Borneo’s Bako National Park is Sarawak’s oldest national park and a must-do when you’re visiting Borneo. It’s easily accessible from Sarawak state’s capital, Kuching and is the perfect place for spotting Borneo’s endemic wildlife – especially its fascinating proboscis monkeys that everyone wants to spot.
See these lanky man-like monkeys with the big droopy noses is such a thrill, and at Bako you can see them quite closely. They roam in the mangroves in family groups and laze in trees on the waters edge eating berries.
It’s not only proboscis monkeys to spot though, the park is full of wildlife with macaques and silvertail monkeys, wild boar, many varieties of birds, lemur and we also spotted the most colourful – and poisonous -Bornean pit viper.
Bako National Park seems like a deserted shipwreck beach – it’s 2,700 hectares covers long sandy beaches, tall eroded swirling cliffs, rugged stacks of rocks jutting out from the water and wild green jungle heaving with wildlife. Make sure to visit.
Kuching is a fun city – you’ll find cats everywhere
About the states of Borneo.
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is shared by Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, with Malaysian Borneo making up about 26% of the island. Malaysian Borneo is divided into two states – Sabah in the north west and Sarawak to the north east. Both states have so much to offer travellers – especially wild jungle, rivers, tribal experiences and history. If you can it is worth visiting both, however sometimes travellers will chose to focus on one if they don’t have limited time.
Read about Borneo’s rich history here.
Sabah:
You can read all about Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu here, and all about the best things to do in Borneo here including river safaris on the mighty Kinabatangan, Gomatong Caves – incredible and you may see wild orangutans – the Mari Mari Culture Centre and the stunning Tip of Borneo. You can spend weeks in Sabah – I would allocate at least two weeks if you can.
Sarawak:
In Sarawak we love the Mulu National Park – I cannot recommend it enough and staying at the Mulu Marriot Resort more highly. The rainforest is one of the oldest in the world and the cave systems are incredible and the second largest in the world. You can read about things to do in Kuching here. I suggest five days to explore Kuching and surrounds in Sarawak.
The Borean pit viper
Where to stay in Kuching
We stayed at the very basic but clean Tune Hotel – its in a fab location, you can read our review here – and would cross the road over to the Hilton Hotel each afternoon for a swim in their beautiful rooftop pool. There are some lovely boutique hotels in Kuching – check them out here.
Weather
May to September is the drier season in Borneo, while the rainy season where the humidity is greater is from around November to February. However, in Borneo anything goes – we have been there in January and had perfect weather all over Sabah – although Kinabatangan can be really rainy and misty. We spotted pygmy elephants in May, although they gave been seen over wet season too. This weather guide is helpful in planning, but again any time in Borneo is a good time.
Getting there
The park is around a 30 minute drive from Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, and another 20 minutes or so on a little boat to the Park jetty. It’s only accessible by water which makes it a fun trip. The facilities are very basic – squat toilets at the jetty, a small cafe and basic toilets at the park.
You can do it by yourself but we found it easier to jump on a tour like this one from Klook that includes all transport and a guided walk. It was well worth it and I did enjoy not having the worry of having to organise everything myself as it is one of those trips that are much easier to do when someone else is organising it – especially if you have kids.
A fun boat ride to the park
What to take
- Water
- Snacks
- Sunscreen
- Hat
- Camera + dry bag for the boat ride
- Wear hiking sandals
Why you should go to Bako National Park
Bako is known for its incredible wildlife, natural protected jungle and amazing waterfalls and streams – but everyone really wants to see the fascinating proboscis monkeys. It really is a highlight of a trip that is full of amazing adventures.
The fascinating proboscis
We arrived off the boat and saw leaping fish on the sand that had been washing in by the waves and were jumping back into the water, and after spending some time on the beach exploring and taking photos we set off on our jungle trek. We followed a trail past little streams and steamy jungle, climbed up a hill and down into a mangrove inlet where to our delight we spotted a family of proboscis monkeys, strolling through the trees and stopping to kick back in the branches to eat fruit.
The proboscis are the most incredible and fascinating creatures- I reckon they look like men dressed up in monkey costumes and I could not take my eyes off them. They are so chilled out, they just recline with their legs spread, relaxing in the trees without a care in the world.
We loved the cheeky macques, especially the babies who chased after Emmie and tried to grab her shoelaces – be careful of your snacks, they will try and take them from you! Our guide spotted a mesmerisingly fluourescent Bornean keeled pit viper – and had I known it was a viper I would not have been 10cms away clicking pics with my iphone – plus a wild boar and a lemur sleeping in a tree.
It was a truly amazing day – we were so tired afterwards, but that lovely physical exhaustion and happiness at having a wonderful day. And we went straight to the Hilton Pool for a swim and a drink. Perfect.
