Bario or Mulu

November 7th-9th (Monday-Wednesday)

Enough with Miri. Three days in Miri was enough. It was amazing how little there was to do in this town. Not a single museum or cultural sight to see. I could have gone scuba diving had I known I'd be staying for so long.

So, off to the airport. Bario or Mulu. I was at the point of frustration over trying to organize my trip to Mulu that I had decided, hey, Mulu will always be there. I should try and visit Bario. There's a guy there, Reddish, who is a farmer and also is part of the school's organization. I thought it would be interesting to see those aspects of local life.

But, alas, the airplanes decided my fate. There were no flights to Bario until Thursday, and so instead of spending even more time in soul-less Miri, I bought the first ticket to Mulu.

Immediately I had pangs of regret. I mean, I could have tried to get on standby. I could have tried to see if anybody would cancel. But, nope, I went to Mulu instead.

The plane was quite empty, and the passengers were predominately foreign. Did I make a mistake? Should I hop on the next flight out and still try to go to Bario?

Once in Mulu, I was even more bummed out that there were no other groups going to the pinnacles, or the headhunter's trail. So, for the next couple of days, until the next flight to Kota Kinabalu, I entertained myself with visits to the four show-caves, the canopy walk, and the waterfall.



The caves were fantastic! Much more interesting than Niah Caves, though maybe not as culturally significant. The Deer Cave was the largest cave entrance in the world, and millions of bats lived there, created mountains of fresh guano. The bats stream out of the caves in the early evening, which was a spectacular sight to see. The other caves had more of the stalactite/stalagmite formations, and the lighting was quite classy and one is really able to feel the magnificience of time and water. (I do, however, still prefer the Shasta caves, mainly for the tree root structures.) The best part of the caves though, and the park as a whole, were the guides. The guides of Mulu were really good at what they do, whether it be explaining the plants, pointing out animals, teaching us about cave formations, or anything else of interest. Bian and Ishmael were by far the best two guides, and I was lucky enough to get both of them.

I was quite happy to come to Mulu, even if only to see the caves and to meet the guides.