Crazy for Photography: Gua Gua Gua Gua

First of all, I got to say something about my horoscope & personality: come to traveling, Libra tends to slow down and take an extra day to relax or to enjoy the smaller details of a new city. So, please don’t rush a Libra… and I might be a little adventurous (always curious about new thing, like to explore), but not strenuous exercise, to be specific, climbing…

After Mount KK climbing trip, I once said I will never ever climb a mountain again… so, I think this trip was a real mistake for me. At first a group of close friends of me were planning to visit to Mulu National Park, I thought it was just a sort of “back to the nature” or “appreciate to the mother earth” kind of trip, until somebody that we invited to the group insist we should visit to the Pinnacles. My understand to the “pinnacle” is limited, I thought it’s just a very nice scenery and “wonder of nature” until…

The trip wasn’t any ordinary cuti-cuti Malaysia trip, not only have to book very advance, more than 6 months in advance and it’s not very economical too, because of transport and accommodation limitation in the national park, which I think this is fine because this is a very effective way to conserve and protect mother nature.

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Day 1

When we arrived @ Miri Airport, we got to take the Fokker aircraft to Mulu Airport.

The fly & the flight

Our ground transport – rusted van Old friendsss

Left: Check point & information centre, right: 3km plank walk to the caves

1st Cave: Lang Cave

this place is famous for all type of living stalactite & stalagmite, vertical, horizontal (unknown reason). Important note: we are not suppose to touch them, because once touch, the stalactite or stalagmite will die (not grow anymore). If I’m not mistaken, I think the guide told us 10 years it only grow 3cm. Imagine how many years to take to become so big and tall as shown in following pictures.

From left: The famous giant jelly fish stalactite, neither stalactite or stalagmite, it’s spider wide formed by a type of insect to catch it prey, 18sx formation

2nd Cave: Deer Cave

Largest cave passage in the world. Full of bat shit too!!! Why it was named deer cave is because last time there used to have a lot of deer there, bat shit goes to the river and give mineral to the deer. But now there is no more deer because of aggressive hunting activity years back.

The most unique features to see in the cave are Garden of Eden and Abraham Lincoln’s face. For more information, click this: http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/np/mulupic/deerlang.htm

Bat Exodus

Very spectacular show where all the bats in the cave emerging out during dusk hour (around 6 or 7pm), not flying out one by one, is by group forming black cloud in the sky, million of bat in the cloud!!!

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Day 2

We stayed in Park HQ the day before, very simple chalet with minimal facilities. This day, we need to take longboat to visit to a few places before going in to Camp 5.

Penan Settlement @ Batu Bungan

Used to be the long house for the Penan ppl, but was burnt down while one day a man came back and accidentally spilt the burning lamp. River is their life, early in the morning they wash their face and shower in the river, wash clothes in the river… Penan used to be nomadic ppl, but the government help them to settle in a place, teach them to plant, managing livestock and poultry, be more civilize (most important is, don’t burn the forest).

not in raining season, so, the water is very shallow. So, sometimes we need to get down to push the boat…

3rd Cave: Wind Cave

Special features about this cave are, there’s an area where you can feel the wind blowing toward you and the air is really cool, like a natural air-conditioner and there’s a place called King Chamber because the stalactite and stalagmite or pillar formations in this chamber are like the king’s sceptre.

For more info: http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/nature/windcave.htm

Did you see anything in the picture in the middle?

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4th Cave: Clearwater Cave

As suggested by the name, the water is superbly cool and clear. I hope after washing my sweaty face with the water, I can get 5 years younger. Smile with tongue out

To get to the cave, we got to climb at least 200 steps of staircase up and down.

Left: The cave has a lot of mono leaf plants attached on the wall. Right: Saint Mary praying statue?!

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Camp 5

Longboat then sent us to Kuala Litut, then we got to walk 8km to Camp 5. 8km isn’t a short distance, mind you, to increase the lever of toughness, each of us were carrying about 10kg of backpack and we were suppose to finish the 8km within 4 hours, this is not cool at all!!!!!!

Reward after 8km of walk – shower in ice-cool Melinau river next to Camp 5 and seeing a beautiful sunset projection on Benarat cliff

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Day 3

Pinnacle

After 2 full days of non-stop “exercise”, I was exhausted, really… this day, we actually need to climb up to the Pinnacle, which a lot of professional climbers commented that this is much tougher than climbing the Mount KK… gosh, climbing Mount KK was already my limit, what now?! Of course, I knew I couldn’t make it to the top, and God asked me not to too, the night before was raining heavily and rain only stop after 7am, which is quite late already. The guide told us, we can still try, and he will evaluate our stamina and fitness and speed, because the guide said if we could make it to the top, we should allow another 8 hours climbing time back to the ground, or by 11am, we should reach the top. Actually it’s just about 3km, total journey, but you know, we took about 2 hours to the mini pinnacle, which is only 900m from starting point. There’s quite impossible for all of us to reach to the peak, no way. So, some of my group members already planning to come back the next time, however, I was already very proud of myself for being able to make it to the mini one. Smile with tongue out

Advice to climbing mania or whom who are interested to test your fitness, buy those cheap rubber shoes (RM7-RM9 per pair), they are proven and tested to be better than N*ke, Add*das…

Besides than leeches, beautiful wild mushroom all around the places…

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Day 4

Back to Miri

ahhhhhhh… 8km in, of course it’s turn to do another 8km fast walking out… we were told we need to catch our boat at 9am, so, we need to walk even faster this time, 2 hours to complete the 8km… I was walk “flying” too fast and I twisted my left shoulder when coming down from a suspension bridge.

Look at the room that we stayed, yes, no door, partial covered only, I was sleeping on the mattress where the blue bag sitting in the picture. Cool right?!

Our boat was late, the travel agency said it was due to some technical problems, so, we didn’t have time to eat our lunch and clean ourselves to catch the flight back to Miri, the longboat dropped us straight at Mulu Airport, where our the other half of the luggage was already there, after all the hassles, we finally boarded and back to civilization!

Group photo with our guide (the guy squatting in front), friends that we met in Camp 5 – Pakistanis couple (3rd from left and 1st from right, last row) and 3 Spanish (2nd from left, 2nd from right, last row and the girl @ 2nd from left middle row). The 3 Spanish made it to the top!!!

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Day 5

5th Cave: Niah Cave

In Niah Cave, the researcher found it to be the oldest recorded human settlement in east Malaysia. This cave is also well known for the birds' nest (Swiftlet) industry.

Gua Gua Gua Gua Gua… Gua again (Gua is Malay word to cave).

2 minutes boat ride from check counter to the plank walk to the cave… why not building a bridge, want to give a job opportunity to the local… (lame or good excuse?).

I read the info, there’s actually a harvest season for bird nest to protect the swiftlet population and the balance of the ecosystem… If the local really follow the system/ rules being set, I’ll be very proud of them. The rest of the time, the aboriginal will collect bat shit to sell to palm oil plantation, look at the big bags, they are full of SHIT!!!! The aboriginal sell to a middle man and the middle man sell to the plantation, so, I guess the aboriginal might not earning what they deserved to.