Mount Santubong National Park

Mount Santubong is located on the Damai Peninsula, 35 km north of Kuching. From sea level, it’s irregular rainforest-covered peaks rise steeply to 810 m, forming a catchment for numerous streams and a potential sanctuary for a variety of wildlife. This is a moderate difficulty day-trip from Kuching, and one of the best in the region. It involves some steep climbs, including up rope ladders, but the trail is well made, and it provides very rewarding views from the top. The trail passes through beautiful and diverse rainforest and offers a good opportunity for seeing wildlife, especially on weekdays when the trail is quieter. A pretty waterfall offers a great way to cool off at the end of the walk. The Santubong area is one of the best places in Sarawak to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphin, which inhabits rivers, estuaries and shallow coastal areas. On rare occasions finless porpoises and Indo-pacific humpback dolphins are sighted in the waters off Santubong.

There are local legend about the Mount Santubong which is there are two princesses who are Princess Santubong and Princess Sejinjang from Kingdom of Kayangan. The people invited the two princesses to lived with them. Princess Santubong more beautiful than Princess Sejinjang, had many suitors, got married and subsequently became pregnant. This made Princess Sejinjang very jealous, and consequently, she began to claim that she was more beautiful than her sister. Santubong would not agree and a huge argument ensued between the two. In the end Sejinjang became violent and hit her pounding pestle on the head of Santubong, who fell to the earth and grew into the mountain. However, just before Santubong fell she threw her weaving loom’s beam at Sejinjang, breaking a part of her body, which scattered into the sea, creating the islands in the area. Meanwhile, the rest of Sejinjang’s body also fell to the earth and became the other mountain near Mount Santubong. That is why the profile of Mount Santubong looks like a lady lying on the horizon if viewed from various angles from the South China Sea.