Malaysia, Borneo (Gunung Mulu): Largest Caves in the World

Deer Cave in Gunung Mulu National Park is the largest cave passage in the world
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We were short of cash leaving Batu Niah town for Miri to catch a flight to Mulu, in order to explore Gunung Mulu National Park, and therefore we had to work hard to convince a local to drive us to the Miri airport for half of what he was asking for. He finally gave in (we think because it was off-season and there were no other tourists in the town, hence no income for him) and drove us 1-1/2 hours to the Miri airport.

There are no ATM machines in Mulu and therefore we stocked up on Malaysian Ringgits at the Miri airport. We had a few hours to kill as our driver got us to Miri much faster than the bus would have, and so we splurged and spent a few quid each to enter the Miri airport executive lounge (free food and drinks, and free internet access... and air conditioning). When our flight was called, we hopped on the small propeller plane and had a nice, short 25-minute flight to Mulu. We chose to fly as the only other way to get to Mulu is by longboat and it takes several hours. Plus, we wanted to see more of the Borneo rainforest from the air. Be sure to check out the photos for this journal entry to see the winding river and the logging roads, whereby destruction of the rainforest is purely evident.

Legend has it that if you wash your face in the crystal clear waters of the river within the cave, you will be granted youth

Beautiful rock formations abound in Mulu's four show caves
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We checked in at the Gunung Mulu National Park headquarters and planned out our next two days in the park. We signed up for a morning longboat trip down the river to a small local village and to Cave of the Winds and Clearwater Cave, followed by swimming outside Clearwater Cave. After this trip, we were to head back to headquarters to have lunch, and then we were to set off on a trek to Langs Cave and Deer Cave and finish off watching millions of bats leaving Deer Cave for their nightly dinner and hunting. We also signed up for a canopy walk in the jungle for the morning of the second day, whereby we would be walking along the treetops 40-60 metres in the air.

At the entrance to Deer Cave in Mulu, you should be able to spot an important American historical figure - do you see one of the most famous presidents?
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The day we arrived, it was too late to join any of the tours to the caves, and therefore we set out on a short 1-hour trek around the park headquarters. The jungle was very thick and therefore even at 15:00 it was very dark during the trek. We don't know how many spiderwebs we walked through but I think we are getting over the aversion to them now as they are very unavoidable. We even seem to be getting excited now when we see different types of spiders, so maybe by the end of this trip we will be over the fear...

These baby millipedes were quite interesting to see
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After the trek, we headed back to Cafe Mulu at headquarters and walked through a small museum with many informational placards detailing how the rainforest was created, how it is sustained and what living and breathing creatures exist. We watched a video highlighting the fact that bats are our friends and are not all blood-sucking vampires, and we also watched a video highlighting the "Asean" biodiversity across the Southeast Asia countries.  After a bit of learning we had dinner in the cafe; Kyle chose Mulu Laksa and Dan chose Chicken Curry, and we both had a plate of chips (french fries to the Americans reading this). Little did Dan know that his chicken curry dinner would cause the first bout of stomach problems for one of us, and Dan can now safely say that, after 2 full weeks in Southeast Asia, he is not completely invincible to parasites or dodgy food. Kyle is still waiting for that precious moment. It brought us joy to know that we could use a couple of the hundreds of Immodium tablets we brought with us!

This insect has a most unusual snout
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The next morning, we ate omelets and toast for breakfast and then went to the jetty to climb aboard the longboat which took us to the small kampung (village) where local tribal Malays sold handmade goods and crafts. The longboat ride was about 20 minutes upriver, and we travelled against the rapids and through the winding, jungle-lined river to the first cave of the day, Cave of the Winds. The name was chosen because wind shoots through the small tunnels along the side of the main cave chamber. The caves in this national park are extremely well lit and we were able to get a much better view of the shape of the cave and formations along the chamber than we could in Niah's Great Cave, which is pitch black for most of the journey.

