If you’ve been following my adventure in Borneo, you might have remembered my last trip to the tip of Mount Kinabalu. This second trip to Borneo is rather on the other extreme; instead of clear blue sky, it’s pitch black darkness.

Although, there are no Balrogs nor dwarven weaponsmiths in the caves of Mulu, the smell of guano (also known as bat shit) is enough to suffocate you to death (just kidding). Other than that, the entire Mulu trip really reveals the fascinating world of caves and various formation of rocks under unexposed sunlight.

Some rocks are shaped into very exotic shapes over thousand of years and if there’s really a “morale of the story” I learnt from this trip, I guess it’s “patience” :-p

The Mulu adventure was about 3 days, as we explored most of the main “showcaves”-

(i) Lang Cave- This one has got rocks shaped like jellyfishes

(ii) Deer Cave- This is the one with the Abe Lincoln profile view and little deers’ footsteps.

(iii) Wind Cave- This one is known for the King’s Chamber where one of the rock’s formation resembles a King, actually it looks much more like a beggar on the street to me.

(iv) Clear Water Cave- This is the one that we got a chance to jump into the icy water outside of the Cave’s entrance

(v) Moonmilk Cave- As all the Adventure Cave treckking activities were cancelled due to the Park’s new regulation, we decided to explore this cave which is about 15 minutes in total darkness (with the exception of our headlights). The cave consist of white coral-like textures and does seemed very much like the Moon’s surface.

Another spectacular feat was the Bat Exodus, where millions of bats flew out from the cave during dinner time. It was raining quite heavily and we thought we were going to miss it, but it seems the bats were really hungry and they didn’t mind a bit of rainwater in their diet.

We missed out the Pinnacle climb, and it’s definitely in my list if I am to step in Mulu once again. The story told by one of our Dutch friend is just too good to be missed.

After the 3-day stay (one day in Park HQ, and two days in Royal Mulu), the 5 cavemen and women flew back to Miri to explore the last cave- Niah Cave. We had to cancel the trip to Lambir Hills (known for her magnificient waterfalls) since after the Niah Cave adventure, the 5 cavemen and women were totally wasted.

The whole Niah Cave adventure took about 6 hours. We trekked all the way into the Painting Cave to see how Mona Lisa looked like hundreds of years ago. I can’t say that they are very good artists, but given the “technology” they’d back then, the reproduction of reality with amber ink on solid rocks is rather impressive.

And of course, how can I wind up this Cave Report without any nice visuals. All taken with my faithful SE K750i 2 Mega Pixel lens.

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