Friday 25 Feb
My Lonely Planet stated that "Gunung Mulu NP may well be the single most impressive destination in all of Borneo". Not much to live up to then! There were stated to be many natural wonders packed into the NP, from some of the world's largest, most incredible caves, to brilliant tropical rainforest, and an incredibly biodiverse range of wildlife and flora. I wouldn't be seeing one of the park's top attractions though since it involved some majorly strenuous uphill hiking - the Pinnacles, a forest of razor-sharp limestone peaks clustered 45m above the rainforest - maybe next year!
Mulu is only accessible by plane or a costly all-day river journey from the nearby town of Miri involving three boats - I opted for the former! The scenery on the way from Kuching to Mulu was an ocean of rainforest with meandering silt-laden rivers. There were the odd pockets of logging and oil palm plantation but thankfully not too many. Mulu airport was basically a small airstrip with a building next to it; bags were taken off the plane and passed over a counter to arriving passengers. A shuttle bus duly arrived to meet us and start whisking us off to Park HQ (RM5), then there was a bit of form-filling and paying for my dorm and booking of tours to do. The Park was actually very organised - they gave you a detailed map/planner of the Park HQ and trails with all the activities shown on it with start times and costs. I decided to stay in the hostel (RM40/night for a bed) as the other options were too costly for a single traveller, perfectly functional, fan-cooled, and mosquito screens on the windows. I had a quick lunch in the open-air Park cafe, chicken satay which was pleasant enough, before getting straight into my tours. All the meals were about RM10 to RM15, a can of tiger beer was RM8, can of coke RM4, so pretty reasonable prices, I actually found the food very good over the following days.
I'd booked a tour to Lang's and Deer Cave this afternoon. Lang's Cave features some fascinating limestone formations. Deer Cave contains the world's largest cave passage - over 2km in length and 174m high. In the evening, millions of bats (usually) issue forth from the mouth of Deer Cave to feed on jungle insects. In a bit of bureaucratic overkill, you can only visit the show caves as part of a guided tour, even though they are clearly signposted, they have a boardwalk to the cave entrance, and there is only a single path through the caves. This means you have to hang about for slow people, the guide wasn't that good anyway, and a few of us ended up losing him anyway and made our own way out. After the caves, you go to the bat observatory, a covered lookout point to the entrance of Deer Cave, hopefully to see the millions of bats in the cave leave to feed. However, it started raining while we were in the cave and we didn't see the exodus. A bit disappointing! Lots of bugs though, our guide told us not to touch the handrail when walking along the boardwalk as there would be caterpillars along them, some of which could leave nasty after-effects.
In the evening, meal in the restaurant, lamb korma, which was tasty but didn't like the fact that the lamb was on the bone, but that was probably me just being lazy, since proper Asian meat is cooked on the bone to add more flavour. The restaurant has last orders at 9pm, and after that there isn't a whole lot else to do (apart from spotting the bugs in the toilets) as you're actually staying in the NP so an early night.
Saturday 26 Feb
A free breakfast was included in the room rate - a choice of either a Western brekkie, pancakes or Asian noodles. I then had a trip to the Cave of the Winds and Clearwater Cave, which were reached by boat with a stop at a local stilt village on the way. The Cave of the Winds included some fantastic forests of stalactites and stalagmites, and was so named because of the breeze which blows through the cave system. Clearwater Cave is said to be the longest cave in SE Asia and the highlight was an underground river that ran through the chambers.
A burger and chips for lunch which I thought was nice (two burgers and an egg in a bun, crinkle cut chips, RM14). There were a couple of walks you could do in the park on your own and in the afternoon, I walked to the Moonmilk Cave on my own. It was nice walking on my own in perfect quiet (well, quiet from other people anyway, the forest was never quiet and at times, the cacophony from the cicadas was deafening - I'd liken the sound to the loudest sawmill imaginable). There were a few bugs on the trail and the odd bird (most were heard and not seen). I turned around at the (500) steps leading to the Cave itself and then walked back.
