Adventure Day2: Exploring Gua Niah (Niah Caves), Miri

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Poh Wan and I didn't sleep very well on the first night, as for me I always have this problem of unable to get into sleep on new bed, moreover the pillow provided by most hotels are too soft for me, if stacking 2 pillows then it become too high. I know I'm very fussy with pillow. However, all of us woke up early in the morning very fresh and excited for our real cave adventure that is going to start. The tour guide, Mr. Yong fetched the 4 of us from hotel at 8.30am. There were another 2 white lady (1 from USA and 1 from UK) joining us for Niah Cave Exploration.

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Yong's was driving a small white van that is quite old I guess, the van's suspension is not too good, and it was a real 'bumpy' trip all the way about 1 hour drive. At first it was very bumpy, but after awhile, it was actually good thing for a long drive (nothing much to see on the road side, after all are all the trees), at least it kept us laughing and awake. Well, I have to salute ML, for she can sleep in any situation even inside the super bumpy van. Bravo! Another great thing is, Yong kept a very good collection of 90s English songs. He played it through out the journey and we can actually have mini Karaoke in the van.

we found the light of our life in Niah Cave.

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We took a small boat to cross the river from the Niah National Park Registration center to the opposite side where the Niah exploration trail starts. Here I post the link for a detail description of Niah National Park - http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/np/niah.htm

First we visited the small exhibition hall, sort of museum that display information about Niah discovery. Then, we started our 3 hours walk deep into Niah National Park. It was the first day of our trip so everyone is so energetic and excited, snapping pictures everywhere - Caves, plants, stalagmites, stalactites, helictites, Bats, workers harvesting Bird Nest etc.

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Yes, there are many bird nest inside Niah Caves but it is too dark and we can't really see the how the workers climbing up and down to get harvest the bird nests. Bats droppings are everywhere in the caves causing the path to be very slippery, a good pair of shoes, a bright torch is really necessary. Suh, ML and PW are all wearing their powerful hiking shoes, except me, I walked with my New Balance running shoes, but luckily it's very durable, comfortable and trustable, I didn't fall down. Ahamdullilah! haaaa.

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There is a best spot in Niah cave (I graded it myself) - Large Chamber where there is a opening on top of the cave and everyday about 11am to 1pm, shafts of sunlight stream down from the large holes in the cave roof to illuminate the bizzarre rock formations in the Burnt Cave. We climbed onto the platform directly under the holes and took many pictures of the sunlight shining on us, it was like we found the light of our life in Niah Cave. Haaaa.

All in all we walked for 4+ hours, going in and coming out. Everyone was sweaty, hungry but happy. Hurray, finally we visited Niah Cave (consists of Great Cave, Large Chamber, Burnt Cave, Painted Cave and Moon Cave), the cave that always appears in History text book.

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We reached Hotel at about 4pm++, and after shower and short rest we went for anotehr sumptuos seafood dinner again. We spent too much energy during the day, so must eat something good to replenish the energy. However, all 4 of us felt that the seafood in Miri is not as good as we thought, both taste and price.