I was holiday-ing at Mulu, in Sarawak, hiking in the caves and monsoon jungles.
Mulu is a Malaysian forest reserve rich with Limestone Caves, wild animals & beautiful scenery. I took a flight from KLIA (MAS) to Kuching, then transfer flight to Miri (MAS), stayed a night at Miri and another transfer to a smaller plane from Miri (MAS-Wings) to Mulu the next day.
This is Mulu airport. Small but really neat one. The first flight was cancelled so i had to stay a night at Miri. *A piece of advice, plan loads of free time on your schedule as Mulu always rains thus airplane can’t see runway and can’t land. Thus flight cancel.
Checked into the Royal Mulu Resort. Not bad. But lack a little enthusiam in food variety and room service. They have a cultural dance show while dinnner is being serve every night at 8pm.
This is the view of the resort. All are built on stilts which are hoisted 6ft above the ground. The rooms were splendid.
After checking, time to start trekking. But first, off to lunch…..by boat. My “Rolce Royce” here it comes!haha.
Had lunch at a village restaurant. Not bad. All planted by themselves. This church was beside the restaurant. Most of them are Penan-s…who are Bahasa Malaysia speakin Christians.
After lunch, head to Deer Cave for bat sight seeing,…. In my hired “limousine” owned by the restaurant owner who is also the driver.
His cat Upin wanted to tag along the limousine ride too.
Andy, the park ranger, holding Upin.
Gunung Mulu national park.
This is the bat observatory area and also the entrance to the deer cave. It was a healthy 8km hike TO THE ENTRANCE of the deer cave. No pictures along the way as it was pouring heavy rain and i was wearing a raincoat and all drenched. No pictures of things in this cave as well as it was also raining from water above the cave into the cave.
The cave was about 5km of stair climbing. And another 8km hike out of the reserve.
The next day is to the clear wind cave and some other cave. Access to the cave is only via river. Andy in the picture.
Long houses of the Penans along the way. It was a 15 minute and coincidentally 15 horse power ride to the cave foothill.
That’s Gunung Api where the cave is located. Had to track by foot.
After that cave, went to another cave, dunno what’s the name by boat.
You need rangers with you all the time! Clear Water Cave is a staggering 189km long!!!!! You will get lost in the cave itself!!
Inside is really beautiful. With heaps of satelites, insects and bats. The park ranger explains of the formation of the these sharp rocks due to phyto-something bacteria inside them.. Got more pictures of the cave to upload. Wait till i resize them first…
This is a local clinic. Attended by a medical assistant. Not a medical officer. Above are the long houses seen while hiking along the way and the pathway.
Above is the only school available in Mulu. Secondary they have to move out i guess. Access to this school is mainly by boat! How cool is that…..
Mulu is all great. Things that you should be reminded of are raincoats, torchlights!, caps, really tough shoes (loads of walking and hiking), mosquito repellant and some form of entertainment.
Basically no internet access…only in the resort at a stagerring RM35 per hour. Not much of astro and tv, very blur coverage but you’ll have loads of free time to think and walk with nature in this lovely isolated area in Sarawak.
On the final day, was supposed to fly off at 10am in the morning but flight delayed as the plane can’t land. Waited for the next plane to come at 3.15pm and hope that it will not be fully booked as the next connecting flight from Miri-Kuching-Kuala Lumpur was at 4.10pm. Lucky not fully booked and able to to reach Miri airport at 4.05pm and took the flight out of Miri. Such a relief as to not stay another night in Mulu.
All in all, Mulu is really REALLY fully much recommended for thrill seekers and hiking lovers.
Remember to bring RAINCOATS!
~~signing off
