In the Heart of Borneo

The Canopy Walk, in the Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia

I might as well finish my story of our Mulu National Park Family Trip two years ago, since I’ve already sorted out all the photos. I’m rushing to finish off work before we go off on a two-week trip home to Malaysia. One super express photo post coming up!


Ahh, nice. Drizzly cool in the Malaysian Rainforest. Way better than getting cooked alive here in Dubai at the moment. This year has been really hot and humid in Dubai. Not a place to be in, except indoors. Now you know why there’re malls all over the place?


That was our long-house for our 3-night stay in Mulu – there’re 4 rooms in it. The left most room was ours, and the second left most was Dad and Hazel’s


A walk in the forest is a nice thing that you could do. …Come to think of it, it’s about the ONLY thing that you could do. Besides getting lost and scaring yourselves in the dang caves that abound


Oh, a snake! Here snakey-snakey! As if it’ll respond. Jayden (the animal expert of our family) said it was Borneo Keeled Pit Viper. And he’s right! He’s the only one who’ll bother to search it up in our family


Wow. Big tree. More of mommy’s cup o’ tea than snakey-snakey


Canopy walk, here we come! Cmon honey, it’s not scary! (Mommy’s scared of heights)


See! Hazel on the canopy walk


Yours truly, ahem


And Dad


Back at ‘camp’, the kids


Oh, here’s one cool thing that you could do apart from jungle-trekking and exploring caves - Swimming! Yeah, at a natural pool outside Clearwater Cave. No, don’t swim in the raging underground river inside the cave. That might be the last time we ever hear from you… Who knows what lies in the caves?.. The kids made a friend here, Louie (right)


This raging river (Sungai Melinau Paku) separates the Mulu National Park premises from the small village and airport. No, not recommended to swim here. (Are you kidding me? Look at the torrent. But the water isn’t always that high and fast. We were there during a rainy spell). This is where you have to catch the boat to caves like Clearwater and Lagang, and also to Camp 5 if you decide to attempt the Pinnacles climb. Nope, didn’t do that. Not for kids below 16, and the unfit, ahem…


Leaving Mulu National Park, crossing the Melinau Paku River. Bye-bye, see you when we see you. Maybe. If we’re fit enough for the Pinnacles!


Our flight’s here! Kuching, here we come. Say cheese! Mulu Airport, Sarawak, Malaysia, Jul 2022

The Dark Cave Expedition

The start of a cave expedition in the jungles of Borneo. You’d have to get there by boat. What have we got ourselves into? Who knows what horrors lie in the cave. Will it be like The Descent?!?

This is the story of our visit to a cave in the rainforest of Borneo. It’s actually one of the caves in the Mulu National Park that we visited exactly 2 years ago, in July 2022. So, nope, there’re no horrors that we couldn’t cope with, unless… somehow, we’re trapped in there. No, I don’t want to imagine that.

But it’s easy to imagine being in one of those cave horror movie scenarios. An expedition to an unknown cave in the rainforest of Borneo. With ‘hostile’ hill tribes and who knows what lurks in the wilderness and darkness. Get ready for the unimaginable… OK, OK, that’s over-dramatic. The reality is the exact opposite actually, hehe.


The ‘hostile’ hill tribes turned out to be quite ‘docile’. This is the Penan Handicraft Centre in Batu Bungan, a Penan resettlement village near the Mulu National Park. The Penans are one of the tribes found in this area, but the predominant tribe original to this area, is actually the Berawan tribe, said one of the guides at Mulu National Park. The Penan were nomadic hunter-gatherers who gained fame in the 80’s and 90’s when their plight to challenge and stop the Malaysian and Indonesian logging companies from cutting down the rainforest came to light with the help of Bruno Manser, a Swiss environmentalist who stayed with the Penan people for a few years in the Sarawak forests.


We’ve reached the location. Now to trek thru the thick jungle. What flower is this? The lost miracle herb that could cure all sicknesses (like in The Jungle Cruise), or the deadly parasitic plant that could take over your body (like in The Ruins)?!? Heck, it’s just a flower, how would I know. Ask a botanist, or Google Lens…


The ascent…


The descent… Why is this cave locked? “This cave is locked to keep out unauthorised visitors who could easily get lost in the cave,” explained the guide. (Is it? OR is it to keep something IN??!?)


“What’s that? What’s that? I saw something run into the hole…” “Oh, it’s a long-legged centipede,” explained a ‘learned’ Singaporean visitor nonchalantly. The ‘critter-expert’ was with the only other group visiting the cave that day with us, a Singaporean family consisting of a pair of grown-up siblings, their parents and a spouse (if I remember correctly).


