adventure caving in Mulu
September 26th, 2008
Just the park alone is about the size of Singapore. The sights were spectacular, stunning, unforgettable and so were the sounds. This trek was a feast. Ten of us had a delightful and healthy holiday in a trip planned early in the year to take advantage of AirAsia’s fierce fares. For about S$500 for the whole trip, it was a steal. We flew from Senai airport and stayed overnight in sleepy oil town Miri. Then we caught a MAS Fokker propellor plane and reached Mulu National Park, Sarawak, in 30 minutes. The alternative was upriver on motor boats for an unthinkable 10 hours. The park hq had adequate, satisfactory accomodations and sedap Malaysian food. One of the few highlights for many of us was adventure caving. Park guides accompanied us and equipped with park supplied helmets and lights we made our way into the unlit, dark Lagangs Cave.
We trekked on wooden planks for about less than an hour and reached the entrance of the cave. When we entered, we caught sight of stalactites (’c’ for from the ceiling) and stalagmites(’g’ on the ground) as we walked by with our lights on, and as we got used to the darkness. It was wet and muddy in some places and we used our hands too, and scrambled over boulders, and squeezed and contorted through crevices and gaps on several occasions, but for the most part it was plain walking in a cool cave instead of a humid rainforest. It dripped here and there and there was a stream running throughout the cave.
There were several creatures of the dark in the cave and we spotted or heard swiftlets, bats, spiders, white river crabs and a snake (click on thumbnails for pop-ups). There were no mosquitoes! The bats ensured that.
It took about an hour or more through the cave and when it ended we felt good because our fears of the mystery that the dark world held, and our ideas of what caving required of us, were unfounded. Our fears were imagined and they evaporated as we refused to cave in to fear, and just do it a step at a time with a trustworthy guide.
Entry Filed under: Trek record
Hi BP,
Arent humans perverse?
We prefer to live in clean comfortable home but enjoy crawling thru slime and bat shit?
This is is called a holiday??
Thanks for sharing the experience.
Journeyman,
Its not called holiday; its called self actualization and mid-life growth.
Where’s the fun in more of the same thing: air con, shopping, eating, albeit in a different environment. 
BTW, there was mud but no bat droppings.
It was another nice health jaunt, wouldn’t you say?