3-Day Pedal and Paddle Sarawak

Explore Traditional Borneo Culture

See Orangutans & Other Local Wildlife

Cycle From Mountains to Coastline

On this 3-day adventure in Borneo, we promise you a bite of everything worth seeing! Learn about the culture with visits to longhouses and homestays. Span the different landscapes of Borneo by bike, from the mountains to the spectacular beaches. See orangutans on a visit to a nature reserve. Explore the island’s national parks and the iconic Sarawak River by kayak!

Tour Highlights

Appreciate Borneo’s local flora and fauna, visiting the Semenggoh Nature Reserve at feeding time and learning about local plants.

Explore traditional culture with a homestay, visits to longhouses, and cycling past small farms and local producers.

Cycle through a fascinating range of landscapes and terrain, from thick jungle to cool mountains and the mangrove forests on the coastline.

Explore the Sarawak River and its hidden waterfalls via kayak.

Discover Sarawak’s impressive caves and rainforest off-roading.

Click the Tabs to Find Out More

Itinerary

3-Day Tour Trip Details

Price

  • Adult (12+): MYR 3522.00
  • Single supplement (for solo travelers who prefer their own room): MYR 380.00

If you have a group of more than 6 pax, ask for our group pricing!


Departure Time

8:00 AM


Meeting Point

Your hotel lobby


Availability

2021 

  • 18 Oct – 20 Oct 2021
  • 1 Nov – 3 Nov 2021
  • 6 Dec – 8 Dec 2021

2022

  • 10 Jan – 12 Jan 2022
  • 28 Feb – 2 Mar 2022
  • 2 May – 4 May 2022
  • 17 Oct – 19 Oct 2022
  • 31 Oct – 2 Nov 2022
  • 5 Dec – 7 Dec 2022

2023 

  • January 9th – January 12th
  • February 27th – March 1st
  • May 1st – May 3rd
  • October 16th – October 18th
  • October 30th – November 1st
  • December 4th – December 7th

Contact us if the scheduled dates don’t fit your schedule and you would like to customize your tour to an alternative date.


Duration

3 days, 2 nights


Number of Cycling Days

2 full days and 1 half day


Distance

133 km


Group Size

Minimum 2 adults, for groups of more than 6, please inquire for a special price


Difficulty Level

2/5 Moderate: paved roads and gravel tracks with some undulations and some easy, off-road biking


Included

  • Local, English-speaking guide
  • Bikes, helmets, and backup support
  • Accommodations
  • Meals
  • Support vehicle and all luggage transfers
  • Rain ponchos
  • Drinks & snacks during the rides
  • Other non-riding activities as per the itinerary
  • Entrance fees

Not Included

Travel insurance


What to Bring

Essential Items

  • Multiple sets of cycling or sporting clothing
  • Multiple sets of spare casual clothing, including long trousers and shorts, hat/cap, swimming costumes, sandals, and extra walking shoes
  • Cycling gear: gloves and sunglasses
  • Personal care: small towel, toiletries, personal medication, sunscreen, and mosquito repellent
  • Camera and chargers, dry bag, and torchlight
  • Extra cash/credit card
  • Passport with 6 months validity and spare pages (additional immigration check at Sarawak’s entry points) and travel insurance details

For More Comfort

  • Padded bike shorts with something to put on over the top when not on the bikes
  • Cycling shoes or comfortable sports shoes
  • Your own personal helmet, water bottle, and raincoat

About Your Guide

From start to finish, your trip will be led by 1 or 2 English-speaking cycling tour leaders, depending on the size of the group. Along with further support from an assistant and support vehicle driver, the team’s aim is to deliver a comfortable, safe, fun, and enriching travel experience by ensuring that everything runs smoothly. Our local, English-speaking tour leaders take great pride in their heritage (as well as their own personal stories) and are well informed on Borneo’s history, culture, and natural wonders.


Good to Know

  • Our tour leaders carry spare parts and tools for basic repair
  • Age restriction: all participants must be aged 12 and over
  • For correct bike sizing, please provide personal height measurements during the booking process
  • Tell us your food preference, accommodation preference, and any other personal request, etc
  • Come into our shop a day before the tour to meet your tour leader and test out your bike, and for fixing your personal saddle, clips, bike bag or phone rack, etc, if any 
  • Check out Our Responsible Tourism Commitment
What You'll Do - 3-Day Tour

We start early with a transfer to visit Semenggoh Nature Reserve, a large, enclosed area of rainforest which is home to endangered orangutans rescued from captivity and kept for rehabilitation. During the scheduled feeding time, some orangutans may descend from the rainforest to the lower branches of trees near the feeding platform.

After feeding time, it’s time to start riding. Using winding, rural back roads, we pedal through a series of kampong with small scale pepper farms, rice fields, and plantations. We arrive at a large, 200-year-old Bidayuh Tribe’s longhouse that houses over 80 families. Join one of the host families in the longhouse to enjoy freshly cooked bamboo chicken and wild jungle vegetables. 

After lunch, explore this peaceful Bidayuh longhouse and learn about the culture of the Land Dayaks who were once headhunters. The remainder of the afternoon is free and easy, you can opt to swim in the mountain stream before enjoying another authentic longhouse meal at a Bidayuh homestay.