Swiftlets… the bats of the bird-world. Like bats, they use echolocation to fly in total darkness in the chasms and shafts of the caves, which are where they build their nests. Cool, huh? Why’s the West only hyped up over bats… Why aren’t there vampire swiftlets, or Swiftlet-Man?? The ‘click’ sounds that you hear in the caves aren’t from bats, but from swiftlets. Bat clicks are too high pitched for our human ears to hear.


The name of this cave is actually Lagang Cave, as explained by our local guide. In Mulu National Parks’ tour website and brochure, this particular cave tour is nicknamed, Fastlane. No, I have no idea why it’s called Fastlane. It isn’t faster than any of the other caves we visited in Mulu. The Fastlane Cave Tour can only be arranged directly with Mulu National Park, unlike the other ‘show caves’ in Mulu, like Deer Cave and Clearwater Cave, where external tour agents could arrange.


All visitors are advised to bring their own torches or headlamps as there’re no lights installed in this cave. Strangely, although this cave was the least popular cave of the 5 caves we visited in Mulu, both our kids said this was their favourite cave! One special thing about this cave is that because it is less visited, and more ‘hidden’, you could see more critters here than the other caves we’ve gone to – crickets, spiders, long-legged centipede, swiftlets, blind crabs… Wanted to see racer snakes, but no luck that day


Our family, Lagang Cave (aka Fastlane), Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia




Whew, we’re out. No mutants or monsters in the cave, …or is there?!?


Back at our base, the Mulu National Park!

We’ll be going for another home trip to Malaysia soon. It’ll be a shorter trip this time, than the last in 2022. So, we’ll have less time to go wandering around, sigh. Looking forward to the trip. Any trip is an adventure, woo-hoo!

Our River Cave Adventure

Boat parking area at the entrance to Clearwater Cave, Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia

Happy Malaysia Day! 60 years ago, on 16-Sep-1963, Malaysia was born, when Malaya, Singapore (yup, Singapore was with us at one time), Sabah (then called North Borneo) and Sarawak united to become 1 country! Hurrah! (For the non-Malaysians, this isn’t Malaysia’s Independence Day. Independence Day is celebrated on the day that Malaya gained independence from Britain i.e., 31-Aug-1957.)

What better way to celebrate Malaysia Day (for me) than to continue on my posts of Sarawak’s Mulu Caves! (Yeah, I’m just looking for excuses and reasons like these to post picture posts, haha. I already have loads of these cave photos downloaded and sorted out. Posting all the caves at one go would be bloody boring. Who’d wanna see photo after photo of rocks and holes?!!!). So here goes. Part 2 of the Mulu Caves.


The Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave (and also Lagang Cave if you choose to visit) can only be reached by river. Yippee, a river adventure. What’s a trip to Sarawak without a ride on a river? Sarawak after all is famous for its rain forests and rivers. It contains Malaysia’s longest river, the Rajang River (Batang Rajang). River transportation still plays a big role in Sarawak. Many of the settlements in the thick jungle interior are still accessible only by river and/ or by foot!


Off we go! This is fun! On the Sungai Melinau Paku


The ascent to Wind Cave. Before that, we actually made a short stop at a Penan village (but more on that later, another post I think)


A chamber in the Wind Cave with an open roof


Inside the Wind Cave, which is anything but windy. Hey, where’s the wind?? It’s humid like a steam bath. There’s actually a river inside the Wind Cave (that explains the humidity) which connects to Clearwater Cave. But that is strictly for the adventure caving enthusiasts. The connection is 5km along the underground river. It takes 6 to 8 hours and you’d have to climb over rocks, get muddy and swim in the underground river! Interesting, but no thanks. Not for lazy bones here, hehe


This is the easier way, hah! Via river boat on the Melinau Paku river. Here we go again, onwards to Clearwater Cave


We’ve reached Clearwater Pool which is at the entrance of Clearwater Cave. (You can swim here, which we will, later on)


Jayden makes a friend. Jayden calls him Luke (he said his name is like the number 6 in Chinese), but I think his name is actually Louie, or something like that, as clarified by his mom, but my memory’s a little fuzzy to recall it all. He is half French (dad) and half Hong-Kong Chinese (mom). The single leaf plants hanging above them, on the cave entrance grows ONLY in Clearwater Cave according to the guide!


Looking back towards the entrance. That’s where we entered from. Here’s a picture of the whole family at the entrance of Clearwater Cave


Downwards into the cave. There’s a rumbling sound all over the cave, the roars of the underground river…


The roar gets louder. There you are, the river… Nope, no swimming here. Too dangerous. You can swim in the pool outside


Up again


Emerging from the abyss


Chill out time, on the Clearwater Pool. It’s bloody cold, but relaxing. We’re the first ones in the pool, yours truly and the kids and Louie

That’s all for now.

