2018 S.E. Asia: Gunung Mulu, Sarawak, Malaysia

We'll miss the kind hosts at our Mount Kinabalu accommodation even more than we will miss the tranquil view from our rustic room. By the third morning, the cook made scrambled eggs on the house and brought us a private stash of peanut butter for our toast. We had patronized their daily meal offerings and Bob thinks the Cook felt good about that. We were pleased to have tried quite a number of his local dishes made from fresh garden ingredients.

Our cab down from the mountain was a comfortable, efficient vehicle, and we were fortunate to be traveling on Sunday, as roadwork was suspended for the day. We arrived at the Kota Kinabalu airport in under 2 hours, which meant we could review our Blog posts and use the available Wifi to publish them (albeit without photos at that point). The airplane was a twin prop and we were two of eight passengers placed over the wing to "balance the load", we were told.

The flight out of Kota Kinabalu enabled us to see the beautiful clear ocean and coral reef beneath. The descent onto the Mulu Park airstrip 50 minutes later provided close, sweeping views of dense jungle with silty rivers cutting calligraphic ribbons of ochre and dramatic shards of limestone jutting skyward.

The on-board airline magazine included articles relevant to Gunung Mulu and area, so when we landed we knew just what to do - get to the information centre at the World Heritage Park and see what activities were available.

Park facilitator Lucy wove magic and booked is in a canopy walk, jungle night walk, and two karst cave walks - accessible only with a guide. Lucy also outlined the many self-guided activities we could do, so we loaded our things into our fancier-than-expected room and went out to experience the jungle botanical walk before a late dinner. We went to sleep, happily listening to the patter of tiny feet - yes, a lizard! - we could sleep soundly.

Our next day canopy walk started at 7am with a half-hour board walk into the jungle. Wow, the 15-sections of 3Km of suspended walkway were supported by jungle giants! Those trees supporting the walk had interesting stories to tell about the many layers of jungle biography. We learned so much. After breakfast, at the interpretive centre we prepared for our karst cave visits the next day by studying geology and cave carbonate deposition didactic panels.

Editing our photo collection for the Blog filled the afternoon and then we ate a quick dinner, and headed out on a night walk with guide Peter for what turned out to be an intimate, completely unexpected encounter with jungle giant insects and a few amphibians. Bob exclaimed: "Wow, that was worth the price of admission!" Highlights were sitting in complete darkness and seeing fire flies, witnessing mating stick bugs and a rare sighting of a flying frog. We saw three species of lizards and 4 species of amphibians and many amazing bugs.

Today's cave visits with Christian included Clearwater, Wind, Deer (a.k.a. Bat) and Lang (our favourite). The first of the morning cave pair (Clearwater & Wind) were reached by River Canoe and en route we stopped at a Panan village to see their weaving and purchase a few items to support their enterprise and new school building. Clearwater and Wind were enormous, strenuous hikes.

Our favourite cave was the gorgeous, sculpted Lang Cave in the afternoon.

 

Yolanda backed out quickly from 1/3 into the bat cave and Bob carried on to the deep interior, below the hives of bats hanging above. That was the final cave of the day, and we then sat at the cave entrance to watch the bat swarms spiral out of the cave opening for their nightly hunt for dinner.

We walked the hour home in the dark on boardwalks, seeing bats, seeing lightning flash and listening to thunder crash, and then a downpour that we haven't yet experienced soaked us to the core - admittedly, some of the soak was also sweat from a hot humid day of cave hiking.

The Borneo people in the Park are proud of their role in a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They speak passionately about the degree of integrity of purpose they uphold within the Park and the values that resulted in the designation. Their knowledge is impressive, they engage in c.e., and they regularly contribute to Park research programs.

Our tomorrow Malaysian Borneo destination is again by prop plane to the Northeast corner National Park near Kuching, Taman Bako.