Mount Santubong – Stairway To Heaven?

And certainly, what’s a hiking trip to Kuching without hiking their representative Mount Santubong?

In fact, that was what we did while in Kuching. Not kolo mee (though we did have that as well) but hiking Mount Santubong is it!

Kolo Mee

Situated on the Damai Peninsula, about 35km north of Kuching, Mount Santubong is a single-rise mountain by the sea with impressive façade. Although only 810m high, the trek is not a walk in the park, due to its steepness especially towards the summit.  As with the many mountains of Malaysia, Mount Santubong also has its own interesting origin story.

Legend of Santubong

Legend has it that there were once two beautiful princesses of heaven, Santubong, who weaved the most beautiful clothes and Sejinjang who pound the most delicious rice. One day, the King of heaven sent the two princesses to stop the war between two villages, Kampung Pasir Puteh and Kampung Pasir Kuning. After stopping the war, the two princesses taught their expertise to the villages, and soon they began to trade and became prosperous. 

News soon to spread about the two beautiful princesses, and many princes came to ask their hands in marriage but were all rejected, until one prince, Serapi showed up. The princesses both fell for Serapi and got into a fight. Sejinjang swung her thresher and hit Santubong’s cheek, while Santubong threw her weaver and hit Sejinjang in her head. To put an end to the fight, the King of Heaven cursed the princesses into mountains – Mount Santubong and Mount Sejinjang. 

Mount Santubong is said to resemble a woman lying on her back with a crack at the peak being the scar on her cheek which she got from the fight. Sejinjang on the other hand had her head broken into many pieces during the fight and these broken parts became the many islands that lie around the peninsula. 

Though Mount Santubong is a popular hiking destination in Kuching, I’ve never heard of Mount Sejinjang until I came across this legendary origin story, despite the mountains being only half an hour away from each other. I wonder if anyone had hiked that mountain and how does it fare against Santubong in particular?

As much as I’m interested in getting to know about Mount Sejinjang, that’s a topic for another day. Let’s move on to my trip to Mount Santubong last February.

How To Get There

It is only about an hour drive from Kuching city, however there is no direct bus to get there. The most convenient way to get there is of course by driving yourself, but for those relying on public transportation, there is actually a shuttle service which you can utilise, operating from Grand Margherita Hotel in Kuching downtown to the Sarawak Cultural Village, for RM20 per pax (one way). The first service departs from Kuching at 9.15am while the last service from Sarawak Cultural Village leaves at 5.15pm.

Do check the validity of the schedule before you head over for your hike, in case there are any changes to the timing and locations. To avoid disappointment, I would strongly recommend renting a car and drive there instead as the shuttle service is said to be irregular and they often only run when enough people are present to justify a trip.

Grand Magherita Hotel

Address: Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, 93748 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Sarawak Cultural Village

Address: Damai Beach Resort, 93762, Kampung Budaya Sarawak, 93010 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

The Trails

As you can see from the trail map below, there are 3 trails, with the official one starting from the visitor information centre (A). Those who are not heading to the summit can do loop trail to the waterfall (G) and complete the loop by exiting via the Sarawak Cultural Village (P). Those who intend to conquer the mountain can hike all the way to the summit. This summit trail will pass by a different waterfall (F5) and a couple of viewpoints. A shorter third trail which starts from Bukit Putri doesn’t pass by any waterfalls.

Trail map

Locations and coordinates:

Santubong National Park entrance | 1°44'36.5"N 110°19'10.2"E

Bukit Putri Trailhead | GPS: 1°43'10.1"N 110°19'41.8"E

Hiking In The Rain

It was raining cats and dogs that morning, and we had to take shelter at Damai Central (for a couple of hours!). When we realised the rain wasn’t ever going to stop, we decided to hike in the rain.

Photo doesn't do the rain any justice. It was raining cats and dogs

Since we were short on time, we ended up taking the shorter Bukit Putri Trail instead of the longer Summit Trail. Honestly, it was also because the park rangers may not allow us to hike in the heavy rain, but shhhhhhhhh…..

Our hike began at 11am in the rain, but the rain didn’t stop us from moving forward. In fact, the rain brought us chilly weather which I really enjoyed. 

Long, Steep Uphill Slope

It didn’t take long after Viewpoint 1 before we come to long steep slope, possibly one of the steepest I’ve hiked in recent months, and at some parts, we needed to be on all four and started grabbing the roots and wines for assistance. There are also ropes installed to help you (especially helpful for descent). Fortunately, I love this type of terrain.

Viewpoint 3

The pink squad

The slope was quite physically challenging, but certainly doable for anyone as long as you are fit. If you are tired, there are benches along the way which you can take a break. After bracing through the steepy slope, there’s a rest stop at Viewpoint 3.

From heavy downpour to drizzle. Can you tell we were drenched?

Of course, after hiking non-stop earlier, we took a short 5 minutes here since the rain had stopped, before continuing our journey to the summit. At this point, we were already half way to the peak, but the real hike had just begun.

Stopped for a photo and then we continue...

Ladder, Ladder On The Wall

See how steep? See that ladder ahead?