We waited patiently for the millions of bats to stream in flowing ribbons from the entrance to Deer Cave, when they left for the night searching for food
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Clearwater Cave is a short 10-minute walk through the jungle to Cave of the Winds, and is one of the longest caves in the world, currently measured at 140km, but they are discovering more of the cave every year. Along the way we saw a pygmy squirrel which was tiny and cute, measuring only a few inches long. The Clearwater River runs for at least 108km of this cave. It was really cool to see the force and power of the subterranean river carving its path through the limestone rock in the cave. Legend has it that if you wash your face in the crystal clear waters of the river within the cave, you will be granted youth; of course we had to do that and we feel younger already!

Undi our guide to Langs Cave and Deer Cave, contemplating whether or not the bats will exit the cave before dark (they did)
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The morning was extremely enjoyable and we then headed back to the park headquarters by longboat, after declining to swim in the Clearwater River where the River exited the cave. Instead, we hung around the exit to the cave, chatting with a Malaysian couple from Kuala Lumpur who kindly offered us snacks and some of their lunch. The sun was out in full force for the boat ride back and, despite the heat, the trip was great.

For the afternoon trip to Langs and Deer Cave, we were escorted by our guide Undi (whom we later nicknamed Indy, think Indiana Jones) and his trainee Sylvester (whom we named Rambo). The guides were very informative and fun, and they pointed out several creatures and plants along the journey. We had no idea how many species of wild ginger there actually are! It was a 3km trek to the entrance to Langs Cave and at the start of the trek, the ponchos were out as there was a torrential downpour. However, this lasted only 10 minutes and we had the ponchos packed away quickly.

A furry caterpillar looks SO cute, but is actually poisonous
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Langs Cave was named after its discoverer, and it was full of the most amazing stalactites (these grow down), stalagmites (these grow up) and helictites (these grow sideways against gravity). Our guides had a fun time checking our imagination and seeing what different creatures and shapes we saw in the different "mites". Apparently it takes approximately 50-100 years for 10mm of a "mite" to be formed and so you can imagine the age of the formations in these caves.

Deer Cave was next, and it houses over 3 million bats, several different species. This is not the most impressive thing about this cave, however. The sheer size of the cave is spectacular, whereby in contrast to the other caves it has the largest cave entrance and passage in the world. You can fit over five St. Paul Cathedrals in this cave's main chamber! It truly was colossal and a most magnificent natural phenomenon, and we were blown away as we thought Niah Cave was impossible to beat. With millions of bats living in this cave, the smell of guano was quite strong and over-powering, and as we walked to higher elevations the smell seemed to get stronger. Browse through the photo album for this entry to see some of the weird and creepy creatures living in the dark in this cave.

Wild paku (vegetable) growing in the jungle
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We waited outside the cave entrance around 17:00 in order to see the millions of bats depart for their nightly feeding. Apparently, the bats leaving Deer Cave consume over 50 tonnes of insects every night, and may travel 50km in search of food. An interesting fact that we learned from the video the night before was that bats are the best seed disperser, even better than birds, as bats cover more ground and digest their food to release seeds in 15 minutes. Most of the rainforest flora and fauna has actually been spread by bats! Watching the bats leave the cave was an interesting experience. They leave in groups at the entrance to the cave, by spiralling out and up in an orderly fashion, and they stream from the cave into the sky in long flowing ribbons.

We had stir-fry local vegetables for dinner after trekking all day in the jungle and caves, and it was the paku we had seen earlier in the day
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As it was a sunny afternoon, the bats left early enough for us to trek back to the park headquarters in daylight and no torch was needed. Back at Cafe Mulu, we enjoyed a dinner of stir-fried local vegetables, which you may view in our photo album. It was tasty!  After dinner, Kyle challenged Dan to a game of Vocable, which is basically Scrabble updated for the Millennium. Kyle barely beat Dan by 2 points, and it was a tense, tough game.

The next morning, we awoke very early and went on a canopy walk in the jungle for a couple of hours. The canopy skywalk was about 40-60 metres in the air, in the world's longest tree-based canopy walk. We didn't see much wildlife but we were able to spot a flying lizard and another pygmy squirrel. We were first on the walk and the other people in our group saw a pit viper and green tree snake - we were gutted to have missed these!

View of a Malay longboat outside a kampung (village)
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After the canopy walk, we packed up our things and headed to Mulu airport to get a flight back to Miri, where a driver for Intrepid Tours was due to pick us up and take us across the border into Brunei - country #3!