Mulu + Miri Trip 17-21 Jan 2007 (i)

CL planned this trip for quite some time - caves visiting in Mulu and Miri.

The first for me. And CL. And KF. And AT.

And we had a surprise for KF: The Canopy Walk. World's longest.

=D

Look at that excited smile

We managed to get Air Asia's promotion package from Miri to Mulu.

Paid an affordable RM350 for: KL - Miri - Mulu - Miri - JB.

And so we took the 11.30 pm bus from Golden Mile to KL's LCCT for our flight to Miri.

I slept throughout the ride (as usual), amidst the talking and smooching (says CL) noises from the couple behind us. I didn't hear cos I was sleeping mah. Hehe...

And there was this irritating middle-aged couple, who didn't think twice when they lowered their seat the minute they went up the bus! They made their journey very comfortable by bringing out pillow case covers to put on the head rest, blankets. The ultimate was that they purposely lowered the seats in front of them so that they could place their feet up.

What the...???

Anyways, we arrived at KL - Pudu Bus Station at around 5 am. Took some time to get down the bus as I had to keep my Tempur transit pillow into my bag(my 宝贝 leh) and put on my shoes. And they complained that I took so long. Don't wake me up last minute lah.*bleah*

=D

When I was off the bus, CL was already negotiating with one of the 霸王车 drivers. We had initially wanted to take the cab to the bus station so that we could take the shuttle bus (RM9) to LCCT. But in the cab, KF's mouth managed to get us a better deal, and the driver took us to the airport straight.

Went to check in straightaway and waited in McD for AT, who arrived shortly at around 6.30am. We had our breakfast and then proceeded to the departure gates for our flight.

Our gate at KL's LCCT


Kiasuism - The Singapore culture

Dunno why the other folks at the waiting area started standing up the moment we arrived at the gates. That's how we ended up being the first in line.

Not purposely one, you know?

=D

Miri Airport

We arrived at Miri Airport at about 9.45am. Since our next flight to Mulu is at 1pm, and with so much time to waste, we took a cab down to the town for lunch and some walking around.

It was finally time to board our plane to Mulu. Kinda excited coz it was the first time riding in a Fokker 50 plane. But was kinda disappointed. Looks just like any other planes leh. I was expecting a plane looking somewhat like this.

Sigh.

Our Fokker 50

What if one of it stops turning?

The head behind a bit extra leh

In less than 1 hour, we arrived at Mulu Airport.

Happening leh. I can imagine the folks saying, "I travel to town by plane."

Fwah...

The smallest airport I landed my feet upon

The moment we got out of the arrival area, we saw Royal Mulu Resort's staff welcoming their guests while we were like lost sheep looking for our transport.

Finally we were directed to an old uncle who brought us safely to the National Park within 10 minutes.

Hanging bridge leading to the Headquarters

Welcome to National Park Headquarters

Headquarters Office

Very bad first impression of the Headquarters.

When we stepped into the office, we were received by a lady. No smiles. Just a straight face.

Never mind.

Halfway through our checking in, a group of 4 angmohs (also 3 chabohs, 1 guy) came in. She immediately turned to them and smiled. She then asked another fella to continue with our check-in and to answer our questions about the 2.30pm trip to Deer and Lang caves.

"They are in a hurry." she said.

PUI! We are also in a rush for the 2.30pm walk what?!

The racist guide

More stories about her in the later part and the rest of the posts.

We quickly finished up our check-in, collected our room key (Cobra room), ran to our room to drop our bags, change and ran back to the meeting point to start our trip to the Deer and Lang Caves.

Not surprisingly, the group of angmohs were already there. But how come they could wear sandals and we couldn't???

And... that woman was our guide.

To those who are planning to go there, you CAN wear sandals. The Teva kind, not ladies' kind of sandals ok? Don't blame me if you fall and hurt yourself if you wear Charles and Keith.

Along the way, we saw lots of rocks, trees and insects. Luckily not too many flying ones. *phew* And we took some time taking pictures.

We then realised that the guide DOES NOT stop and wait if WE were the ones lagging behind taking pictures. However if it was one of the angmohs, she will stop and tell stories while waiting for her.

Coincidence? *shrugs*

Looks like a full face with the eyes, nose and mouth

This is the one that looks like a Devil's head (the nose)

CL took the 2 shots of the Devil's head. The wonders of internet. She did research, and I did not. So I didn't see that rock. Or maybe I did. Or I didn't.

Dunno lah. I was looking out for butterflies........

=D

No worries about getting dirty though, the path is laid with planks which made walking easy even for older folks. But wear footwear that's anti-slip coz it can be quite slippery when it rains.

Anyway, after about 1 hour of walking (3.4km), we finally reached a rest area where we would be waiting to watch the bats fly out of the Deer Cave later in the evening. Rested for 5 minutes, had a bun and some water, we continued to our first cave, Deer Cave.

Entrance to Deer Cave - world's largest cave

Intro to Deer Cave

The guide told us that the cave was found because some fella followed a deer to its shelter while hunting.

Deer Cave being the largest in the world, is over 2km in length and 90m high and wide. The main chamber, which is partially lit by sunlight, is 174m wide and 122m high. - taken from here

As the lights in the cave was not bright enough, and also because it is so blardie huge, we couldn't really see the rock formation. This cave is also the home to millions of bats.

Silhouette of Abraham Lincoln

After about 30 - 45 minutes in Deer Cave, we came out clean and moved on to the Lang Cave.

Apparently, it was the guide's uncle (Mr. Lang) who found the cave.

Entrance of Lang Cave

Intro to Lang Cave

View from the entrance

We could get closer to the walls and take a closer look at the rock formation in the Lang Cave.

And the people there had lots of imagination to be able to name all those formation they see.

Great Wall of China

Jellyfish they said, shit I said

This one also look like a pile of shit

After looking at shit rock formation for another 30 minutes or so, we quickly left the cave so that we could watch the bats leaving Deer Cave from the rest area. By then it was already 5 pm.

Bats out of Deer Cave to search for food

My cam died on me while the bats were flying out.

*wahhhhhhhhhh...*

I is dulanz.

After watching like more than 10 batches of them, which seemed like bees, we hurriedly left for the headquarters. Plus I didn't like the feeling of being left behind by the guide.

The (brisk) walk back took another hour or so (again). Nearly died from all that walking. Haven't been exercising much after my Mount KK expedition leh.

Once in the room, since there were 2 shower rooms, me and KF went to take our shower first. And I suay suay chose the shower without heater. Kaoz! 冷死我！

After CL and AT finished their shower (very suggestive hor? =D), we walked over to Cafe Mulu for dinner.

Dinner time!

Started to rain quite heavily halfway through dinner time. When it got lighter, we girls quickly ran back to our longhouse while AT strolled back with his tee over his head.

No fair lah.

And guess what? We were all asleep by 9pm.

No TV, no entertainment, even KF stopped talking.

Muahahahhhhaa! Haven't slept so early in a long time. And same goes for the next few days.


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Note: pictures not linking to FlickR are taken by CL