As you might have noticed the blog entries from
my Borneo trip are not in chronological order, now I will also skip the stories
about national park Baku and will go straight away to my three day stay in Mulu
National Park (I went there from Miri, in Miri I stayed at the Minda Hostel –
important for the rest of the story).
To Mulu you can only get by plane. The flight from Miri takes about 30
minutes. I bought the ticket two days in advance. I got to the airport about an
hour before the flight (that was supposed to leave at 13.50), went to the
check-in and the nice lady informed me that the flight was… cancelled. That I
could however take the flight at 13.20. It was already about 12.45. She issued
a boarding pass and the boarding hour on it was: 8.50 am. Well, that reminds me
somehow on my Burma travel (planes not on time, late or way before schedule, baggage
checked instead of to Warsaw, to Wahpeton, North Dakota etc.)
Of course this time it was just a mistake on
the boarding pass, I managed to catch the flight. I had a window seat and could
see for my own eyes that huge palm tree plantations – where once there was a
jungle. Dear Friends, for every palm tree planted here in this deforested land so
many wild animals died (among them orangutans). It’s a barbarian way to do
economy! And let’s just make this one thing clear – Malaysia has plenty of
natural resources, oil for instance – it could be the richest country in the
region if there were no corruption, the profits of the wild deforestation and
all the plantations go mostly to the foreign capital groups. They destroy this
unique natural habitat, not only animals and plants, but by doing so, they
contribute to extinction of the local tribes – along with their languages,
culture etc. Which is simply barbarian. After the political statement above, let’s get back to my adventures in Mulu. Well, when I got there, to my surprise, there was a car waiting for me. I didn’t book anything, knew though that I wanted to stay at one of the hostels, shared this information with some people at the Minda hostel in Miri and they organized a ride to the hostel for me :) Well, the hostel wasn’t spectacular, it wasn’t bad though. It’s being run by local people, so staying there you can somehow contribute to the empowerment of the locals (contrary to staying in the park where the facilities are basically run by the government). It was a big dorm – about 30 beds in a huge room. I always say that I’m too old for dorms, but at Mulu you don’t really have another option as budget traveler. The conditions were really very simple, cold water, and not always available for shower, no electricity (except from 6 pm to 11.30), but it was clean and it has geckos and bats (meaning – no insects) and besides, being in Mulu you spend here the whole day in the park anyways. So, it’s just part of the experience. Besides, I met some really nice people there. A super-friendly French anthropologist, a great world-traveling couple from Germany, a nice Hindu-US guy. All of us were sitting at a table talking about travels, turns out, out of 5 ppl sitting there 3 of us had eaten a cobra heart in Vietnam! So, go figure. Really my type of people :)
Anyhow, before going to Mulu I decided to leave
part of my stuff at the Minda hostel (not to carry everything for a 3-day
trip). As I got to Mulu, I realized that instead of taking that one crucial
plastic bag (with e.g. clean t-shirts and spare pair of socks…) I left it in
Miri! E.g. I had no pyjamas (kind of important in a dormitory ;) no bathing suit
(there is a waterfall where one can swim). I don’t know why I always do such
stupid things. It could have been just a nice three day stay in a park, hikes,
swimming etc. But no, I had to make it
difficult ;) I mean, it was still nice, still I really had to use my ‘McGyver
skills’ e.g. to prepare a pyjamas out of my… long scarf ;) etc. In the jungle it is
also really humid, thus, I couldn’t just quickly wash my clothes. I tell you,
next time I go somewhere I will double check everything!
On the first day I went for the so
called ‘botanic trail’ – I must say I was impressed. Although the park is
really well organized and there are plenty of descriptions of the plants, and
some information boards with interesting facts etc., you still feel that you
are in the middle of the jungle. It’s not like being in a zoo or a botanic park
somewhere in Europe. On the way I saw big butterflies, giant snails, colorful
lizards. In the evening I went for a guided “night walk”. The group wasn’t big, maybe 7 ppl The guide
showed us e.g. stick-insects. Amazing
creatures! They really do look like sticks!
Being in Mulu I took some trails on my own which was really nice. I like hiking on my own. Here in Mulu one of the major attractions is the ‘canopy walk’. You walk on a narrow bridge that hangs high in the trees. Awesome. It felt a bit like being in an amusement park :)
Just take a look at the picture,
can you spot the insect?
Being in Mulu I took some trails on my own which was really nice. I like hiking on my own. Here in Mulu one of the major attractions is the ‘canopy walk’. You walk on a narrow bridge that hangs high in the trees. Awesome. It felt a bit like being in an amusement park :)
During the canopy walk the guide showed us a
tree; well, in fact he showed us many trees, but
this one is absolutely phenomenal. Why? Because it peels of its ‘skin’ (bark I mean) to get
rid of the parasites and other plants that want to grow on it. Moreover, it
also drops leafs once in a year – also to get rid of the unwanted company.
“This tree likes to be alone” – the guide said. Well, I think if I was a tree I
would be exactly that one.
Speaking of being alone, on one of my
by-myself-walks I - out of sudden - heard a loud noise in the trees. Turns out
there were monkeys, a lot of them. I even managed to get a picture of one. In
general, in Mulu I couldn’t really make any decent pictures of the animals as
they were moving too fast or too high up in the trees. And there were birds,
butterflies, bats, frogs, monkeys, cute little squirrels and plenty more. But well,
at least that one time it worked out – the proof below:
When you’re in Mulu you just have to see the caves. Among them the Deer Cave – the biggest in world. Over 2 million bats live there! They fly out of the cave at dusk. I took a walk to the cave, hoping to see the bats. And yes, I saw them IN the cave (meaning I could only see huge black stain on the ceiling). Oh, yeah, and they ‘pooed’ on me. Yes, yes, guano in my hair…And that was about it, then it started to rain. Like it only rains in the rainforest… Hence, the bats didn’t fly out. And I could go back through the woods 3 km in constant rain (remember that by mistake I didn’t took many things to change?). I had a poncho, my clothes were all wet though. My trekking shoes were full of water, socks completely wet. Of course, I consider it as part of the experience. That’s the adventure ;) However, it would be nice to see million of bats flying out of the cave forming a moving spiral in the sky. Well, another time maybe.
Btw, I thought I will go in Mulu for some
adventure caves, to do some serious hiking there. However, you have to book
those tours about a month in advance (!) and so, I didn’t have a chance to do
anything really spectacular while I was over there…
The jungle :)
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