I finally did it. After 6 years of talking about it.
Excitement and nervousness. Anticipation and butterflies. The first few thoughts raced through my mind as we landed at the Mulu airport to begin our spelunking adventure. I underestimated the task awaited us as I snail paced myself in a race to get fit beforehand.
I was at my peak a year ago when I conquered Mount K to become an adopted son of Sabah. Mulu however proved to be a different challenge. It dwarfed all of my previous cave spelunking adventures through sheer use of body strength.
We boarded an early flight to Miri to ensure there was ample time for the connecting flight to Mulu. It cost RM550 per person for both flights. The jungles of Mulu greeted us with clear sky as we landed around 3pm to check into our hostel, which was very clean and well-maintained at only RM40 per person per night.
The 800m looped jungle walk was the first thing we did considering there wasn’t enough daylight left. At 9am the next morning, we departed for Racer Cave, a 2.5 hour intermediate spelunking that involved 6 different roping sections, coupled with the darkness and slipperiness of the cave, it proved to be a challenging experience for us as it took the breath out of our lungs. The guide advised us against the Sarawak Chamber, a 12-hour marathon which we pre-booked the next day.
After reading the detailed guide, The Pinnacles captivated me the most, but with our present fitness levels, I placed it on my to-do list in the coming years. A 9km jungle hike with an overnight stay at a camp, followed by a 2.4km hike the next day towards The Pinnacles.
After Racer Cave, we toured the Deer and Lang Cave, a 3.8km walk to see the 2nd largest cave opening in the world, 100m in height and 150m in width! I was awestruck. Unfortunately it rained the minute we left the caves thus postponing the bat exodus viewing session.
Day 3 involved a 486m Canopy Walk, followed by a 2.8km trail to Paku Waterfalls and finally back to the Deer Cave for the stunning display of bat exodus, flying out in unison.
We left for Miri on Day 4, and drove into town for lunch at Muara Restaurant (excellent selections of Lelapan!), before driving 80km to Niah National Park via Jalan Bakam. We arrived at the park at 3:30pm, started our caving at 4pm and ended shortly at 7pm, covering the 1.3km long Great Cave. We didn’t manage to visit the Painted Cave as it’s been closed since March 2012 for upgrade works – pity though as we wanted to witness paintings that dates back 40,000 years, the oldest in Malaysia!
The trail to and fro Great Cave was slippery, and I tripped over 4 flight of stairs that left a black and blue bruise on my left butt cheek plus a few bruises on my leg and hand. The path was littered with millipedes on the railing so that was on my mind as I traversed down the slippery steps.
Niah is poorly maintained compared to Mulu, probably because it’s easily accessible by land, hence the number of graffiti in the cave. I was cursing underneath my breath as continuous streams of idiots left their marks.
The plan of staying over a night changed as we returned to the chalet, with the whole place shutting down. It felt like a ghost town. Boring. We made a quick decision to return to Miri and unfortunately took the Mili-Bintulu route and spent an additional 30km on the road for a 90 minute ride over 110km.
What nightlife in Miri? Ming Cafe probably comes closest but it feels like a Chinese cafe trying to punch above its weight, while the rest of the bars were mostly pathetic except for Celebrities. Ask any local and they would tell you that Miri is a town tainted with prostitution under the guise of massages as there were loads of dodgy spas.
We suffered a bout of food poisoning, to various extents, with me the least of the 3 of us – Victor, Chelva and I. Hence, we rested at the Waterfront Homestay (I reviewed it on Trip Advisor by the way) until 4pm before driving to Canada Hills to visit the Grand Old Lady Oil Well and to catch the Miri sunset at Hazard Bistro.
It was there that I received the most direct pickup line. The waitress who seem to have forgotten the world, was apparently turned on by my presence, and said to me, ”Wah….botak sexy oh….tidak tahan nafsu sia!” (Wow, bald is sexy, I can’t fight my sexual desires!” I told my wife about it and she said I was lucky that I didn’t get charmed. Do they still practice it?
I have no plans of returning to Miri again, even if I decide to return to Mulu to take on The Pinnacles, I don’t intend to stay in Miri like before now that Niah is done.
The next outdoor outing is at Bukit Kinding Resort in Perak next month where we will take on the longest flying fox in Malaysia. I can hardly wait.