Apr 10 - I thought I had a good idea of bus schedules for today. Rather than take a $200+ private tour to Gunung Gading, I decided we would take the public bus. There was one meant to leave the central bus station at 8:30. However, no bus, they tell us the bus actually goes from a place up the road in front of a shopping mall. We go there, and find out there is no bus from there either, other than one that left at 8:00. Apparently Ramadan has interrupted normal programming.
While we sit in front of the mall (which is closed), decide we have to get a Grab after all. It is a 1.5 hour drive, costing about $35. We pass through forested lowlands. I am struck by the varied geology in the roadcuts. This island has a lot going on, other than just limestones (like peninsular Malaysia) and volcanics (like Indonesia). There are layered and folded sediments, mapped as Jurassic and Cretaceous.
The Grab driver has a sticker in the window proclaiming ‘Sarawak for Sarawakians’. I ask him about that. He is very much a patriot of Sarawak first, Malaysia second. Due to its primacy as a petroleum producer, it appears that Sarawak has been able to be pushy about having a big say in their own affairs. Not real autonomy, but something approaching that. They recently began negotiating an increase in state royalties from petroleum extraction offshore, from 5 to 20 percent. In addition, they created their own petroleum company (Petros), as a counter to the Malaysia government’s Petronas.
While peninsular Malaysians require a passport to visit Sarawak, Sarawakians do not need any special ID to visit the peninsula. It clearly indicates that Sarawak is uninterested in receiving immigrants from other parts of the country.
Only when we are at the park can I confirm with park ranger that there are no rafflesia flowers blooming (this is one of the best places in the world to see them). They form buds that take about 8 months to bloom, and once they do, they last a week. Apparently last month there were a few blooming, but are gone now. Fortunately there are some waterfall hikes, so we do that.
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No big animals today, but we see some good insects.
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Get lucky with no rain all through our hike. Loud cicadas here, with different tones and pitches than I’ve heard before.
No Grab contact when we are back at the park HQ, so the staff calls someone up who gives us a ride back to Kuching. Ends up not costing much more than our ride here in the morning.
Eat a late afternoon lunch/dinner.
Malaysia (Sarawak)