Mulu Caves, Mulu National Park

Having never gotten around to ever writing about my adventure to Mount Kinabalu 5 months ago, I thot I'll do justice this time and review my trip to Mulu Caves at  Mulu National Park a week ago.  This trip was booked almost immediately upon return from Mt.K when most of the group members were still in their adventure mood.  We departed from LCCT on a 7.20am flight, reached Miri Airport at 9.15am and had 4 hours to kill at the airport as our next flight to Mulu was scheduled to be at 2pm.  To make things worse, the flight to Mulu was delayed for yet another 20 minutes!  Talk about boredoom indeed. Some of us killed time by camwhoring.  Can't blame us...

Our flight to Mulu was with MASwings, my first time onboard twin otter aircraft.  It cost us RM226 return.  The journey took just 30mins.  It would have taken a whole day if we opt for boat ride to Mulu.  Upon arrival, we were taken immediately by our guide to a waiting bus.  Since our flight was delayed, we now had to rush to the national park so that we can get on with our caves exploration that was scheduled for that afternoon. 

Our guide took us to 2 of the 4 caves that was in our package - Deer Cave & Lang Cave.  From the national park office, it was a 3km plank walk to the caves.  Along the way, all we saw was rainforest. Not much of floras.  I was still hoping to catch a glimpse of pitcher plants, having failed to sight any in Mt. K. No such luck...

We had to walk across this suspension bridge as part of the plank walk.  Only a certain number of people are allowed through at a time. Really shaky walk.  The naughty ones will purposely jump to make the bridge even more shakier. 

 The first visit was to Deer Cave, so named because once upon a time, deers found shelter in the cavern.  This is the world's largest cave passage, some 2km in length.  Huge!  The minute I walked in the entrance, I was in awed. The passage was strategically lit in some areas but it still helps to have a torchlight in hand.  I didn't bring mine so I just walked close to the group members who had one.  The stalagtites and stalagmites in this cave were amazing.  Simply beyond words.  You really have to see them to be in awed.

One of the great feature in this cave is the profile of Abraham Lincoln, at the southern entrance of the cave. You will only notice this if you turn around and you can only see this profile at the right angle. Move a little and you won't see it. Interesting huh?

Deer Cave is home to thousands of bats.  The cave is said to be full of guano smell though I found it to be not too stinky afterall, at least not the point of needing any mask.

Lang Cave is just a few km away from Deer Cave.  Amazingly enough, it was very windy in certain part of both caves.  It was like as if we were at a beach resort.  The visit to both caves was a little rushed for us and I wished we could have spent a little bit more time to admire the beauty of these caves.  The guide was trying to get us to the bats observatory platform quickly to witness thousands of bats flying out of the caves in formation.  The bats are said to fly out, if the weather permits, at around 5-5.30 pm and the whole formation usually last about 30 mins.  This was said to be highlight of our visit. 

Whilst quickly walking out of Lang Cave, I could see some bats circling high in the sky.  Excitement crept in.  It was as if they were preparing to fly out.  I didn't want to miss this great phenomenon so I walked as fast as I could. It was already 5.30pm then, and it started drizzling as well.  Unfortunately for all the tourists, none of us got to see the bats flying out.  Some said the bats had flown out at 5pm, whilst some speculated that the crowds' cheers drove the bats back inside.  It was a real disappointment. 

We headed back to the park office to wait for our transport back to Royal Mulu Resort, our stay for this trip.  The transportation was a real let down.  We had to wait for 15-20mins before a 4wD came and it could only fit 10 ppl at a time.  We saw a bus came in but later found out that we had to pay RM6 if we want to board it.  Ridiculous...

The ride back to the resort was in total darkness.  There was no street lamps. Understandbly, this was very much a rural area still.  The resort however, was well lit. We were the last group of tourists to return from the national park and by then, the food at the buffet line were pretty much finished, though the kitchen did replenish as fast as they could. I was hoping to see some local Sarawakian delicacies, eg. midin (fried fern leaves) or ayam pansuh (chicken & lemongrass cooked in bamboo) or at least sarawak laksa, but saw none of those. 

We retired to our room immediately after dinner although there was a cultural performance at 8pm.  It was raining then, and we had to walk to our rooms, a metres away, in the open space. Luckily the resort provided umbrellas on loan, first come first serve basis. 

I was put in a 3-bed room, consisted of 1 king size bed and 1 queen size bed.  I took the smaller one while my friend took the bigger one.  The room was spacious and could easily fit another double bed. 

The next day, our trip was to Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave respectively, with the afternoon at a waterfall.  To reach the caves, we had to take a 15-min longboat ride on the Melinau River, followed by a 200 stairs climb.   My friend, worried about the long climb, decided to stay behind at the jetty.  The climb really wasn't that difficult, although it might be slightly slippery due to the rain the nite before. 

The Wind Cave was called such because there is a tunnel that is really windy.  Unfortuntely for us, since it was a cloudy day, the air was not hot enough to send any cool wind into the cave.  Next to Wind Cave was Clearwater Cave, Asia's longest cave.  We went through the Lady Cave, where a formation looks alike a woman figurine.  This cave was less lit though walking thru wasn't that difficult. The sight inside was spectacular! Due to the large crowd, it was kinda difficult to listen to the guide's explaination of what each formation meant. 

At the underground caves, there was a river flowing thru the cave. This river is said to be crystal clear but with barely enough lightings in here, it was hard to tell if it was really crystal clear.  Standing in here watching the river currents running thru, it was simply awesome. 

After visits to both caves, we were back to the jetty where lunch was served, carried in by the guides, consisted of rice, veggies, chicken curry, bamboo shoots.  The portion was miserable for a crowd of 24.  Anyway, made do with whatever there was. 

The package mentioned free time at waterfall after lunch.  To our disappointment, this waterfall was no waterfall...it was just a a river with really strong currents.  Big disappointment, I was hoping to snap some photos AT a waterfall.

The rest of the afternoon was free and easy for us.  We rested for abit, some swam at the resort pool, some decided to go to a real small waterfall nearby, the Paku Waterfall, which is free of charge.It was to be another 1.5km walk thru the national park.  I initially wanted to join in but opted to try out archery instead, which was really a let down.  It costed RM25 for 4 arrows, 3 rounds. We later found out that the resort only had one bow. We were taken to an area behind our chalets to shoot.  Insect repellant is a must! I was pretty much bitten by mosquitos even though I applied it. We only did 1 round as the bow was real tough and it wasn't much fun waiting for each other to have their turns. 

Dinner was at the same place. This time, since we were early (in fact, one of the earliest), food was plentiful and definitely better than the nite before.  Since we didn't have anything else to do that nite, we stayed behind for the cultural show.  As a Sarawakian, I was definitely shameful of this show.  It was pathetic at best and did not reflect the real Sarawakian ethnic dances.  The costumes were the only saving grace, I must say.  After the show, our group dispersed.  My friend and I walked around the resort a little bit for photography. 

The next day we checked out after breakfast and a short rest in our room.  The flight back to Mulu was at 12noon.  Again, we had 5 hours to kill before flight back to KL so we hired cabs to town for some sightseeing. It cost us RM20 to town.  Nothing much to see really.  It was a Sunday, most shops were closed, everything was quiet.  We popped into 2 handicraft shops for souvenirs. We decided to head back to the airport and hung out there instead. 

This was a good trip.  The caves were amazing.  This is a must to do thing in a lifetime.  On the downside, we wasted too much time waiting at the airport.  Our group was too big, thus we couldn't spend more time in the caves as most of them walked really fast. Overall, it wasn't that bad.