Loagan Bunut & Long Luteng (3 – 5 April 2026) - a trip we learn to be even more grateful of what we have
Why Loagan Bunut National Park?
To visit to all the 14 Sarawak National Parks that are published in the Forestry website, a small mission I set on 6 March 2024, how has it progressed so far? 14 doesn’t sound a lot. But, I have fallen behind the plan. After the last visit to Batang Ai National Park in October 2025, I have spent most time working, typical of work cycle every year. Finally, in March this year, I revisited the plan and ticked off National Parks I have visited. Of all the 14 parks, Kuching Wetlands, Lambir National Park and Loagan Bunut are the only 3 that I haven’t been to. Similajau, Niah, Mulu, been there, perhaps I can revisit again some time later.
With Good Friday coming (3 April), I thought this is the perfect Timing to make a 3 days adventure to Baram region, where Loagan Bunut is situated. Baram region is well known to perhaps the Miri and Bintulu folks. But for most of our staff who are from Kuching and Serian region, Baram seems like a foreign land to them. We happen to have a new staff who come from Long Luteng, the inner Baram. I thought perhaps I can make this an adventure trip, not only covering Loagan Bunut, but also Long Lama small town and Long Luteng, the home to our new staff Jeffyson. Instead of making it a solo trip, this time I made it a WeMAL trip, to include staff who are interested to join. This will be a new experience for most of us. A chance to get to know Baram.
The trip highlights
The preparation
As we are visiting not only to Loagan Bunut, but also to a very remote village called Long Luteng, logistic arrangement is crucial. I tried to secure the Banglow and the Hostel at Loagan Bunut National Park, unfortunately the hostel is under renovation. Meanwhile, the plan to have few of us staying at Mutiara Bunut homestay couldn’t be materialized too, as we couldn’t access to the place due to the low tide at the lake. But I knew this is not a big issue, as all of us are easy going, and do not demand a luxury place to sleep. We got ourselves ready to cramp into one banglow. Meanwhile, the Long Luteng native, Jeffyson warned us upfront that the road to his village has not been maintained for a long time. 4 x 4 pick up truck is the only viable transport to reach the village. Hearing this, I thought “this is the best time to test the true off road performance of our Mazda Fighter then”. 11 of us would require at least 2 cars. So, Jeffyson helped us to arrange another 4 x 4 hilux, driven by his childhood friend Patrick. For colleagues who came from Kuching, we were fortunate to secure cheap flight tickets, RM70/ way.
Day 1 - Kuching – Bintulu – Niah Junction – Loagan Bunut
Folks from Kuching arrived at Kuching Airport early. Some reached as early as 4.30am. We took 6am flight from Kuching to Bintulu.
Upon arrival, our Bintulu based colleagues picked us up from the airport, using 2 cars, i.e. our Mazda Fighter and Perodua Alza. After a quick breakfast at Junction 5, off we headed to Loagan Bunut.
It took about 2 hours from Bintulu to reach Loagan Bunut.
We were the only visitors to the National Park on 3-4 April. The Banglow has 2 very spacious rooms. It is big enough to accommodate all 11 of us.
The first day was pretty relaxing. Few of us toured the lake with a boatman. The boat got stuck many times due to the very low tide.
Half the team didn't go for the lake tour, after the first team experiencing frequent boat stuck. Accessibility was poor too, when the tide is low.
The evening was undoubtedly the best part of the Day 1. We prebooked our dinner with the park canteen owner, at the price of RM35/ pax. It was a simple dinner, but the portion was huge for the 11 of us.
On top of the dinner prepared by canteen, we spent our evening BBQ at the open field too, while enjoying the stunning sunset view.
Day 2 - Loagan Bunut - Long Lama - Long Luteng
Long Lama is probably the last decent town before we head to villages that are only semi-connected by untarred roads and broken bridges.
Long Lama is only a short drive from Loagan Bunut.
We met up with Patrick at Long Lama police station, the childhood friend of our colleage Jeffyson. Dont' get me wrong. It is not like any of us are criminal, but we just thought police station is probably the safest place to leave our Alza there. And from there, 6 of us got into Patrick's Hilux, 3 in the car, and 3 in the open cab.
After taking our breakfast, we started our journey to Long Luteng, not knowing what's ahead of us.
The road was good for the first 40 minutes. Not perfect, but good. Most are winding tarred roads. Then we came to a junction where we turned into. At the junction was big sign board, displaying many village names.
This was my first off-road experience. Some stretches of the road were flooded with mud as deep as 2 ft. Some stretches requiring the car to drive through made shift bridges of only few wooden logs, not knowing when they would give way.
After driving through the muddy stretch, we detoured into a small river stream for a quick shower, for ourselves and for our cars.
It was very refreshing to take a shower in this natural stream.
It took us nearly 5 hours to drive from Long Lama to Long Luteng. We were greeted by Jeffyson family upon our arrival. The smile on their faces told us how delighted they were with the return of Jeffyson to the village. I only came to know later, that he has not returned to his village for more than 1 year.
Long luteng is probably only 330km from Bintulu, not a long distance per sa. But after going through the ride, I came to realize, it wasn't the kilo meters that are daunting. It was the road that was not maintained after the logging camp left the area. You never know what's ahead when you drive on this road, road for the lack of better words.
Fortunately, there is a school in Long Luteng. The nearest clinic, is at least 1 hour away by pick up truck. There is almost no economy activity in the village. The village folks, live a life that's self sustaining, farming, collecting, hunting. No doubt, they went to nearest town sometimes to get some essentials.
Despite all the lack of choices in Long Luteng, Jeffyson's mother still cooked us very good and delicious lunch and dinner.
Jeffyson tried his best to show us all the beautiful places that he knows. And one of the best moments of the trip, was our trip to a waterfall about 1.5 hours away from Long Luteng.
The trip was made very memorable, because we went there in just 1 pick up truck. We = 19 people, adults and children.
Transports, accommodation, and F&B
- Flight ticket 2 way - RM140/ person
- Transport from Btu onward - by company cars, and assisted by Patrick (with his great Hilux).
- Accommodation: we stayed at national park Banglow at Loagan Bunut the first night RM250. We stayed at Jeffyson house the second night
- Boat at Loagan Bunut: RM300
- Dinner at Loagan Bunut: RM385
- Dinner at Long Luteng: Thank you Aunty
- Memory: Invaluable
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My 3 Plus and 2 Minus :-
3 things I like about this trip:
- While many of us finally step foot into the real Baram, the trip was made even more meaningful because our colleagues Jeffyson finally returned home after 1 year plus
- The adventure sense, the laughters shared among all members
- Ah Leong (our warehouse manager) came with us at last minute. He is probably the most misunderstood man in our company. I am really glad he came this time to join the trip, to build an even stronger bond with the younger colleagues. And he took great photos too.
2 thing I would do differently if I can turn back the clock:
- Going to Loagan Bunut at a time when tide is higher
- Changed our car tyres to offroad type, and not semi offroad.
A surprise learning from the trip
- Most of the villagers hope the logging camp to stay - because when they are gone, no one would maintain the roads.
- There are many villages at the inner Baram, way more than i ever thought.
- Some of our staff can sommersault really well
Urban folks like us, we tend to always search for what we do not have/ get. At times, we feel discontented. We complain, we resent. Compared with village folks who don't even have the access to medical care, and basic infrastructure like decent roads, shouldn't we be more grateful sometimes?