Off to the airport for our flight to Mulu.
As usual, we hit the ground running. The moment our little turboprop plane landed, we scooted off to the hotel, dropped bags and made for the National Park. Our first stop, the ranger station to get more information and arrange for guides/tours. We made it just in time for the afternoon expedition to the Deer and Lang's caves.
Interesting facts to take note of. 1. You need a guide to go into the caves. 2. Each expedition is timed. There is no bargaining, lollygagging or dillydallying. 3. Best thing to do is grab the brochure from the ranger station and plan your trip accordingly so that you hit all the caves, and any other sights you want to see. All timings are printed in the brochure (I wish someone had told us that before our trip)
It was a 4km walk to the entrance of the Deer and Lang caves. On the plus side, the entire walk was either on boardwalk or paved. There was no option to deviate from the path which is good and bad. The path was also relatively well lit with lights every 10m or so. That helped on the walk back, though some of the lights did not work.
The caves were quite spectacular. The Deer Cave being the previous holder of the 'largest cave passage known to man'. Coincidentally, when we booked the trip, it was still the 'largest', but was recently surpassed by the one discovered in Vietnam. If you really want to enjoy the caves, leave your camera behind. Humping my camera/lenses/flash/backpack/water...etc for 4km, then trying to setup good shots was a pain.
At the entrance of the caves was a little amphitheatre built for viewing the amazing flight of the 3 million or so bats living in the Deer cave. Every evening at dusk, the bats would begin their journey out to feed. They would spiral in a tight formation containing hundreds of bats and then make for the jungle. Sadly, we did not catch the show. It was drizzling and the bats would not come out. We tried the bat signal into the skies, but to no avail.
Once dark settled, we trekked the 4km back, and hopped on the POW lorry back to the hotel. (traveller tip 249: When booking at the Royal Mulu, request for a table outside or FAR from the stage). Since the booking for our hotel came from Yen's office, the hotel staff must have thought we were VVIPs. They put is in the table right on the stage. And every night, from 8-830pm, there is a "cultural show" for tourists. The 'show' is nothing more than a 'malaysia truly asia' spectacular of epic fail proportions. We learnt our lesson the hard way, sitting through what must have been the most uninspired performance (including actors expressions...they were more bored than us) of the diversity of ethnic groups and cultures in Malaysia.
Of course a 'cultural show' would not be complete without the traditional bamboo pole dancing (not what you think), and the 'get-a-guest-to-blow-a-dart-and-hit-a-balloon blowpipe competition'. Only one person from our table got up to try (no points for guessing), and obviously he missed. Evidently, Rickey needs 2 shots with a big pipe in his mouth.
Friday night is Karaoke night at the hotel bar. It seems that Karaoke night was meant for staff not guests. (Tip to Royal Mulu... Guest facilities are for GUESTS. Don't let your staff hog the guest facilities, it sets an ugly example. Especially when they can't sing and are making a nuisance of themselves). I crashed soon after since I couldn't get to see Ripken show off his lungs. Turns out the rest of the guys went over to 'Stella's' across the river for drinks (I shall talk about the cost of drinks at the Royal Mulu later), but they got kicked out at 1030, cos 'Stella's' was closing. The ridiculousness of it all, was when the guys came back to the bar and the staff of Stella's was competing with the Royal Mulu staff for worst rendition of 'My Way' (This will be discussed in my report on the Royal Mulu)
I love Kolomee... Blanched noodles tossed in pork fat, served with charsiew, shallots and minced pork. Delicious.
The 'Ta Pau', or Big Bun.
Big as Rickey's hand.
Our plane to Mulu
How did I take this photo if I was on the plane? How did the astronauts take the Apollo landing on the moon?
Welcome to Gunung Mulu National Park
The bridge over to the Royal Mulu
That's Stella's and another view of the bridge.
The Royal Mulu Resort. Where you pay 400 a night and get no service.
Those are our rooms. We were in 201, 202, 203, 204
There was a GAP.
Ready for the first mission
Entrance to the park proper.
All bridges lead....somewhere.
Mission 1: Deer cave and Lang's cave
Lang's Cave
Click on the picts to see it in full size. See if you can spot the tiny little people in the second picture. Only then can you appreciate the enormous size of the cave.
The entrace to the 'Deer Cave'. This is where the bats swarm out at night (supposedly).
Waiting for the bats to appear.
No comments:
Post a Comment