The beaches at Sematan and Lundu are perhaps the most beautiful in the whole of Sarawak’s coastline, and the best part is they are easily accessible from Kuching via an all-weather tar-seal highway taking only 90 minutes. Sematan and Lundu are two typical small Sarawak towns where life is always on the slow lane, the local folks super friendly, and there’s always things to see and do.
There are two routes actually to get to these two towns. The first is the new highway to Bau via the Batu Kawa bridge, all the way straight driving until a t-junction, turn right to continue to Lundu, then just follow the road sign. The second route is via the Matang road, which skirts the Kubah National Park and then the road will run parallel to the coastline before reaching a river and a ferry crossing. The road continues and will then join with the first route and onward to the two towns.
Lundu is the larger of the two towns and there is a bustling wet market and many busy coffee shops. Like all rural towns of Sarawak, Lundu and Sematan are usually morning places. Farmers and folks from upcountry descend to the town centres to sell their produce and do some shopping for household items before heading back home around noon to escape the heat of the day. Thus the wet market and the sundry shops are usually the busiest spots in town, and the locals just love to sit in the coffee shops chatting over cups of coffee, exchanging gossips and updating each other on anything under the sun
To reach the beach at Lundu, of which there are two, the Pandan beach and the Siar beach, a further drive of about 20 minutes is required. The beaches here are very quiet and secluded during weekdays. There are some chalets and bungalows right on the beach for rent for those who wish to spend a night or two.
From Lundu it is another 30 minutes’ drive to reach Sematan, a smaller but even more quaint little town with just about two dozen shophouses and a main street. The town has its wet market and coffee shops too and they are only busy in the morning. Sematan is right by the sea in a little bay, but the beaches are few minutes drive away from the town. It is indeed a glorious sight to behold the wide expanse of sand lined with coconut trees and casuarinas in the distance when these beaches come into sight. It is clean and unpolluted and are mostly secluded. Some enterprising people has set up private chalets for rent and they have very good facilities.
Sematan is also the must-stop for visitors wishing to visit the Talang Talang Island turtle sanctuary about half and hour by speedboat out to the sea, and the Tanjung Datu National Park, also another half hour ride by speedboat along the coastline westward near the tip of Sarawak’s border with Indonesia.
A short drive from Lundu is the popular Gunung Gading National Park, whose claim to fame is the presence of the world’s largest flower, the Rafflesia. However visitors visitors wishing to see these botanical wonders need to first call up the forestry department (Tel: o82-248088) to check if any flower is in bloom, for face disappointment if there is none. There are also chalets for rent at the park for visitors wishing to spend a night there. After a hot day jungle trekking, there is a delightful jungle pool near the chalets for a dip to cool down.
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