The Semenggoh Orang-utan Wildlife Centre is a must see for visitors to Kuching. The animals roam freely around the jungle enclosure and come into sight at feeding times in the morning and afternoon. The centre is a 25-minute drive south of Kuching.
Visitors hoping to see more jungle and rainforest wildlife should head for Bako National Park, 38 miles north-east of Kuching. The best times to visit are shortly after dawn or just before dusk, when the animals are at their liveliest. This is Sarawak's oldest national park where you can see proboscis monkeys, wild boar, mouse deer, silver languors and long tailed macaques. There are orang-utans, gibbons, barking deer, bearded pigs and porcupines in Batang Ai National Park, some 250 miles south-east of Kuching. Here, visitors can go canoeing and kayaking on the Lemanak River.
Anyone hoping to sunbathe can spend some time at the Damai Beach Resort north of Kuching. It sits snugly within the world's oldest rainforest and is just a 50-minute drive from the city. Sibu is a mainly Chinese-populated inland town 114 miles east of Kuching. This is the gateway to the Upper Rajang River known for its longhouses and Chinese culture.
Miri, 318 miles north-east of Kuching, is located at the northern tip of Sarawak and is the state's second largest city. This is where Malaysia's oil was first discovered in 1910. It's also the gateway to the Lambir National Park and the spectacular limestone Niah caves. The whole cave system covers about 22 acres. Some of the caves are about 70 metres high from floor to ceiling.
