Mount Singai – Bau’s Birthplace of Christianity

The first time I heard of Mount Singai was when I read the news about a missing hiker. Just half a year ago, news about a Sarawakian who got lost in the jungle of Mount Singai made the headlines of several newspaper. The man was lost for six days and went he was finally found, he was said to have been following "a beautiful woman resembling a princess". He claimed that the "woman" also took care of him when he sustained injuries while hiking at the mountain.

This supernatural encounter became viral on social media especially among hiking groups. Even though the family member later clarified that the report was baseless, and that the missing hiker had never met any "princess", many still believe in the story. (You can read more about it here  and here)

Little did I know that I would one day be hiking this mountain at all!

Last minute decision

Our original plan for our first day in Kuching was to visit both Wind Cave and Fairy Cave, the two main tourist attractions in Bau. Unfortunately, Fairy Cave was closed, and we made a last-minute change to our itinerary to hike the nearby Mount Singai.

Fairy Cave is closed

Apart from the popular Mount Santubong, Mount Singai is one of the most prominent mountain in Kuching. On a normal weekend, the mountain could attract more than 100 people. During the Season of Lent (a 40-day period of penance and prayer which starts with Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday, which is celebrated by Christians worldwide to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ), the mountain is extremely crowded.

How To Get There

The entrance to Mount Singai is approximately 40-minute drive from Kuching city. There is a private car park in front of the entrance (RM3). There is no entrance fee for entering or climbing the mountain though. 

At the entrance of the mountain, is a massive white arch gate, and abundance of plastic bags bulked up. These plastic bags contain sand and pebbles meant for the construction of a new church hall at the pilgrimage centre. As vehicles are off-limit here, the only way to bring these building materials up is on foot.

The entrance to Mount Singai. See those bulding materials?

We didn’t know back then, but we soon found out that many hikers help carrying these materials up, which In my opinion is a great idea to do a part for the community. After all, no fees are imposed on climbing the mountain, and everyone is welcomed here, so this is the least anyone could do, well if you are fit enough to do so. 

A group photo before starting our hike

14 Stations of The Cross

The hike up Mount Singai is divided into two sections, with the first half being a set of stairs leading to the Catholic Memorial and Pilgrimage Centre (CMPC) while the second half is the hiking trail leading to the summit. An average hiker may take about half an hour to reach CMPC and another one hour to reach the summit.

14 stations of the Cross

No pets allowed

one of the station of the Cross

Along the steps of stairs and boardwalk are 14 stations of the Cross which represent Jesus Christ’s last day on earth as a man. If you get tired along the way, these stations are also rest stops, as there are wooden benches on most of them.

Rest stops

Half way through the 14 stations of the Cross, there is also a cliff-side hut, overlooking the rainforest and surrounding villages in Bau.

Resting hut with a view

There a mountain opposite but I don't know what it is

Sarawak's jungle starfruit

There Momo spotted a local jungle fruit, so we plucked some to try. It looks like starfruit but much smaller (only the size of a fig), and flesh somehow resembles langsat. There isn't much flesh, however but nonetheless it tastes sweet and refreshing.

Though the hike up the wooden stairs isn’t tough, we didn’t exactly like walking on the wooden stairs. Thankfully, it was only a 30 minutes journey, before we finally reached the CMPC.

Never ending stairs

I'm not a fan of stairs

Finally reach the church!

There is a big signage on the end of the wooden stairs, right in front of the church’s building. The building materials mentioned earlier are offloaded here, and based on the number of plastic bags, many seem keen to help. Bravo!

Catholic Memorial and Pilgrimage Centre (CPMC) – The birthplace of Christianity

As with my other posts, I always google some information on the places I visited out of curiousity, and this time, there is no exception.

Welcome to CMPC

Mount Singai was the settlement of the Bidayuh settlers who arrived from Kalimantan in the early 1800s who made the mountain as a place of refuge and defense against their enemies’ attack.  The steep slopes and high elevation offered protection and made it an ideal spot to set up a cluster of villages. The Bisingai (people of Mount Singai), are traditionally pagan or animist and they believe in ancestral worship and they also believe in the ancient spirits or nature. The summit of the Mount Singai was a sacred place for the Bisingai to perform religious rituals, however this is no longer the case now ever since the Bisingai converted to Catholic. In fact, Mount Singai is the birthplace of Christianity among the Bidayuh community in Bau. 

In 1885, a young Roman Catholic priest from Holland, Father Felix Westerwoudt started a missionary church in a longhouse atop Mount Singai. For 13 years, he lived side by side with the Bisingai, learning their language and culture and going from village to village to persuade them to convert to Christianity. He also attempted to teach the boys reading, writing and arithmetic. However, his efforts were mainly unsuccessful. At the time of his death in 1898, only seven families had converted to Christianity. 

