Giant Flower Diversion

Dec 24-25, 2002

It was Christmas Eve and I was pretty well done with the Kuching area. It was time to head North toward Sibu and Miri. But, I figured I would make one more check at the information office to see of a rafflesia had come into bloom.

It was. There had been a bloom in progress when I had booked booked for Bako. But Rafflesia only bloom for 4 days. It closed while I was away and there hadn.t been another since. There is another park with rafflesia in Saba but I didn't want to gamble o reaching that park at the right time. I booked for a night a Gunning Gading.

Or at least I tried to. My first thought was actually to do a day trip. But the flower was said to be a 3 hours walk from park HQ the last bus left for Kuching at 4:00pm. That wasn't going to work.

Next thought was to spend the night there. But the dorm was full that night. I booked for Christmas Day. That still left me with a day to kill in Kuching.

Once again, the bus to Semenggoh failed to show. I settled for the attraction of last resort: The Cat Museum.

The Cat Museum was all right, if a bit generic. Lots of cat facts and cat pictures. About the only thing of local significance is a short piece about the tails of cats in Malaysia.

Next day, it was off to Gunang Gading. I was hoping to catch the early 9:00 bus from the express terminal. Unfortunately, the local bus connection information I had from the Information office was completely wrong. I made it to the express terminal but I had to wait nearly 2 hours for the 11:00am bus.

2 hours later, I arrived in Lundu expecting to take the local bus to the park which the tourist information service flyer states runs every hour. Two hours after that, I learned that the bus actually runs twice a day. Reluctantly, I took a taxi to the park.

When I arrived at the park, it was late afternoon. Although, it seems the flower is 3 hours away *round trip*, I opt to get food first and see the flower in the morning, There is no cantene at the park. Cooking is possible, but difficult. Each pot or utensil had to be individually checked out. Besides, I hadn't brought any food. I hiked into town.

Next morning, I got up bring and early to see the flower. It only took about an hour to get there. As rafflesia go, this was a small one, a mere 2 feet in diameter. No perceptible odor. I didn't see a another tourist either going to the flower or on the return. There were other tourists in the park. I wonder what they came for?

After returning to camp, I showered, packed up my bags and checked out. I hiked part way back to bus station. The rest of the way, I hitched a ride with a couple of English guys who had rented a car for the day.

I spent one more night at Kuching the B&B. It rained heavily in the early evening. Overnight, the bed bugs were worse than I had ever seen them. I was glad to not been spending more time at the B&B.