"Borneo Jungle Adventure 4 - 10 Mar 09" Top 5 Page for this destination State of Sarawak by AlbuqRay

I visited the State of Sarawak (East Malaysia) portion of the island of Borneo during 2 - 14 Mar 09. Four of the nights were near Miri and two in Kuching. The rest of the time was in the Borneo jungle of northern Sarawak, which was formerly headhunter territory. The up-country longhouse tour portion was organized by Mike Richardson at the Treetops Lodge, which is located about 20 km south of Miri, Malaysia. Transportation was by 4WD and longboat. The tour included one night at Long Atip and two nights in the Tenyok Rimba jungle retreat near Long Bedian. The last day of the up-country tour started with a 4WD trip to Long Terawan and then finished with a 2-hour longboat ride on the Tutoh and Melinau Rivers to the Gunung Mulu National Park, a World Heritage Site. I spent parts of three days in Mulu touring the caves, doing the canopy skywalk, and watching the bat flight. It was then a quick 30 minute flight back to Miri on MASwings to complete the loop. There were amazing things to see (including the bugs), and unique cultures and food to experience. BTW, JourneyMalaysia is a very good online resource for information about Sarawak and so is the Sarawak Tourism Board.

Map of Basic Route

There are not a lot of detailed maps of the area in which I traveled, but I think I figured it out with Google Earth. I'll try to describe the basic route from Treetops to Long Atip:
- south on coastal highway toward Bintulu and Batu Niah (~08:45)
- left (east) at Kpg. Kejapil turnoff on two lane paved road
- past washed out place (one lane gravel)
- left toward Beluru and Loagan Bunut National Park (~09:20)
- right (east) to Loagan Bunut on Trans-Borneo "highway" (road becomes gravel; actually ruts with mud is a better description) (~09:40)
- past Bakong Estate and R.H. Palm Oil Mill turnoff (~10:30)
- past Long Lapok (~10:45)
- cross the Australian-built bridge over the Tinjar River at Lapok (~11:00)
- past Loagan Bunut turnoff on the way to Long Lama (~11:10)
- cross old bridge over Teru River (~11:30)
- Baram River ferry near Long Lama (~12:10)
- lunch break in Long Lama (~12:15 - 13:00)
- enter forest clear cut blasting area (~13:10)
- past Long Wat turnoff (~14:20)
- turn left off main road toward Long Atip (~14:30)
- arrive at Long Atip (~15:00)

Map of Middle of Trip

By getting a little more resolution in the Long Atip, Long Bedian and Tenyok Rimba/River part of the trip, you may see that instead of turning off to go to Long Atip, you could continue east on the main road. It is not that much further to Long Bedian. However, I was spending the night at Long Atip. The next day I went to Long Bedian via longboat on the Apoh River, which took a little less than an hour. From Long Bedian it is only a 30 minute drive to the Tenyok Rimba jungle resort.

After spending two nights at Tenyok Rimba, we left for Long Terawan by 4WD at ~07:30. First we returned to Long Bedian, then east for a short distance before turning north toward Long Terawan, arriving there ~09:00. After a durian and tea break, we left for Mulu via longboat on the Tutoh River at ~10:30. We had a lunch break at the confluence of the Tutoh and Melinau Rivers (~12:20 - 12:45) and arrived at Mulu Park headquarters at ~13:00.

• Pros:Equatorial natural wonders, unique culture and wonderful people
• Cons:Most roads are unbelieveably bad
• In a nutshell:Should be seen before jungle logging changes everything