For those who’s wondering why Singapore isn’t with Malaysia anymore, here’s my 2 cents’ worth. (But don’t quote me, I’m not the historian here. This is just my take on it). Less than 2 years after the forming of Malaysia, Singapore got kicked out. No, they didn’t agitate or fight for independence or anything like that. Singapore actually wanted to remain with Malaysia, but Malaysia expelled them. Which other country do you know of, that got evicted to become an independent nation of its own?? I know so many countries who had to fight tooth and nail for years just to have freedom, and here we have a country ‘expelled’?!! And for what reason? Ummm… I think Singapore was just being a pain in Malaysia’s ass. That’s putting it a little crude. We just differed in opinion on how to run things. Singapore meant business right away, putting things right, no fucking around, unity, integrity and clean government is everything. Screw corruption, screw racial politics, equality for all regardless of race or religion. Malaysia was like …hey, rilek lah bro, little bit here, little bit there, slow a little bit, is OK lah, and the Malays still need some time to catch up with the other races, OK? Unfortunately, letting people do as they like, and a little bit of cronyism and corruption here and there, became a lot, and see where that got us. Looking back, Singapore did a way better job than us. They’re developed and grouped together with the first world countries (since the 90’s). And despite us creating a Vision 2020 in 1991 (where among other things, we’re supposed to become a developed nation by the year 2020 – that’s 19 friggin years to do it, OK??!), we’re still arguing about letting Zahid (the Deputy Prime Minister) off from all his corruption charges, and thinking of ways to stop the Islamic zealots (who’ve taken over the north of Malaysia) from coming to power (and transforming Malaysia into the ‘Islamic Emirate of Malaysia’ or something like that). But not all is bad though. Look who’s the nanny state now. Not Malaysia, haha. Chillax man. Signing out for now. See ya.

If I Were Batman

This would be my hideout! Impressive huh? (But I’d rather be Morbius, muahaha!)

OK, I am out time. Tenders, close out work and a Saudi visit (for work of course, what d’ya think?) I never imagined that I’d be that busy this time, especially at the tail-end of my Projects. I thought I’d have a lazy heat wave of a summer, sorting out photos, posting blogs, reading (and watching) nonsense, applying for jobs (that’s what you’d do when you find yourself free, don’t you? Never know when the company would get tired of you!) and so on… BUT that’s all changed and for the last 2 months, I posted only 2 miserable posts!! So here goes a photo post, just to keep the blog alive! Don’t I just love that!

My siblings have been taking turns to visit our father and youngest sister in Malaysia this summer. First Jason’s family from Singapore in June, and then Kim & kids from NZ in July. It’d be nice to visit also, but the pesky airlines don’t make it affordable for us here. So, it’s a summer spent baking in the scorching oven… (we’ve found some cheap tickets recently, to locations nearer to the Middle East, let’s hope the visa is easy to get. So, there’s still a chance we’d go somewhere, hehe). Anyway, talking about home, here’s our very own family visit to Malaysia last year - our caving adventure in the Gunung Mulu National Park with dad and Hazel!


We’ve arrived! Mulu Airport, Sarawak, Malaysia. We took a 30 mins flight from Miri. That’s the only practical way to get here. It’s either this or by road and river boats which will take you an entire freakin day from Miri (don’t believe me, Google it!)


The entrance bridge of the Mulu National Park. The little village and airport are on the other side of this river, the Sungai Melinau Paku


Checked in, and enjoying a cup o’ coffee outside our longhouse room in the National Park


The adventure begins… trekking off into the jungle


Smile everybody! Why’s everyone so gloomy! It ain’t hot actually. The rainforest’s cool and shady, and there’s the occasional drizzle and rain. But it’s damn humid!


We’ve reached the entrances of the Deer Cave (and Lang Cave). The huge cavernous hole in the middle is the Deer Cave. The Lang Cave uses the same route but is further to the right of the photo and its entrance is obscured by the jungle. This was where we’d watch Batman unleash his superpowers later on (… the bat exodus!)




The Lang Cave is full of strange rock formations… O the rock is melting!?! Duh, no better comment to make??


The route to Deer Cave


Welcome to the Batcave. No, it’s called the Deer Cave! Move over, Batman!


What’s this? It’s inside the friggin Deer Cave. See how tiny the pesky humans are! Can’t even see the roof/ ceiling of the cave in this pic


Deer Cave, Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia. It’s more than 120m wide, 4km in length and 140+m high! You could fit a friggin 45-storey high building in here! There's water falling continuously from the ceiling at a few places, creating a small stream in the cave


Hahhhh…. Bats! The exodus begins. That’s what we’ve been waiting for. Millions of bats fly out from their home in the Deer Cave in the evening for their nightly activities. (No, no sign of the caped crusader… he must be shy)


Chilling out with dad in the National Park’s cafeteria – which would you fancy beer or tuak? Cheers!