I AM THE BORNEO EXPLORER 婆罗洲探险者: August 2016

5 Things You Can Do At Merarap Hotspring Lawas, Sarawak Borneo

Merarap Hot Spring one of a hidden gem in nortern Sarawak Borneo. Its about 70km away from Lawas town, and only accessible by a 4WD truck.

Here are the 5 things you can do when you visit the Merarap Hot Spring :)

1. Mandi in the hotspring

Hotspring water is piped from a nearby mountain source and dip pools with different water temperature ensure a complete spa experience. Private baths are also available, so there is no way you gonna miss out this one!!! The one behind me consist of cold and hot spring water, so its just nice to dip in the pool..... erm..just beware of leeches :P

2. The Great Trusan River!!!

The Trusan River flows into Brunei Bay, and sits in between the Temburong and Lawas rivers. It's just next to the hotspring lodge. Be aware when you swim here, cause the current are quite strong sometime... but overall its a good place for swim with its cold stream water.

3. Trace the Sources

The pipe connects the water source from the ridge to the lodge's pool, the Merarap owner are bless with this gift of nature. The sources is just a few meter away from where we stay.

4. Food at the Canteen

The Merarap lodge lady owner is really good in cooking, we had buffet dinner with chicken and pork. Look how relax we all are.

5. Merarap Pretty Daughters

After our dinner, all of us look tired right?!! But we are not!!! And all of us still sits at the canteen, where we just want to hangout with the friendly daughters of Merarap... this is how they look like...

Thanks for the pictures Miss Grace, and do say Hi in the comment if you happen to drop by :)

For those of you that missed my earlier post, read here for my Adventure on climbing Mount Murud! Let me know in the comments below ~~will you be friends with them~~, what are the things you like about hot spring !

Enjoy my video

Santubong Mountain Climb Information by Borneo Explorer

Located on the Damai Peninsula, 35km north of the Kuching city. Mount Santubong is surround by hotel resorts, local fishing villages, schools, and the Sarawak Cultural Village. The striking peak is visible from Kuching on most days.

She rise steeply at 810m from sea level, on the bottom of the mountain, numerous streams can be seen, its been stated as a National Park (I wrote this article on August 2016) but I do not see this as a potential sanctuary for wildlife.

The ladder climb which near the summit are poorly maintain, which I foresee it will be extra difficult to summit if this continue. Most of the rest stop indication board had been torn down, one positive sign is there are no litter on the route to summit.

On top of the summit, there is a rest hut. The view as of today (Aug 2016) are mostly covered by trees branches, after the trees grow taller, it will be even more difficult to enjoy the summit view.

Mount Santubong Trail Breakdown

Section 1: Two starting point option

a) Park Entrance to F7 - 2 hours (will passby waterfall)

b) Bukit Putri to F7 - 1 hours (some part with bird eyes view of the coast line)

Section 2: Ladder climb starts at F10

F7 to F12 - 1.5 hours

Here require your upper body strength when climb the ladders

Section 3: Steep climb

F12 to F15 - 0.5 hour

For Camping Enthusiastic

The summit Santubong are suitable for hammock (max 5) and tent camping, its possible to view sunset at summit, and sunset is around 6.30pm. Not possible to view sunrise.

There is a rest hut, maximum can cater two tents (two person in one tent)

No water from F6 onward, please bring at least 2 litters of water for camping. There is a pothole on the summit which contain rainwater, but it also contain urine and stool therefore not suitable to drink.

At night get ready for strong and cold breez, average temperature at 25c

Mount Singai Night Hike and Hammock Camping

The Singai Mount is about 518m Above Sea Level. Singai Mountain is the holy sacred mountain for the Bidayuh people (one of the local ethnic group in Sarawak). They build a church on this mountain, devotes will come here and do their regular praying.

It was a raining night that day, it was the first time my team and I did the night climb, my GPS record is we start climb at 09.26pm and reach the summit at 11.15pm (Total distance of 2.01km, 1.35hours to reach summit)

We setup our hammock, and rest at about 2am after our late meal. The next day we woke up at 6.30am, and we are very fortunate that we can witness the sea clouds on the base of the mountain.

Climbed Mount Singai for so many time, but this is the first time we witness this wonder of nature.