Tasik Biru

Tasik Biru means blue lake, and the colour is the whole reason anyone stops: it is a worked-out open-cast gold mine at Bau that filled with water after operations ended, and dissolved minerals in the pit give it a strong blue-green that changes with light and weather. Gold mining at Bau goes back to Chinese workings in the nineteenth century and the industry defined the town, which is why the pit sits directly beside it. There is a walkway and a park along part of the shore, a viewing point above, and the usual evening use by people from the town. The water is not for swimming - the same chemistry that produces the colour comes with a legacy of mine tailings, and arsenic contamination in the Bau area has been documented and studied for years, so the lake is looked at rather than entered.

What you actually see

• A flooded open-cast pit - the worked-out gold mine that became the lake.
• Blue-green water - the colour from dissolved minerals, shifting with the light.
• A shore walkway and park - the local evening promenade above the water.
• A mining town - Bau, defined by workings going back to the nineteenth century.

When to go

All year; bright days for the colour. An hour or two.

Honest expectations

Do not swim - this is a mine pit with a documented tailings legacy in the area. It is small and takes an hour. On a dull day the colour is much less striking.

Nearby

Fairy Cave and Wind Cave are a few kilometres away; Kuching is east.