trip to Malaysia - part 2

Second Week - Mulu

Sun 8th Jan …. the world heritage listed National Park of Gunung Mulu is commonly known as Mulu and you fly to it on tiny prop planes run by MAS Wings.  It takes you back a few years - walking out onto the tarmac to board, and the flight was not full so we all had window seats - even a snack and drink!   there is a special type of red rice growing there, but I never got to taste any or bring some home - oh well, I will have to go back some day.  They also grow tea, and flying over the area you can see fertile fields crisscrossed with muddy rivers.  We landed at Mulu and the more affluent travellers were whisked off it four wheel drives to the royal Mulu resort - we hopped into an old landrover and were taken to the actual park for 5 ringgits :)   On the way we passed a sign that said “homestay 15 ringgits a night”, and after skirting a few half finished buildings, and walking over a half a dozen planks we found the homestay.  We got a dorm to ourselves with 5 beds, but that was great as we could lock everything up when we went into the park, and just take what we needed.  Very, very basic - the framing on the walls turned out to be quite useful for hanging wet clothes on.  The bathroom had a sloping floor so that the water ran off the edge of the floor under the gap in the wall.  Linoleum was used to cover the floor and walls, thus waterproofing it.  There was a real toilet though which was pretty marvellous, of course it got wet when you showered, but all in all the place was pretty good.  Most importantly it was way way cheaper than anything else on offer, and we wanted to spend our money on other things.There was power from 6 - 9pm so that is when batteries and laptops were charged, and after that you lay on your hot bed wondering how long it would take to fall asleep, but with all the walking we did, we were tired, and so sleep we did.

 We did a tour the very first afternoon - To deer and lang caves - it was absolutely amazing, the size of the caves, and our guide was so great.   She told us stories of what things she had to do in order to get the job as a guide.   They would be released into the jungle with virtually no supplies and would have to survive for 7 days.  If they didn’t make that they would be sent out for 20 days.  At one stage she cut her hand and used huge angry ants to bite the edges of the wound together.  after breaking off the ants bodies she had perfect sutures!  At the end of the cave tour  we wandered out to some wooden benches where we would be able to see the famous bat exodus out of lang caves.   It began to rain and YD pulled out some plastic ponchos she had brought with her, but I was already so hot and sweaty that I quite enjoyed the cool fresh shower!  
There were a few bats that evening, and by 6.30 the guides began to steer us all back towards the exit.  It was getting dark, but they had a nice wooden boardwalk with enough lights to be able to make your way.  Lots of foresty sounds of frogs and other creatures accompanied you back

.  We arrived at the restaurant soaking wet, but they still fed us, and we arrived back at the homestay just before lights out!  The next morning we had booked a tour to clearwater cave and were excited to see that it involved a boat trip to get there.  

There was a little village we stopped at on the way with a market stall of handicrafts.  One interesting thing we saw was a lady playing a flute with her nose!  Clearwater cave was lovely, but the best part was the swim in clearwater river - just as it came out of the cave there was a little pond and the water was so clear and cold.  Unfortunately we had to get the boat
back so couldn’t stay there all day - they obviously design all the tours so that you can do two tours a day.  we went through all our money and decided YD would be able to do the hike to the pinnacles if she wanted, but there was no room on the tour so she missed out.  that would have been a  three day tour.  
Our homestay was beginning to grow on me,  especially because the people running it were so cute.  their granddaughter was staying in one of the rooms and worked as a guide, she spoke english whereas the older couple did not. We didn't spend much time there since we were in the park every day.  For dinner that night I had what became our very favourite meal - local ferns! 

 I would love to try and do some research on growing them - we realized early on that we were going to have to pay for tours, and the restuarants were more than we had been spending on food,  so said we would have one meal of crackers and peanut butter (we had taken them with us) and then not go over 10rm for our other meals, and use the water purification tablets as the water was quite expensive in the park.    we went down to see the bat exodus later and found lying down gave us the best view.

but once again got caught in the rain and saw no bats that day, so gave all our wet clothes to the landlady to wash.  the next day we spent quite a bit of time in the tower where you could take bird photos, and then went for a free walk down to the waterfall.  that was where my feet began to go downhill.  There was lots of mud and as the mud dried in my sandals it acted as a sort of sandpaper and rubbed some parts of my feet quite raw.  After that I tried chopping and changing between the reef shoes and the crocs, but on the last day bought seven bandages for all my wounds.  I was relieved to take a rest the next day while the girls went adventure caving. They had to wear helmets with lights on, and some of the access was quite tight.  They saw snakes and scorpions, got dive-bombed by bats, and at one stage sat in a circle and turned off their lights to see how dark it was.  I must say that I quite enjoyed my morning sitting in the cafe with my feet up reading a book.! The other walk we did was the canopy walk - my gosh I didn’t realize it was soooo high and just made of bits of wood and rope -  you can only go two at a time and then there are platforms around trees where you can stop and take photos - a couple that was doing it for the second time stopped and took photos halfway but I was hanging on for dear life, although it did get better towards the end.

 I was walking with the guide and he pointed out a bird of paradise, but my little camera didn’t capture anything and OD never saw it. (she has a good camera) It is the longest jungle canopy walk in the world - there is a longer one in peninsular Malaysia but it is not all open at the moment.  
we had hoped to have the laundry done the last day, but there was a diesel leak in the river and so they didn't pump water up to the house so no washing, and we had got caught in the rain every night so all our clothes were damp and very smelly.  Your backpacks also get smelly too so there were lots of comments to each other about how bad we each smelled.  We had tried to wash out a few things, but everything was so damp and we had no air flow in our room - just a couple of nails to hang some things on.  The walls were unfinished beams and I found my clothes sort of stuck there - not sure if it was because of the dirt or the rough wood!  The last full day there ED woke up before dawn and went to the bird tower and we went down to meet her later, then YD went on the waterfall walk on her own and drew some lovely sketches and ED and I did the last free walk to moonmilk cave.  We had not thought to take a torch and met some English guys who lent us theirs.  They said we could leave it back at reception afterwards and I attached 20r and said to have  couple of beers on us - see how aussie I am getting!  We were very grateful for the torch as it was one of the darkest caves but ED really enjoyed it as without a guide hurrying her along she was able to set up the tripod and take some lovely photos.  

The walk up there was very steep and we had thought we might go on to clearwater and have another swim but decided against it.  There was an area where we went through and there were about 6 butterflies flying around us - landing on the ground and coming very close - it was just amazing -  

 Then she wanted to take a detour and it was a pretty long walk - we were changing shoes back and forth, but by the end my feet were in a very sorry state.  
The final morning I went and paid for our homestay and then gave them an extra 5.00r for a bag of rambutans as they had been selling bags, and when the girls went back later to pick it up they had the biggest bag of rambutans for us!  A whole backpack full!  When I went through customs and immigration leaving Mulu he asked to look in my backpack and then just smiled and shook his head!   What an adventure that week was!