Kota Kinabalu to Kuching
From Kota Kinabalu to Kuching is 1,125 km (700 mi). This trip on a California freeway should
take about 12 hours by car. Not in Borneo, it took us 48 hours by using 1 taxi, 1 pump boat, 2 ferries, 2 border crossings, 3 mini-buses, 5 long-haul buses and we still had to walk a kilometer at the end to find our hotel.
Getting from Brunei to Seria was easy enough but after this is where it got fun. We got onto a mini bus at Seria, which drove for half an hour to the next town. There we pulled up to another waiting mini-bus and everyone got out while prompting us to follow. We duly obeyed and switched to the other bus, driver included. Why we did this, I have no idea. As they say in the Philippines, “Sir, we make our own sense here.”
We drove until the road literally went into the river. But it wasn’t a problem because there was a pump-boat waiting by to take us across. It was’t easy getting in and out with our bags on, especially still being sore from climbing Mt. Kinabalu. If it wasn’t for my admiring friend in the white shirt holding my hand while I got in, I would probably have tipped the boat over. On the other side, we all piled into another bus that took us to Brunei immigration. When we came out, there was a yet another bus to take us the rest of the way.
One of the best parts of traveling is trying new things. Floor level squat toilets are fun and much preferable to the ones with just a bowl and no seat. Your legs don’t get as tired when they are at floor level and you can really squat over them versus keeping your legs bent at 90°. But imagine if you have never seen a toilet bowl with a seat? How would you approach it? Well, I included some directions I recently saw. I always thought it was self explanatory but I guess not.
And here is our hotel in Kuching: 1°33’23.21″N, 110°21’17.63″E
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Robert J Kent Jr
Wat/San/Health Engineering Consultant
on February 5th, 2010 at 1:56
Hi, is it possible to get from KK to Kuching just via Car?
on February 24th, 2010 at 20:24
Probably but it would be a long way around.