Miri to Kuching

By bus the journey from Miri to Kuching in Sarawak is scheduled to take from 12 to 13 hours depending upon which service you take.

Bus Times from Miri to Kuching

There are currently 10 bus services a day from Miri to Kuching available to book online.

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Miri Bus Station

Bus services from Miri to Kuching depart from Miri Bus Station.

Kuching Bus Station

Bus services from Miri to Kuching terminate at Kuching Sentral Bus Terminal.

About Travel to Kuching

Kuching is the state capital and largest city in Sarawak, which is in the north of Borneo. Kuching has a large international airport and is the main entry and exit point for the majority of the visitors to the island of Borneo.

History of Kuching

Kuching, and Sarawak as a whole, has an interesting history during which control of the city and the wider region passed between various non-native rulers over the course of several centuries.

The Sultanate of Brunei took control of Kuching in the 16th Century. However, due in part to the poor management and cruelty of the Sultan’s local representatives, by the 19th century the regime had been destabilised by frequent and ongoing rebellions by the native tribes. Then, by chance, in 1839 a privately funded former British army officer, James Brooke, turned up in Sarawak in his own ship looking for commercial opportunities.

Brooke, supported by other British adventurers, came back to Borneo in 1840 and helped the Sultan’s representatives put down a native uprising and in return was offered the position of Rajah of Sarawak. After dealing with an attempt by the Sultan’s representatives to renege on the deal, Brooke’s position as Rajah was confirmed and three generations of Brooke men, known collectively as the ‘White Rajah’, ruled over Sarawak until it was invaded by the Japanese in 1942, almost exactly 100 years after the Brooke family managed to claim Sarawak as its private kingdom.

Modern Day Kuching City

During their 100 years of rule the Brooke family managed to turn Kuching into a thriving city. They built prisons, hospitals and schools and encouraged the economy by inviting people from other counties, particularly China, to settle in Kuching and practice their trades from their new home. This economic development carried on after the Brooke Dynasty and sped up after Malaysia became an independent state with the introduction of heavy industry and the oil trade.

Kuching’s current population is in the region of half a million people. Kuching is very multicultural, partly because of the immigration policies of the Brooke administration, and the city is divided into different parts along ethnic lines. The Chinatown (Padungan) area is the most prosperous part of the city with the best nightlife and hotels, including the highly popular Kuching Waterfront development.

Places to Visit in Kuching City

Kuching City has a lot to offer to tourists in terms of places to visit. The city has a number of older buildings, many relating to Brooke dynasty, to visit including:

• The Astana (the Brooke family palace)
• Fort Margherita
• Tua Pek Kong Temple

Kuching also has 6 museums, the best of which is the Sarawak State Museum which was first opened in 1891.

However, for some visitors the best things to do in Kuching are actually to enjoy the variety of food on offer, visit the markets, and take taxi boats along the Sarawak River in Kuching. The modern bars and restaurants around Kuching Waterfront are also attracting a lot of interest from foreign visitors.

Parks and Wildlife near Kuching City

The main reason why visitors come to Borneo is not to look around its towns and cities but to enjoy the island’s stunning scenery and unusual wildlife. Borneo remains a sparsely populated island with wild areas where the indigenous flora and fauna can flourish. There are three places in particular, close to Kuching, where visitors can go and see more of what Borneo has to offer:

• Semenggoh Wildlife Centre (20 km from Kuching) is a rehabilitation centre for orangutans and honey bears. Visitors can see the bear and the apes at feeding time when they come out of the forest for a free meal.
• Kuching Wetlands National Park (30 km from Kuching) includes a massive mangrove forest on the coast which is home to an extensive range of animals, sea creatures and birds.
• Bako National Park (40 km from Kuching) is a small national park you can only reach by boat. The remoteness of the area means that some of the rarer creatures of Borneo, such as the civet and the slow loris, have thrived. No one hunts these creatures in the Bako National Park and that gives visitors a much better chance of spotting these elusive jungle dwelling animals.