It’s school holidays and what better time to visit the Kuching Water Park, or in its full name; the Borneo Samariang Water Park!
If you need information on what to wear, how much it cost, where it is, etc., go to this link about the Borneo Samariang Water Park. I’ve detailed almost everything about the water park there.
This post is about my personal experience during my visit to the park.
GOING TO THE KUCHING WATER PARK
The Kuching Water Park is the only large scale water park in Malaysian Borneo that I know at the time of writing. It’s on a 35-acre land with four major areas; the Water Park entrance, the Hornbill Island, the Salak Beach & Wavepool and the Santubong Tower.
Based on my brief findings, it also has the highest water slides in Borneo, hence putting this water park as probably the best around.
Although I am from Kuching, I’ve never been to the Kuching Water Park, so I had to use Google Maps to find it.
According to Google Maps, there’s three routes to go to the Borneo Samariang Water Park. Each route takes about 26 – 30 minutes by car from my place in Matang.
I choose the more common route. It was the longest route but it is along a familiar road; the Sultan Tengah Road.
The road to the water park was sealed all the way. However, as we got nearer to the water park, the surroundings were less developed although there were signs of future developments. There was signboards pointing us in the right direction, so Google Maps wasn’t exactly needed then.
BUYING TICKETS AND RENTING TUBES AND LOCKERS
We arrived at about 10AM, and there was already about 100 people at the ticketing counter. I was made to understand that about most of them were there for a team building program organized by the Borneo Samariang Waterpark.
Buying the tickets took little time as there wasn’t a queue. I purposely went on a Tuesday because the water park closes every Tuesday, except on school holidays. This was a Tuesday, and I was hoping to avoid the crowd.
In terms of price, I got a discount of RM10 for every person as I had a voucher in hand. This meant I paid only RM18 per person! The normal price is RM28 per adult. – This is by far the cheapest I’ve paid for a water park entry in my life! I remember forking some RM98 for Water Bom in Bali and a hefty RM168 for Vana Nava Water Jungle in Hua Hin, Thailand.
We were all given a ticket band to enter the water park
In case you are wondering why Hua Hin’s Vana Nava Water Jungle and Bali’s Water Bom charges higher entrance fee., let me briefly explain: You see, both these water parks operates in a similar manner, with tubes and life jackets included in the entrance price.
For Kuching’s Borneo Samariang Water Park, tubes and life jackets are available on a renting basis.
Regardless however, Borneo Samariang Water Park still comes out cheaper as a tube and life jackets would only add up RM40 to the entrance fee of RM28. This means you only pay RM68 per entry as opposed to the other two water parks.
Other items like lockers, towels, cabana’s are all charged separately regardless of which water park you go to, and even that’s cheaper at Kuching’s Borneo Samariang Water Park.
That said, we went to the rental counter and got ourselves a large locker, a couple of tubes and a cabana. We also rented a life vest for my daughter.
I’d also like to note that the water park goes cashless, so you need to reload your ticket band before you head in. Once inside, you just need to scan your ticket band to use the cash.
THE KIDS POOL AT THE KUCHING WATER PARK
The first section we headed to is the Kids Pool section at the Hornbill Island.
Here there’s three main pools for children, and the Mount Mulu Clear Water River which is the ‘lazy river’ that circles around the Hornbill Island.
The three main pools are also named Aqua Play, the Leisure Pool, the Kid’s Slides.
Only children are allowed to play with the slides in the Aqua Play and Kid’s Slides while adults get to enjoy the Leisure pool and Mount Mulu Clear Water River.
My 4-year old girl loved all three pools because they were plenty of slides and made children friendly. She also loved the leisure pool because it wasn’t deep and it proved to be very popular among adults as well.
I personally liked the Mount Mulu Clear Water River. I like the fact that it was very relaxing, but would prefer more shade over the river in the future.
Around the Hornbill Islands are cabanas, and there’s a snack bar right in the middle of the ‘island’.
