White verandas
Columns and timber roofs.
Marufish from Alor Setar, Malaysia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Yeo Jiun Tzen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Marufish from Alor Setar, Malaysia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Marufish from Alor Setar, Malaysia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · 馬姥 — CC BY-SA 4.0
An elegant white complex from the era of Sarawak's White Rajahs, built by Charles Brooke after he became Rajah in 1868 as the seat of his government; it was finished in 1874 and remained the government's administrative centre until 1973. It is made up of four buildings around a lawn, with long verandas carried on white columns and high roofs of hard belian ironwood suited to the tropical climate. A clock tower was added at the entrance in 1883, and in 1924 a granite memorial obelisk to Charles Brooke was raised in front, ringed with carvings of Sarawak's peoples. Around 2003 it became the Sarawak Tourism Complex, and today it holds a tourist information office, cafés and a restaurant in the old buildings; wandering its verandas and courtyard is free. It is a pleasant place to escape the heat in the shade of the colonnades. It is a few steps from the waterfront and the columned old Post Office, so make it a stop on a walk through central Kuching's historic buildings, with the Square Tower and, across the river, Fort Margherita.
Columns and timber roofs.
A monument from 1924.
A shady break.
Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, near the waterfront and the old Post Office
Textile Museum SarawakA small, elegant museum in the Pavilion Building, a three-storey colonial buildi1 minute walk
Square TowerA small white building shaped like a fort, with crenellated parapets and a hexag1 minute walk
Kuching Waterfront and Darul Hana BridgeThe waterfront is the heart of Kuching and its loveliest part: a promenade of ab2 minutes walk
Carpenter StreetOne of Kuching's oldest streets and the heart of its Chinatown, running behind t2 minutes walk4.4
Masjid India Bandar KuchingAn elegant white mosque on the bank of the Sarawak River at the western end of K3 minutes walkThe British Brooke family, who ruled Sarawak for about a hundred years from 1841 to 1946; Charles Brooke was the second, and the Old Court House and Fort Margherita were built in his reign.