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Published: April 12th 2015
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From Brunei to Sarawak - Miri and the Niah Caves National Parks
Ruth and I locate the Miri bus stop, grab a coffee and set off on our adventures again.
We are sorry to miss the eclipse in the UK, but here it is the equinox with the sun directly above the equator at noon. We are about 4 degrees North. It is hot and our shadows are very short.
The road from Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, is a super motorway. It is green and leafy with flowers and manicured verges. There are no unsightly sprawling industrial suburbs in this direction. We pass several big stadiums and huge out of town malls and some large houses. The road cuts through maturing secondary rainforest for miles. There are no big lorries or container lorries, few bill boards, no police stations, no oil palm plantations and no agriculture for about an hours drive. Then there are small areas growing maize, bananas, tapioca and papaya. Just a few goats but very little livestock in Borneo generally. Lots of pylons, but a different shape to ours. There are unusual concrete poles carrying electricity wires. For some reason I am
fascinated by pylons and have just discovered, thanks to the BBC, that there is a pylon appreciation society. I dutifully emailed my pics taken on this journey.
The landscape changes. It is still very manicured with large expanses of cut grass at the road side backed by forest and we start to see nodding donkeys and huge water towers. We pass the Shell Seria Crude Oil Terminal, a massive complex extending for miles. There are vast oil storage tanks, miles of pipes, more huge water towers, the Shell Asia Pacific Training complex and prestigious looking offices. There are upmarket housing estates for employees, sports facilities and more manicured verges and large flowery roundabouts. This is where Brunei's wealth comes from.
Just before the border with Sarawak (Malaysia), the bus driver detours to a Shell fuel station. He manages to squeeze in 213 Litres of diesel for $66 Brunei Dollars - a bit less than £33. Worth the detour at less than 15p a litre and much cheaper than in Sarawak. (where it is just under 40p a litre.)
We check in at the border and have a short wait until the north bound bus arrives and the
drivers swap buses. I guess it allows them to get home to their own beds in their own country every night. Always best to choose an international bus company when crossing borders. The courier checks our passports prior to departure and guides us through the procedure at the border. Much more difficult in a private vehicle or small minibus.
Welcome to Sarawk. It is really apparent - bumpy roads, miles of clear felled woodland and regenerating scrub with a ferny ground cover. Older cars, people riding in open back trucks, a family of 4 on a motorbike, spidery wirescapes along the roadside and scrubby verges.
Not far from the border is Miri - Sarawak's second largest and richest city. A rapidly expanding business and commercial centre and the home of Sarawak's oil industry since the 1930's. The move to offshore oil production coincided with a boom in Sarawak's timber industry and Miri became a major timber processing and transhipment hub in the 1970's and 80's. Sarawak has high aspirations for this area. Large areas of land have been graded and levelled waiting for some entrepreneur to build even more industrial and commercial units and flashy glass fronted offices
and even more super luxury condos.
We arrive at Miri bus station have a coffee and taxi to the Apollo hotel. Not the tops of places but the sea food meal in the Apollo Seafood Centre next door is one of the best of the trip.
Next day we head for the Niah National Park to visit the famous Niah Caves. A scull dating back 40,000 years was found here during excavations led by Tom Harrisson. It is the home to large numbers of bats. Swiflets build their nests here which are collected for bird's nest soup.
The National Park facilities run by Sarawak Forestry are again typical. Lovely appropriate timber lodges which have not been maintained and which are falling to bits. The bathroom sink didn't have a waste pipe and water splashed over one's feet. Our fan made such a loud grinding noise that is was difficult to hear each other speak or sleep. Eventually it died and we were moved to another even dustier lodge - which had exactly the same bathroom sink waste pipe problem. The staff have new offices and a canteen. There are no guides available so we are not sure
Breaking in!
We had paid for our beds for the night! what the employees actually do here.
The first evening we take a walk along the river and Ruth hears a hornbill squawking high in a tree. We return before dusk to find that we are locked out of the visitor complex. Fortunately we can climb the high gate - otherwise we may have had to spend the night in the rainforest. Forestry staff had obviously left work early and gone home!
We are the only visitors here and although we are told that the canteen is open until 9 pm we had to rattle on the door to arouse the chef to open up. The meal was fine and we order breakfast for 8.30am. Again we rattle on the door which is opened by a young lady. The bare thigh of the chef pokes through the internal door as he beckons us in. Fried eggs come later.
To the caves. A man sits in an office by the river hiring out torches. We pay 1 Ringett to the boatman who takes us across the river. There are a few day tourists arriving now to visit the caves. The man behind the counter rents out more than our
Hanging bamboo pole
Men climb the poles to collect the birds nests from the roof for soup. 2 torches but we are not sure what he does for the rest of the day. We walk to the caves along 3 Km of board walks through lovely rainforest following a small river and sometimes beside the base of a steep limestone scarp slope. The mouth of Great Cave is amazing, a vast cavern approximately 2km long, up to 250 m across and up to 60m high. Inside the caves are more boardwalks giving access to internal area. It is dark, but when the sun hits certain overhead vents, the cave is penetrated by dramatic rays of other-worldly light. High in the roof of the cave - a faint moving light- as men collect birds nests for soup having climbed precarious bamboo poles hanging from the roof. It is the saliva which binds the nest together which is the ingredient for the soup. (Note the boardwalk and stairway at the bottom left of the photo to give you some idea of the size of the cave.)
Further on is the painted cave which sadly did not manage to reach but a Swiss group shared their photographs and their box of chocolate covered cakes!
We wait until late
afternoon as the swifts began to return and the bats began to stir but there was no massive flights of creatures in and out of the cave as reported in the past. We retrace our steps along the board walk, cross the river just before dusk and head for the canteen. Our chef is waiting for us. He serves our evening meal in a T-shirt and his black and white checked underpants. Should have taken a photo. Next morning we skip breakfast!
Before we leave we want to visit the museum to see some artefacts from the caves. We cross the river again but no one comes to open up the museum at 9am. By 9.30 we cross back over the river and leave for Sibu. With all the money from the timber surely Sarawak Forestry can put on a better show than this!
We taxi to Bata Niah Junction, a major transport hub. We eat roti and chocolate steam buns for breakfast before catching the next passing bus to Sibu.
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