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Published: April 1st 2010
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Gunung Mulu Natl. Park
Deer cave, is that Abe Lincoln's silhouette? Sharing a taxi with a young couple staying in Dellenia GH we set off to the Miri airport, 20 ringgits between the 3 of us, check in was smooth, the plane ride is about 30 minutes to get to Mulu , and do some jungle stuff in the National park. The luggages took awhile to get unloaded, meanwhile I asked around for Diang which Mrs. Lee from Dellenia GH recommended for homestay, the park HQ dorms are fully booked! So I asked this lady at the taxi counter, turns out it was her, Diang told me to get in the van after I take my pack from luggage claim area, with me are 3 history teachers from KL, 5 ringgits for the van shuttle to the homestay which Diang owns, it is quite simple, no fuss, a few rooms with beds, no kitchen, basic bucket toilets and electricity only from 6pm to 12mn. The Malaysian girls are very nice and helped me out to sort out a few things as the person in the homestay is not good with the English.
I took a walk towards the National Park HQ following the river it's only 3 minute walk, go past
the sign and cross the suspended bridge, at the HQ it was very busy, people checking in and trying to book wlks and all, I confirmed our Pinnacles hike as we need reservations at camp 5 and also I booked a few simple hikes, this afternoon to see the Deer and Lang caves and also the canopy walk 7am tomorrow morning as i missed doing that in Temburong in Brunei. I went to the cafeteria for lunch of paku vegetables(fern) it was good! They advertise it here as forest veggies. The Malaysian girls joined me at the table, then I left them to take a walk around the park. At 2pm I met them again along with a few people to do the cave walk, Henry is our guide, a nice chap of Chinese origin, right off the bat he showed us insects, medicinal plants, critters of every shape and size, very knowledgable about forest wildlife. The walk to the caves was about 1 hour and at a ceratin point there is a sitting area with toilets and snacks to buy, this is where people sit to watch the bats fly out from the caves in the eve. We did
the Lang cave first, smaller than Lang with interesting stalactites, some odd worms that make sticky hairlike goo from the roof of the cave just like spiders, really cool. Then comes the Deer cave which is massive, there is a small creek that runs inside the cave with crawfish and some insects, namely cochroaches, the floor is full of bat shit and you can smell it a bit. We explored it for maybe an hour then we went back to the sitting area to watch the bats, they come out in groups, they form circles first then a ribbon shape formation as they leave the cave mouth, really great to see but it started to rain, we waited awhile hoping it will stop but didn't so we walked back in the rain, I got soaked as I forgot my raincoat. Before heading back to the homestay we had dinner at this restaurant outside the park I split the bill with the Malaysian teachers then we went back to the homestay and I slept right away, very tired.
Got up at 6:52am! I had only a few minutes to get ready for the Canopy walk, It took totl of 2
hours to do it, about 15 floating walkways suspended in the forest canopy, we did not see a single bird or animal, but the scenery is nice, for 30 ringgits, thought it was a waste of money. Anyway I got back to the homestay to check out but found no one, even the Malaysian teachers were gone for their treks, I decided to leave the money, 20 ringgits and the key on my pillow, I was alone in the room, surely when they clean it they will see the money. At the park HQ I met up with the Dutch girls Jane and Susanne, my roommates in Miri we will trek together to the Pinnacles and so we are sharing a room together tonight, dorms are fully booked.47 ringgits per person on a four bed room(the rainforest lodge), we have a huge bathroom, ceiling fan, quite nice. Susanne and I walked to the Paku waterfall trail Jane decided to sleep instead. For lunch we had the paku again. The trail was very nice, you walk under the canopy walk above, took us about an hour to the falls but it is disappointing, just a trickle of water coming out from
the limestone wall. Anyway on the way back we saw 2 big birds I thought it was an eagle but later we confirmed from park rangers it was a couple of white hornbills.
The girls did the caves and I slept. They came back around 6pm just in time before the heavens opened up, here in Mulu it rains every afternoon and sometimes through the night. We packed before going to bed, we are bound for camp 5 tomorrow for the Pinnacles, they brought their big bags with them so they will store it in the reception storage, we brought our foods with us and we all struggled to fit them all in our mid sized day bags. off to bed and woke up at 7am, it rained all night. We checked in at reception, we paid for the excursion, roughly 260 ringgits per head, there will be four of us an elderly British woman joined us at the last minute, the fee included the boat ride, Wind and Clearwater cave entrance fees, and guides to the Pinnacles. First up we got dropped off at the longhouse to browse about, I nearly bought a souvenir matt but I held
back, we promised to come back on the way back from the trek.
The next stop is the caves, the river cruise is nice, brown water going through lush jungle. The caves were ok, am not a big fan really these are huge ones, I tried to take fotos but i don't think they turned out that well. We had lunch there at the rest area before proceeding to the drop off point for camp 5. The boat drop us at a certain point then we hike the rest of the way on our own to camp 5.
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pinoytraveller
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Nice Blog, Fantastic Photos
Kabayan, I am happy to read your blog. I am also planning to make the same trip sometime late this year or early next year and I found a lot of valuable info in your blog. It seems that you really had a great trip. Mabuhay! Frank Pinoytraveller