Kuching's waterfront promenade runs along the Sarawak River past the Old Courthouse and a run of colonial-era shophouses standing since the Brooke era. Completed in 2017, the golden Darul Hana Bridge — its two steel pylons topped with stylised hornbills — now links the old town directly to the government precinct on the far bank, a crossing that once needed a boat and now takes a ten-minute walk.
Across the water sit the Astana, the former residence of Sarawak's White Rajahs and today the Governor's official residence, and Fort Margherita, an 19th-century fortress now open as a museum, both visible from the promenade even without crossing over.