Most of my group from Bako National Park managed to stay together to make the journey to the amazing Gunung Mulu National Park. For those of you Travel Channel/Nat Geo/Discovery junkies out there... remember the Planet Earth episode about caving in the largest limestone cave system in the world filled with insane amounts of Guano (Bat poo!)... yup that's Mulu National Park!
The caving, the hiking and more were simply described as mind blowing. One friend posed they ought to rename the park "Gunung Wow National Park" because there's few things one can say when venturing through these passage ways besides "wooooowwwww".
Words cannot describe (or at least mine can't) and photos cannot capture. Just watch that Planet Earth episode, it took ONE MONTH to set up the shots to only begin to capture the grandeur of these caves.
Two to Three MILLION bats fly out from this particular passage way, Deer Cave (the largest cave passage in the world!), eat night in search of food. (The entrance to the cave is shadow on the face of the cliff).
Scientists report they collect/eat nightly over 15 TONS of insects! Explains all the poop! The stream of bats continues for about one hour every night!
In addition to hiking and swimming, also managed to fit in a little "adventure caving". Aka real caving with rope assisted climbing and descents through one of the intermediate level passages. If you look closely at the photo above you can clearly see I'm the dirtiest kid in the group!
Again, I managed to stay with the nicest family in a homestay outside of park headquarters. The people of Malaysia have constantly overwhelmed me with their hospitality and friendliness over the past couple of months. Dina and Robert of D'Cave were exemplary of this! Sadly the only photo I have of their place is of the awesome toilets. I informed Robert he ought to turn them around as they have beautiful vistas up to the parks' summit... what better to look at while sitting on the john, eh?
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