The Niah Caves

The journey to Niah was pretty straight forward and soon after lunch we were there, tent erect and all. When we arrived we had to register, when we asked where the campsite was there was a moment of pure comedy as she stood in disbelief that anyone could be stupid enough to want to camp.

After settling in we set off to the caves themselves. We were hoping to see the much talked about ‘bat exodus’. At dusk supposedly all the bats fly out of the cave, and are replaced by birds going in for a nights sleep. Unfortunately a small mathematical problem reared its ugly head. Our campsite was on the other side of a river, the boats stop running at 7, dusk is also about 7, and it is a 45 minute walk back to the boat. In true backpacker style we cut it as fine as possible, leaving only 20 minutes to sprint back the boat, we managed with moments to spare.

You may think that this meant the trip to the cave that evening had been a disappointment, but nothing could be less true. Who did we bump into but our favourite Dutchman Thierry, a slightly wiser, wittier and less gullible model granted, but Thierry none the less. That evening he came up with great quotes as ‘it is very dangerous to eat fireflies, they are very hot’ and ‘alex, I think 53.2% of the things you say are joking’. Unfortunately he couldn’t quite swallow Robbie’s revelation that locals at Gunung Mulu regularly murder unsuspecting tourists, shame.

The night that followed could never be described as a ‘good nights sleep’, but it could certainly have been worse. We woke surprisingly late, had a bit of breakfast and then head off to see the caves, which not even photos can do justice. We followed through the caves to see the cave paintings. The oldest of their kind in Asia. As you can imagine they were a little faded, but still amazing when it is considered just how long they have been there.

Caves finished we returned to the park HQ, who did we find? The Spanish womanizer Alex, and the two Dutch girls we had met in Kuching whose names I am still unsure about. They told us of the idiots staying in the tent In the middle of the sun, only to learn it was us. We agreed to meet them in Miri in a few days and set off, planning on making it to Lambir hills, home of many a beautiful waterfall.