Accommodation: Annah Rais Longhouse Homestay

Meals: Lunch and dinner

After a quick transfer to reach the start of your kayak adventure, we paddle through the rainforest on a meandering river, shaded by overhanging tree canopies, the sounds of trickling water, and chirping insects and birds will surround us. We get back into the saddle to cycle one of the most scenic stretches of riding on this trip to reach Bau, the oldest goldmine outpost in Sarawak.

After lunch, we head off-road to explore some hidden gold mines and experience the moderately challenging off-road up and downhill through some spectacular limestone karst landscape! Along the way, we stop by two caves (both National Reserve areas), the Wind Cave, filled with bats and the majestic Fairy Cave chamber. We then finish our ride for the day at the historical shophouse town of Siniawan for a merry evening of dining before an early night at a simple but uniquely Asian shop lot guesthouse.

Accommodation: Siniawan Heritage Hostel

Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

After an early morning traditional noodle breakfast at an old town coffee-shop (kopitiam), we get ready for a full day of riding. Prepare yourself for riding across a suspension bridge, taking a traditional boat ferry, and pushing your bike across the jungle stream. We ride using shaded back roads under the mountain before stopping for a breather at a jungle waterfall for a refreshing dip and lunch break.

We then head to the Matang Wildlife Center in the early afternoon for another encounter with the orangutans, as well as other endemic Borneo wildlife such as the sun bears, sambar deer, and hornbills. We then end our adventure and transfer you back to your city hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch

Frequently Asked Questions


Our bike tours are fully supported by air-conditioned vehicles, so should you want to put your feet up, there will be a seat for you and a place to put your bike. The support vehicle also carries your luggage, as well as keeping you topped up with water, tropical fruit, and snacks.

Wearing a helmet is strongly recommended on all our biking adventures. Your tour leader will conduct a group cycling safety meeting on day one, as well as a briefing at the beginning of each day on what to expect during the day’s ride. Your tour leader is trained in first aid and emergency rescue but, to a certain degree, you must be responsible for your own safety while riding. For non-biking activities such as kayaking, safety measures such as life-jackets are compulsory and a separate safety briefing will be given before the start of each activity.

Meals and snacks are included as per the itinerary. We take care in our planning to include the best of Sarawak cuisine, including delicacies from a mixture of Dayak, Malay, and Chinese cuisine that all use local, fresh ingredients from the tropics. Some can be hot and spicy. We eat dinner together, Malaysian style, by sharing all of our delicious dishes. Alcoholic drinks are available at your own expense, but they might not be served in some Muslim halal restaurants.

We have carefully chosen the best available accommodation in different locations with friendly, local hosts. To ensure your comfort after a hard day in the saddle, we strive to offer a range of accommodation that is clean, comfortable, and represents the local culture. The type of lodging can vary depending on the location and what is available: a local tribal homestay, a jungle lodge, a national park cabin, a historical shophouse, and seaside resorts. Rooms are based on a sharing basis with double beds and if you are a single traveler, you might be paired with another traveler of the same sex unless you pay the single supplement.

The details of the number of cycling days, cycling distances, and difficulty levels for each tour are listed in the fact sheet. All our trips require basic fitness, preferably acquired through cycling. The fitter you are, the more you’ll enjoy the riding. However, we try to make our Sarawak bike tours as accessible as possible with the average cycling distance of 30-40 km per day and the longest distance no more than 70 km. Most cycling terrains are on paved roads (and limited gravel tracks) with some undulations.

Being on the equator, Borneo is generally hot (average daily temperatures are around 30 degrees Celsius) and humid, especially around noon. Therefore, we like to start our day early and rest at points of interest during the hottest part of the day. Short rain showers are fairly common during the mid to late afternoon but we provide waterproof ponchos for continuous riding, which can actually be very entertaining.

Once you have booked your tour, we will send you a pre-tour information pack that will have all the information you need to prepare for the tour, such as the packing list and joining instruction, etc.

Solo travelers are always welcome and those who would like their own room have the option of paying a single supplement. Otherwise, we will arrange for a shared room with another solo traveler (of the same sex) at no extra cost. If there is no roommate available, we will cover the additional cost of a single room.    

We include very limited corporate insurance coverage with minimum coverage. It is a condition of participating in a Paradesa Borneo that each traveler holds his or her own travel insurance for the duration of the trip. It needs to include coverage of medical expenses, emergency evacuation, personal liability, and accident insurance. You should email us a copy of your insurance coverage for our reference in case of an emergency.

The official currency is the Malaysian ringgit (RM). Foreign currencies are not generally accepted and currency exchange is only available in major banks, as well as larger hotels. Credit cards can be used only in larger hotels and shops. ATMs are widely available in cities and towns, but you’ll need cash in villages to pay for some extra meals, drinks, activities, and, of course, shopping. There will be limited opportunities to spend money whilst cycling through rural areas outside of personal items, extra snacks, drinks, and the odd souvenir. Tipping at restaurants and for local guides and support staff is uncommon. Should however you feel the staff/guides have provided excellent service you may wish to give them some form of gratuity. We recommend that you bring an equivalent of US$ 400 (in Malaysian ringgit) for incidentals.

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