Miri and Northeast Sarawak

Miri, a bustling oil town and commercial centre, is the main town and gateway of Northeast Sarawak, home to some of the state's most interesting attractions. Miri is linked by air and road to all of Sarawak's major towns and to Brunei. The town has a wide range of accommodation catering to all budgets, and dozens of good restaurants, pubs and bars.

The main reason for coming here is to visit the national parks, including spectacular Gunung Mulu with its world-famous cave system, Niah Caves with its burial grounds and cave paintings, Lambir Hills, the world's most diverse rainforest, and Loagan Bunut, Sarawak's largest natural lake.

There are also excellent opportunities to visit Iban and Orang Ulu longhouses on the Baram river and its tributaries. A little-discovered destination accessible from Miri is Bario and the Kelabit Highlands, a beautiful and remote mountain valley with superb jungle treks and welcoming Kelabit longhouses.

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Sibu and the Rejang River

The Rejang is Malaysia's greatest river, 350 miles (560 km) long and draining a vast rain forest catchments area. It is also the only means of access to for thousands of longhouses and villages along the river and its many tributaries. In fact many experienced travelers believe that a journey up the Rejang is one of the world's last great travel adventures.

Sibu is the gateway to the Rejang and the second largest town in Sarawak. It is a bustling modern town and the main port of the Rejang basin. Sibu has a number of good hotels and a wide range of budget accommodation, as well as restaurants, pubs, and karaoke lounges. It is the main jumping off point for embarking on a Rejang river journey and visiting longhouse communities along the way.

The banks of the Rejang are dotted with longhouses. On the lower reaches as far as the small town of Kapit, and along the Baleh tributary, the people are usually Iban. Above the Pelagus rapids, one hour upriver from Kapit, members of the various Orang Ulu groups have settled, and the banks are guarded with Klirieng, wooden burial poles. Usually the journey finishes at Belaga, a small bazaar town dominated by the Kayan and the Kenyah peoples, where nomadic Penan sometimes come to trade their jungle produce.