A very well curated trip planned by Paradesa, we did multi day trip with them which included cycling, speed hiking & kayaking. This was all inclusive trip with some great home stays & amazing home cooked food & wine's. Day 1 we cycled to Annah rais longhouse with complete SUV support provided by Paradesa & their team (Farah & Lester) The homestay was warm & the host dished out some wonderful delicacies which I still have cravings for ! They even catered for my partners food choices & allergies, which was never a trouble during the entire trip.... The cycle ride was challenging but great fun with lester & farah's company on the 1st day
Day 2 we were lucky to see a orangutan at Semenggoh Rehabilitation center who came down to enjoy some fruits after calls from the rangers. This was followed by multiple waterfall trek where we also met up with a local musician Ezra, popular musician who plays sape, their traditional music instrument... This evening we stayed at another picturesque home stay with mountain & river views.... Again our host MJ prepared sumcious local delicacies, even replicating some of them in vegetarian form to cater to our needs. This was followed by amazing local fruits & breakfast the next morning before we left them.
Day 3 itinerary was looking menacing, which included 10KM kayaking in free flowing jungle water followed by a long distance cycle ride for our night stay at Siniawan (chinese town, which resembles old american cowboy town) But this was the best day of the trip, kayaking was made so much fun thanks to 'David' & Macqueen from Semadang Kayak team. David is a riot when it comes to jokes, he really helped us relax & enjoy the experience.
Next Lester drove us to the fairy caves to explore them before we were back on our saddles to end this amazing day.
The cycle route was thru small villages & lakes, it was easy ride & farah even helped us customize this day as per our liking . After settling in that evening, we walked into a english pub in a chinese town which resembles like a old movie set from wild wild west... The Bikalan is where we met with Andy the pub owner, it surely was a odd setting but we had a great time at this place with Andy & his hospitality... a must visit to this place when in Siniawan.
Next day was a fun half day of cycling on rolling hills & soaking in some good bright sun with time to time breaks for cut fruits which Farah & lester had packed for us for this ride. Following which we checked in a resort where we did a cook out all well organized by both Farah & lester ensuring all the necessary dietary restrictions were met again.
This evening's planned activity was frogging, looking for tiny colorful frogs in the Kubah national park. Paradesa had again arranged for a special guide for this activity and it was a wonderful time walking the slopes of this park spotting tiny frogs, some of us even got to see the 2nd smallest frog in this world.... day 4 ended back at the resort
Day 5, involved a drive to santubong foothills, this is where we started our speed hiking in one of the many well marked trails in this region. The trails here are very well marked, probably thanks to the trail running community . As always Farah was with us during this speed hike which was a good 2-3 hrs with some interesting terrain & a blue pool section to refresh ourselves midway during the hike... ended the trip with sipping hot coffee and lunch in a beach shack at the end of the trail... before we were dropped to our hotel back in Sarawak..
It was a great holiday thanks to the planning & efforts of Paradesa and more importantly farah & lester during the trip. Farah is very knowledgeable about this region & thanks to her network of friends we had such a blast..
Will always fondly remember this experience !