In 1981, another priest, Father Sepp Schrader, the childhood friend and successor of Father Westerwoudt arranged for the seven families to start a new settlement at Kampung Sagah, Matang, where he also established a mission school. The Catholic families prospered in their new environment and before long, their former non-Catholic neighbours also began to send their children to the mission school. Many of the students became Catholics and chose to stay on at Sagah, gradually resulting in a declining population living on the mountain. The original Singai settlements fell deserted with villagers only returning to harvest fruits. 

Father Schrader also initiated the rebuilding of the church in Mount Singai to include a new longhouse and chapel which was completed in 1987. Ever since it was rebuilt, the church has attracted visitors, both religious and non-religious from around the country and it has since expanded to include accommodations and other facilities, all built voluntarily by the community. This church is now the Catholic Memorial and Pilgrimage Centre (CMPC).

The area is still under construction

Summit

Since we weren’t here for pilgrimage, we continued our journey up to the summit of Mount Singai, and from the CMPC, the real hike on jungle path begins.

This is where the building materials get offloaded. Do you see the sign pointing to the summit?

Follow the sign and let's move on!

Finally a real hike begins

The trail is properly marked, and since it’s a popular hiking spots in Kuching, the trail is clear and wide, with gradual inclination. Nothing too challenging for average hikers, but a good hike to sweat it out. In one-hour time, we finally reached the summit.

Tadah! Reach the summit

There is no 180-degree bird’s eye view on the summit, as it is obstructed by some trees. Nonetheless, it still offers the view of the rainforest and surrounding villages in Bau.

I'm a little fat from all the Chinese New Year snacks and birthday meals in Feb (sobs)

Group photo

Pretentious group photo

After half an hour of rest and photo session on the peak, we made our way down leisurely. 

Spooky Descent Encounter

We descended the same way we hiked up earlier, and since the path was rather easy, and we had enough time to make it home for our barbeque dinner, we took our sweet time descending. Unexpectedly, we still encounter something weird on our way down. Ykai and Yong was leading the pack and was in front of us. Yong was intitially in front, with Ykai and YG trailing closely behind. However, as we almost reached CMPC, the guys noticed that Ykai had gone missing for about a couple of minutes. He had apparently chased after Yong but when YG (who took a break earlier) caught up to Yong, YKai was nowhere to be found. Panic, we started calling out for Ykai and eventually called him on his cell phone. Turned out, he had reached the CMPC and was surprised he was the first to reach. According to him, he was trying to catch up to Yong but to no avail.

Time to go back

It seemed like he had overtaken Yong unknowingly. Though it sounded supernatural (the guys claimed they didn’t see each other), but I believed there is a scientific explanation to all this. The logical side of me believed they must have each taken a different diverged path and missed each other, but it does sound spooky that they didn’t see each other at all. It became our biggest talk of the night as we tried analysing what exactly happened, but never come to a conclusion. I’m just thankful that no one went missing and we were all safe and sound.

Descent

As it was drizzling that day, our shoes were all covered with mud, so we had them cleaned at the toilet which were built on one of the many 14 stops. Have to thank the church for building all these facilities. I really wished I had carried some of the building materials up as a token of appreciation.

Coconut juice to quench our thirst

With our shoes all cleaned, we descended back to the entrance, and had the sweetest coconut juice at a stall just outside the entrance, before driving back to Momo’s house for our barbeque night.

Barbeque pork belly!

Thanks Momo for the meal!

Besides the deliciously marinated pork belly and chicken wings (Momo's recipe), we also get to try some exotic dishes such as crocodile meat and squirrel meat. *gasp*

Epilogue

The hike up Mount Singai is a lot of fun. If you have a few hours to spare while in Kuching, especially Bau, it’s worth visiting this place. And while you are at it, be sure to spend some time check out the 14 stations of Cross, the pilgrimage centre, and soak up the view that it has to offer (halfway and on the summit). Of course, if you could help carry one or two of the bags up, it would be really nice.



However, do note that the mountain is home to a Catholic pilgrimage centre, so do not show disrespect to the people and the religion. There is also no water source along the trail leading to the summit, so make sure you pack your needed water accordingly.

Have fun hiking Mount Singai and be sure to not to wander around recklessly and risks getting lost in the jungle. We really don’t want to see another news of missing hiker. *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: 4km (no river crossing) 

1315: Reach car park

1330: Start hiking

1400: Reach Catholic Memorial & Pilgrimage Centre

1500: Reach summit

1530: Descent 

1630: Reach toilet, cleanup

1645: Reach car park