Hi All,
Arrived early and were surprised to be met by Joseph, a driver that Mrs Lee the enthusiastic, efficient manager of the Dillenia guesthouse we had booked, had arranged. He had just dropped people at the airport and gave us a ride to the hostel for half price. Good start.
Hostel was more like university accommodation but still had plenty of homely touches.
Miri is an oil town and also the hub for getting to Mulu national park and the barrio highlands area. We did a little arranging and then booked a room at the national park and a flight to Mulu. The accommodation was booked out for a couple of days so we were going to have to wait.
Next day.
Went for a day trip to Niah National Park. Booked Joseph as it was a bit of a challenge to get there with public transport. I think it was about 1hr trip out to the park. A bit of a laugh as there is a very small river between the park entry and the park which could easily be bridged but instead there is a motor boat across which takes about 15seconds.
It was about a 3km steamy walk along a very civilised boardwalk through rainforest to the caves. No wonder the park staff seemed a little confused when I asked whether we needed to wear leech socks.
The large cave is huge and holds a healthy population of swifts and bats. The former have their nests harvested by local workers. There was a slippery board walk which we followed and needed head torches to pass through some sections to pass through the back of the cave into more rainforest and onto the painted cave which has some damaged cave paintings.
The jungle was alive with insects and birds and we heard the call of gibbons in the distance as we returned.
Joseph had been out visiting friends at a longhouse and had thoughtfully bought some bananas and crackers for us.
Next day.
Another national park. We wanted to visit the Lambir hills national park. Not quite sure where the bus station was located so went to local bus area only to find out that we needed to go to the long distance bus station. A freelance taxi driver, aka a local who just felt like a drive for a few dollars, offered us a lift out to the park and we decided that the didn't look like a serial killer and his price wasn't too bad. The park was about 30km away and it was a nice conversation with the driver along the way. We arrived quite early. Again we got odd looks about the need for leech socks. The park was surprisingly quiet for birdlife but we did spot a pigmy squirrel while walking to one of the waterfalls. We walked for a while along one of the longer tracks but decided that it just wasn't interesting enough. It was really disappointing not seeing birdlife or any other mammals. It was very steamy in the rainforest and we were both soaked by the time we left.
Next problem was getting back to Miri. We soon waved down a bus which thankfully was airconditioned and it went all the way to the long distance bus station. Unfortunately this is about 4km from Miri so we needed to catch a local bus. Waiting, waiting, waiting. No bus turned up so we decided to walk. Not very smart in the middle of the day so we were again soaked with sweat by the time we arrived. Probably saved about 50cent walking...
Enough time wasting. Tomorrow we head to Mulu national park with it's interesting karst formed pinacles and massive cave systems.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
