edible travels in an open daypack. And the sun at this latitude is directly overhead at midday, which is when the open boat crossings happen.
US State Department travel advisory: the Malaysia advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/malaysia, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital or clinic: SARAWAK GENERAL HOSPITAL in Kuching is the state referral hospital and the largest medical facility in the whole of Sarawak, with several private hospitals in the city as well, so Kuching is the right place to be if something goes wrong anywhere in the state. Pharmacies are widespread in the malls. Private insurance covering medical evacuation matters here more than in peninsular Malaysia, because a serious problem in the interior means a flight rather than a drive.
Official health authority: the Malaysian Ministry of Health. is the Malaysian health ministry
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Official tourism authority: the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. covers the country, and Sarawak Tourism and Sarawak Forestry publish the Bako National Park boat and accommodation booking arrangements and the Semenggoh feeding times, which change with the fruiting season
Takeaways
Sarawak runs its own immigration. You clear it on a domestic flight and you need the slip to leave.
Sarawak was a private kingdom under the White Rajahs from 1841 to 1946, and the city is built from that.
The eastern Sabah kidnapping advisory is 900km away in another state. Sarawak is named nowhere in it.
Semenggoh's orangutans are free-ranging. In fruiting season they often do not come.
Dengue is present and the mosquito bites by day, so repellent is a morning routine.
It rains in every month. November to February is the wet monsoon and Bako boats get cancelled.
Solo women safety assessment: Kuching is one of the easier Southeast Asian cities to travel alone in, and that is a specific rather than a general claim. THE ONLY ADVISED-AGAINST AREA IN MALAYSIA IS IN EASTERN SABAH, 900 KILOMETRES AWAY AND IN ANOTHER STATE, and Sarawak appears nowhere in the FCDO's advice, so nothing about this trip runs against official advice. The city is relaxed and plural, with a Christian majority state around it and a visible mix of communities, and dress expectations are more relaxed than in the conservative peninsula states, though shoulders and knees covered is right for a mosque and respectful anywhere. The waterfront is busy and well lit in the evening, Grab is cheap and reliable and is the better answer than walking back late, and the ordinary precautions about bags and phones in markets apply as they would anywhere. Petty theft rather than violence is the realistic crime risk. MALAYSIAN LAW IS THE THING TO READ BEFORE YOU ARRIVE RATHER THAN AFTER: drug offences carry the most severe penalties in the region, and the blocks above set out what that means. The real risks here are environmental: day-biting dengue mosquitoes, slick rainforest trails at Bako, an open boat crossing that is cancelled when the sea is up, and equatorial sun at midday. Sarawak General Hospital is the state referral hospital and it is in this city, which makes Kuching the safest base in Sarawak. 999 for everything, 112 from a mobile.
Reading On
Kuching is the Sarawak end of Borneo and this library covers the island from both. The Borneo packing list covers Malaysian Borneo as a whole, including the Sabah advisory in full and why it does not reach here. East across the island, the Kota Kinabalu packing list covers the Sabah capital and the Mount Kinabalu packing list the climb above it, which is a different trip in every respect from a river city. On the peninsula, the Penang packing list and the Melaka packing list cover the other two great Straits trading cities whose Chinese and colonial inheritance this one shares, the Langkawi packing list the islands, the Cameron Highlands packing list the tea hills, and the Johor Bahru packing list the southern crossing to Singapore. For the country as a whole, the Malaysia packing list and the Malaysia travel guide for women carry the regions, the laws, the costs and the advisory geography. For why one merino top handles several humid days and a freezing mall, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