Mount Santubong was well known for its rope ladders from this point to the summit. The climb here is almost 90 degree which is highly impossible and dangerous for us to get through without the rope ladders. However, the authority had now replaced the rope ladder which aluminium ladder. It’s definitely safer and sturdier now, but lesser the fun in my opinion. 

Though aluminium ladders are much sturdier, do stay cautious and ascend one by one. I lost count of the total numbers of ladders we had to climb that day, but it seemed never ending that day. After what seemed like the last ladder, we hiked further only to see more ladders ahead of us. If height frightens you, you may want to avoid looking down.

The last viewpoint before the summit is Viewpoint 5, where a rest hut stands proudly overlooking the summit and the valley before it. The summit is only about 15 to 20 minutes away from here. There is a sign here to warn hikers to turn back by 2pm to avoid descending in darkness. Taking note of the time, we didn’t linger long and continued heading down the valley before making the final ascent to the peak.

Viewpoint 5

Summit

Once you reach the summit, you’ll be rewarded with a truly breath-taking panoramic view of Kuching, the Damai peninsula & the South China Sea

This is what we were supposed to see from the peak but this photo is taken halfway during our descent (see the tress obstructing the view?)

Luck wasn’t at our side that day as the summit was engulfed in thick fog thanks to the rain. As we see nothing but white sky, we settled ourselves in the resting hut and savoured some hot cup noodles to overcome the cold. I’ve got Jesy to thank for the idea of instant noodles. It was way better than eating the fried rice we packed this morning which had turned cold.

Summit

Ps: It’s cloudy in the late afternoon, so it is best to start early in the morning and reach the summit by noon. Therefore, always do plan ahead to avoid disappointment. 

Pink squad again

At least today I look slimmer than yesterday

Upset because no view

But happy that we made it to the summit!

2019, the pig year!

An Equally Long Descent

We only stayed at the summit for 45 minutes (lunch time and photo session) in order to make sure that we descent not later than 3pm. The jungle gets dark around 5pm (sometimes as early as 4pm, depending on weather) and it’s not advisable to trek in the dark since this increases the risks of getting lost.

Time to descent

Going down the ladder again

See how steep it is?

The descent follows the same route which we ascended, and as you already know by now, there are plenty of ladders to climb down. This means you can't race down and therefore, the time needed to get back to the foot of mountain would not be significantly shorter than the time we spent to get to the peak.

Can you spot the view?

A clearer shot

I’m always the slow ones when it comes to descending, and it took me equally as long to reach the foot of mountain (ascent = 2hours 30min, descent = 2hours 15min).

This is somewhere around Viewpoint 1 or 2

Almost reaching Bukit Putri trail head. I didn't realise it was quite a view

If you are unlucky like us and didn’t get to see any view at the top, do keep a look out for them along the other viewpoints as you descend. 

Shower and Seafood Dinner

The sun has yet to set by the time we reached our car, and after deciding that we would have seafood dinner for the night, we headed over to Damai Central to take a shower and change. There are plenty of toilet and shower room there although they are not quite clean. Hence, the guys decided to head to the waterfall to clean up instead. 

Goodbye Santubong

Damai Craftworld & Event Centre (formerly known as Damai Central)
After shower, we drove to a nearby seafood restaurant. Momo had treated us to a scrumptious meal the day before so we had wanted to repay him with a seafood dinner.

Seafood dinner

We had crabs, fried calamari, steamed fish, bamboo clams, balitong (siput sedut or chut chut), stir-fry baby kalian, stir-fry kangkong and Kuching very own signature midin. You got to try midin if you ever visit Kuching! 

Beach Seafood Restaurant

Address: 93050 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Opening hours: 10am to 10pm daily

Epilogue

Before visiting Kuching, I had never thought of climbing Mount Santubong. Honestly, it wasn’t even in my bucket list, due to the fact that I never intend of flying Kuching just to climb a mountain. But fate does surprise us at times, and indeed I flew to Kuching with MMC and here I was, on top of Mount Santubong, minus the could-have-been-breathtaking bird’s eye view of Kuching city and South China Sea. It’s a pity it rained for half a day and we ended up summitting at the worst possible time.

Overall, my Kuching trip was a hit-and-miss. We hiked Mount Santubong and Mount Singai but also misses other places, especially the Fairy Caves which I think would have be fascinating. Besides that, I also didn’t get to hunt for the yummy-licious local food in Kuching city since we spent most of the time in Bau. Luckily, Kuching is only less than 2 hours away by flight, so I can always return when there’s any chance of grabbing some cheap air tickets. By then, I’ll be sure to finish all the unfinished business. On second thought though, I also wouldn’t mind exploring other parts of Sarawak, say… Miri? We shall see... *wink*

Thank you for reading all the way till the end. Too much info and you just want a summarised itinerary but too lazy to scroll back up? Here’s a summary I’ve drafted up for you. Hope it helps you with your planning.

Itinerary:

**Disclaimer: Below is my timing according to my speed. So please take it with a grain of salt, as everyone have different pace. Have fun hiking this mountain. *wink*

Day Hike
Total distance hiked: 12km

1145: Start hiking from Bukit Putri trailhead

1400: Reach viewpoint

1415: Reach summit

1500: Descend

1730: Reach Bukit Putri trailhead