PLAYING WITH WAVES AT THE SALAK BEACH WAVE
After about an hour at the Kids Pool, we decided to go to the Salak Beach Wave. We were lucky to go when the waves were up and running.
The Salak Beach Wave has a dedicated time for waves, so if you want to enjoy these waves, be sure to go to the Salak Beach Wave when the waves are up.
While the adults played with the waves, my daughter went to the side of the pool to play with sand.
The idea of having sand just beside the wave pool is actually brilliant because it gives kids a place to build sand castles, and act as if they are at an actual beach.
There’s also cabana’s near the Salak Beach Wave if you wanted to rent one. I’d however stick to the cabanas near the Kid’s pool because they are nearer to food.
ADULT SLIDES AT THE SANTUBONG TOWER
The Santubong Tower is what separates this particular Kuching Water Park from the rest. I am not sure of the height of the adult slides, but they seem to be as high as a 5-storey building.
This is were adrenaline goes pumping and where the real fun begins for adults.
I went on the Family Raft Ride first. It was exhilarating because the ride itself was a mixture of speed, and thrill. At almost every corner of the ride, I felt the raft would overturn which was a cause of concern for me, but that exact mixture of excitement, thrill and concern made the adrenaline rush I felt on the ride worthwhile.
The second ride I went on was the 6-lane racer. This was an open water lane slide which required a slide mat. The slide mat was available for free, and you technically slide down from a certain height.
Three other slides, namely the Crystal slide, Canopy Slide and Galaxy slide were also very thrilling that my buddies and I did them several times. Mind you that some of these slides will require the tubes that was rented out earlier.
We didn’t try the Sky drop ride because it was closed for maintenance.
If you want an idea of the excitement on the slides, check out the video below. FYI, I make it a point to shout on any extreme rides because there’s no fun if everyone stayed quiet.
FOOD AT THE WATER PARK
Noon came, and it was lunch time. We headed for the snack bar nearby our cabana and ordered some pizzas and drinks.
There was also Nasi Lemak, burgers and fried noodles on sale, but pizza sounded appropriate for our group which consist of about eight people.
Well, I must admit I didn’t have much of an expectation when it comes to the food here, but I was pleasantly surprised and wrong when the pizzas were served.
Not only did the pizzas come delivered to our cabana, they were also tasty and on point. It was so good, we ended up ordering another two sets.
Food was also sold at the nearby Garden Terrace but we were all too lazy to leave the comfort of our cabana.
A PROMISE TO RETURN
After another couple of hours playing in the Hornbill Island we decided to call it a day at about 3PM.
We packed our stuff and headed to the tube rental counter to return items we had borrowed. The rest went in to the locker area to change and prepare for the journey home.
The last thing to do after that was to claim our refunds and we were ready to head home.
I would say that it was a great experience at the Borneo Samariang Water Park, and I think this is only the first of many more visits. I do hope the water park would improve in the future, perhaps adding more trees and more rides, but at only RM28/person, I really can’t complain.
TIPS WHEN VISITING THE KUCHING WATER PARK
Before I end this post, here’s some useful tips for those keen to go to the Kuching Water Park.
- Wear sunscreen. There’s little shade and the sun can really sting even though it’s a gloomy day. I got a pretty bad sunburn despite the gloomy day.
- Keep slippers in the lockers if you are not renting a cabana.
- Bring your own towels and life vest if you want to save. Keep the towels in the lockers.
- Take note of the wave pool timing to enjoy major waves.
- If you intend to rent a cabana, rent one at the Hornbill Island. They are cooler and nearer to food.
- Bring enough cash. I did not notice any ATM machine. Credit card is accepted nonetheless.
- Bring waterproof hand phone cases if you want to shoot in the pools.
- Read ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BORNEO SAMARIANG WATER PARK HERE.
Hope the tips helped and I do hope you enjoyed the article as well!
