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Published: September 7th 2011
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From Kuching I caught a local bus to an intersection and then walked for 20 minutes to the jetty for the boat bound for Sibu, only to find out that it was already booked out hours earlier. So I jumped into a taxi and headed across the other side of town to the long distance bus terminal where I found a seat on a bus leaving at 10am. It was a pretty boring 7 hour ride with not a great deal to see. After arriving at the Sibu bus station and finding out the local bus to the centre had stopped running for the day, I jumped into another taxi and found some nice accommodation in the middle of town. Sibu is not a very pretty city, it mainly acts as a commercial centre for the shipping trade of the Rejang river. After 2 nights I jumped on the 10 am bus to Miri. I arrived in Miri after another 7 hour trip with not a lot to see along the way, jumped on the local bus to the city, and found accommodation at a guesthouse. I suggest that anyone traveling from Kuching to Miri catch a flight, seeing that there
isn't really much along the way and it saves sitting on a bus for 14 hours.
A week earlier I had booked a return flight to Mulu for a great price of $40 return on Maswings. So after 2 nights in Miri I jumped on a twin propeller plane that usually seats about 60 people but was only half full for the 25 minute flight. I found dorm accommodation just outside the park for $11 a night including breakfast. Mulu National Park is known for its world famous caves as well as a trek to a group of sharp limestone spikes on the side of a mountain known as the Pinnacles. Initially I was planning to do the 3 day 2 night trek to the Pinnacles but seeing my back was hurting a little I decided to pull out. This gave me 6 full days to enjoy the Park at a leisurely pace.
On the first day I did a part of the Moonmilk Walk as well as the Waterfall Walk. Both were nice walks with a lot of little bugs, spiders, snails, butterflies, and even a tiny snake along the way. The waterfall wasn't that big and
the depth of the river not that great so I didn't jump in for a swim. In the afternoon I went on a park tour to Deer cave (Largest cave passage that can be visited in the world) and Lang cave. The size of Deer cave was very impressive and the tour ended with us watching the exodus of hundreds of thousands of bats in the evening.
The following day I walked to a resort a few kilometres away to see if I could use their swimming pool. After being told it was going to cost me $35 including either lunch or dinner I decided to give it a miss, but I later returned in the evening to watch Geelong kick Collingwood's arse. Next day I just took a walk to the nearby village where I had a swim in the river and had a look around.
On the 4th day I went on another park tour to Cave of the Winds and Clearwater cave (longest cave in southeast asia). I enjoyed both caves as well as the boat ride along the way and the refreshing swim in the clear water outside the caves. On Monday I did
a little adventure caving at Racer Cave, named after the snakes in the cave that feed off nesting bats and swifts. It was great fun going up and down ropes inside the cave, and squeezing through a couple of tight gaps. I wish it went for longer though. On my last full day I just took it easy and went on the nightwalk in the evening. It was quite disappointing with us only seeing insects, spiders, birds, and a couple of frogs. The next morning I took a near empty flight back to Miri.
It was overall a pretty relaxing week for me, seeing a couple impressive caves, and just really enjoying being in a very nice rainforest.
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