In the evening, I had booked the Night Walk at 7pm for a very cheap RM10. This walk was brilliant, through the pitch black forest with just our torches cutting through the darkness. The forest was alive with sound, even louder than during the day - insects, frogs, birds, it was hard to tell what creature was making what sound. There were loads of cool bugs, some lizards, fireflies, huge spiders, frogs, an owl, and we spied the eyes of a porcupine in the distance but it dashed off as we crept slowly forward. I enjoyed the walk so much that I signed up for another one the next night! I had beef rendang in the canteen in the evening (RM15), it was delicious, the beef was really tender - I'll be having that again!
Sunday 27 Feb
The Mulu Canopy Skywalk was supposed to be one of the best in SE Asia and allowed you to see the rainforest canopy up close, where most of the action happened. I'd booked the first slot at 7am in the hope of seeing some birds but was told by the guide that was pretty unlikely and the tour was mainly a way to experience the canopy. It was pretty scary if you don't like heights (like me!), a couple of rickety planks strung between the trees with a rope banister, some planks coming loose, the bridge swinging to and fro as other people walked on it. On the way back to Park HQ, a few of us noticed that the door to the Tree Top Tower walkway was open and we ventured through it. Just as me and Richard were about to enter the Tower, we heard screaming behind us from Richard's girlfriend as she'd spotted a big Pit Viper on a branch right next to the path - Richard and I had walked straight past it. It was a Wagler's Pit Viper (I think), and it was poisonous! Maybe that was why you had to have a guide for so many of the activities - the assortment of deadly bugs and snakes that could poison you or cause nasty reactions.
At about 4pm, I took a walk back to the Bat Observatory on my own, hopefully to the see the bat exodus from Deer Cave that hadn't occurred during my visit a couple of days ago due to the wet weather. Despite the odd brief shower, I was in luck and at sundown, the bats started coming out in ribbons, maybe a few thousand at a time. After watching for about 45 minutes, the handful of us still waiting to see the bats come out in a steady stream were told that we'd have to wait much longer, either that or the guide wanted to go home, so we decided to walk back. By then, it was pretty dark, and since I'd miss tonight's Night Walk as I wouldn't get back to Park HQ in time, me and bug-crazy Kiwi Nate carried out our own Night Walk on the way back. He hadn't seen the Pit Viper and we found the gate to the Tree Top Tower path open, so we had a wander down to see if the snake was still there. Since it was pitch black, I was a bit wary of searching for a poisonous snake, but I found it again and shone my torch on it from a distance while Nate snapped away. It was beef rendang again for dinner for me, washed down by a few tinnies of Tiger beer.
Monday 28 Feb
Time to say goodbye to Mulu as I had a flight booked today to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. I checked out by 10am, had a final meal of beef rendang again, then mulled about waiting for my shuttle bus to Mulu Airport at 2pm. My flight left at 3.20pm, and with a 50 minute stopover in Miri, I arrived in Kota Kinabalu at ~5.30pm.
It had been a wonderful 3 days at Mulu NP. The show caves were spectacular, with the bat exodus thrown in for good measure. I didn't see the mammals and birds I had in other NPs, but wildlife comes in all shapes and sizes, and the sheer number of strange and colourful insects and other small wildlife was magical. The Park organisation was excellent, the hostel very good and well-priced, the canteen food excellent, and I met some great new friends too! All in all, a wonderful place and it would certainly be near the top of my list of places for a future visit.
Expenses (excluding food and shopping): RM424 (~£85) £1=RM5
Shared taxi to Kuching airport - it was paid for me.
Flight from Kuching to Mulu with Malaysia Airways RM164
Shuttle bus from Mulu Airport to Park HQ RM5
Accommodation: 3 nights dorm bed at Mulu NP RM120
NP entry fee RM10
Canopy Walk RM35
Night Walk x 2 RM20
Caves RM70 (RM20 each for Deer/Lang's and Clearwater/Wind, RM30 for boat for Clearwater/Wind)
Shuttle bus from Park HQ to Mulu airport RM5
Links:
http://www.mulupark.com/
http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/np/mulu.htm
Bugs, Bats and Caves in Mulu NP
Monday, February 28, 2011
Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia
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2025-02-06