Mulu National Park II

Day 2 - Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave

(The original post first appeared on www.worldisround.com in 1995. This version has been edited.)

On the second day, the trip was by long-boats, starting from the jetty at Royal Mulu Resort Hotel.

On the way, we stopped at a Penan Settlement where some of our members purchased handicraft made by Penan.

We re-gathered at another spot for the onward journey to Wind Cave. After 15 minutes, we reached our destination and disembarked at a jetty. Two paths branch out from the jetty. One boardwalk leads up to Wind Cave, up on a hill and the other to Clearwater Cave.

Like Lang Cave, Wind cave is full of stalagmite and stalactite. The boardwalk ascends and descends steeply in the cave and at one narrow spot, you can feel cool breeze blowing, hence the name Wind Cave. It is much larger than Lang Cave.

From Wind Cave, we walked along the boardwalk clinging to the steep cliff walls high above ground. If you are afraid of height, it's too bad for you. You still have to go forward. There is no escape. The boardwalk leads to a resting spot where you can take a swim in the clean, clear water. Clearwater Cave is adjacent to it. It took about 10 minutes' walk from Wind Cave.

To reach Clearwater Cave, you need to take the 'stairway to heaven'. It is 200 steps up to reach the cave entrance, tiring for folks who are not fit. From the entrance, we climbed down, first to the path on the right, making a loop, before taking the path on the left. A fast-flowing underground river flows through Clearwater Cave. The water is cool and clear. Bring an empty bottle and fill up a bottle of Clearwater water to bring home as souvenir of your trip. Unfortunately, the tour guide forbade anyone from taking a dip or swim in the fast-flowing water. "It's dangerous!". The sight of the underground river is one to behold. Amazingly beautiful! The cave visit ended at Clearwater Cave.

As a finale, one can enjoy one's final pleasure of the Mulu trip by flinging oneself into the clean, clear water for a swim at the swimming spot together with the fish. It's a mini Jiuzhaigou. Serene and beautiful!

Finally, it was time to depart. Tomorrow, we would be flying back to Sibu via Miri.

Mulu National Park I

Day 1 - Lang Cave and Deer Cave

(The original post first appeared on www.worldisround.com in 1995. This is an edited version of the original post.)

Some were green with envy when some of our colleagues were given a Company sponsored holiday to Mulu National Park last year. This year was our turn for the trip and there were 61 of us in the group.

On the eve of Hari Raya holiday in 2005, we left for Miri on the first flight from Sibu at 7:00 a.m.

At Miri Airport, we met up with our colleagues who left a day earlier. Another group would be leaving Sibu in the afternoon for Mulu National Park.

From Miri Airport, we left for Mulu Airport and from Mulu Airport, we took vans to Royal Mulu Resort Hotel. We were welcomed with traditional dances, music and a cold drink. We then dispersed to check into our respective rooms. The little time we had before the start of our excursion in the afternoon allowed us to explore the surrounding of Mulu Resort Hotel.

Our lunch was not at Royal Mulu Resort Hotel but rather at a restaurant across the river, operated by the tour agency, Tropical Travel.

After lunch, we walked a short distant to a newly built church to wait for our vans that would take us to Mulu National Park Office, where our trek would begin.

Walking on foot along the well-laid boardwalk through the jungle, the trek took us about one hour because the tour guide was stopping now and then to explain the different plant species. A normal walk takes between 35 - 45 minutes. Towards the end of the boardwalk, one path leads to the bat watching observatory platform and another leads to Lang and Deer Caves.

Lang Cave is the smallest of the four with low roof. It has an amazing number of beautiful stalagmite and stalactite.

Deer Cave is magnificent and stunning. Awesome. Photographs and expression cannot fully describe it. Its magnificence can only be felt by our sight and senses, not captured through photographs or expressed in words. Photographs, after all, cannot capture depth, size and dim light which our eyes can see in the cave. A glorious sight to behold! A world of its own with gigantic rock wall and floor tinged with moss displaying its glory under the light shining through the roof. The visual is heavenly, which men could not possibly see in the world outside. It is after all the world largest cave passage and the most striking and magnificent of the four caves.

It started to drizzle when we came out of Deer Cave. The last programme of the day was watching bats flying out from Deer Cave. They came out in small groups, starting at about 4:30 p.m.

Part 3: Laid Back Sematan

Sematan holds a special place in my heart.

We were travelling by bus from my school in Kuching to Sematan for a holiday excursion. Sematan had only gravel road then. I remembered seeing the sea and the waves for the first time from inside the moving bus. We had not yet reached our destination, the site of our camping ground. The site was nestled among coconut trees, in a small coconut plantation away from the town. I was so excited at seeing those beautiful pounding waves and at the prospect of being pounded. It would be fun. I had always been fascinated by the giant waves of Hawaii. On that first trip to Sematan, I was 17 or 18 years old.

(Did we stay in the huts on the left among coconut trees back in the early days? I can't remember the scene.)

We were just camping there, enjoying the beach and the sea. Some were doing the cooking. Others were playing games or strolling along the beach. I was taking photos and hoping to collect sea shells, after having had enough of the waves. But there was hardly any shells to collect. As night fell, the water receded further and further out into the sea.

I could still remember listening to the song "Sad Movies" by Boney M while lying on the floor unable to sleep. It was such a romantic and sentimental song. For many years, whenever I listened to that song, sweet and nostalgic memories would transport me back to Sematan, to the time when that song played in my ears. We stayed in a simple wooden hut. There was no shower in the house, just a simple cement water tank in a dark bathroom.

I could not sleep well that night. I woke up early the next morning. By that time the water has receded very far out into the sea. I strolled towards the edge of the sea, hoping that there was sea shells to collect. It was then that I found the further I went, the more beautiful the beach. Looking back towards the coast, I realised the expanse of the beach.

There was an old caretaker taking care of the huts then. From him, we beg for coconuts.

Twenty years had gone by when I visited Sematan beach the second time. The old man has gone. So had the simple hut. Or was it that I could not find it? I searched up and down the beach but I just could not remember where we stayed. I had lost the old photographs, and have no reference. I only remembered that there was a stream flowing beside the hut where we stayed, forming a barrier to prevent us from going across. I did find a stream, but not the hut. Has time taken a toll on the old hut?

(Was the wooden hut where we stayed on our camping trip by this stream? There was no hut here 20 years later)








(Talang-Talang Islands in the horizon)


(The main road to the town. We stayed at the lodging hotel on the left)