Day 72: Mulu National Park

We were up at the crack of dawn.... Well it felt like it. I was up late the night before from a Tour de France hangover, thanks in large part to Abby. I've felt more stress in trying to watch the Tour this week than at any point In the past year of work - is that bad? Thinking back, I figure I've seen every Tour stage either live or time shifted with a self imposed news/results blackout since about 2001. Yes, I'm addicted and there you have step 1 - I've admitted my problem.... I don't think there's a cure, fortunately.

So I spent yesterday afternoon with Alex and on my phone looking for places that carried Eurosport - the Europe based sports network that broadcasts the tour in English. Alex and I visited a dozen places, I visited a dozen more on the way to and back from dinner - no luck. Finally, on the way home, right before the hotel (I was in an unusual for me "give up" mode), Abby says "check that place out, they have a Guiness sign". "No, it's no use, they won't have it". "Come on daddy!", so I went in and asked the manager, a young Chinese guy, if they had Eurosport (they were playing 22 Jump Street on the dual TVs next to the stage). "Of course!". Yes!!!!! I quickly ditched the room key and my bag, gave Abby a huge hug (well, Beth and Robin didn't find Eurosport after all!!!... Remind me to modify my Will when I get back) and hustled them out the door and sat in for the first stage in the alps.... Sweet.

So the tour and posting a blog kept me up until around 1am, but it was worth it :-)

We caught two cabs to the airport, checked in for our MAS Wings domestic flight to Mulu and separated - the four kids went to the gate to hang out, Beth ran to the gate because she heard a ghost whisper that we were boarding 45 minutes early (we weren't - I think she was excited for our next adventure!), and Alex, Kim and I wandered around the terminal.

The flight to Mulu was short, I think.... I slept. The plane was chalk full of Gaijinzillas chatting away excitedly about the trip ahead. Mulu National Park is one of the higher rated experiences in Borneo, though relatively few make it here as you really have to fly. Mulu is set right near Brunei, on the eastern side of Sarawak and the whole park is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its cave system, it's biological diversification, and its plant and wildlife.

Alex and I had devised a schedule for our group of eight, but that was 8 months ago so we needed to refresh. There were several options of places to stay, but we ended up choosing to stay in the park itself - when we got there, we were happy with our choice. Some of the places to stay were quite a long walk (even a car ride) from the park and the accommodations we ended up getting were perfect for our 2 families.

It's great having Alex here. Anticipating few transport options, Alex and I did a mind meld and split up tasks. By the time some were still deplaning, Alex got chits for the ONE "taxi" and had arranged that our group would be the first two trips from the airport to Mulu. I shepherded the bags from the offload point, and sent the first three people with bags to join Alex. Kathleen, our driver, knew that we were next so by the time she got back to the airport, we were able to jump in, to the chagrin of the 20 or so people in line. It was only a five minute return trip, but having Alex there kept things moving - we are really simpatico when it comes to logistics.

When I got to the park, it was now the moment to see if our plans would work out. Everything had been arranged and confirmed, but it was by email, and it always feels a little un-real until you're staring face to face at a human being. No worries though, our whole itinerary was laid out for us, and we were able to pay, ditch our bags and join our first excursion not one hour after getting off the plane.

Our rooms were great - we are in a longhouse along an elevated jungle walkway that has a number of bungalows and long houses tucked into the jungle. The longhouse has two rooms on each side of the stairs up to the landing. We have two rooms on the right - each room having four single beds, fan and AC and a large bathroom with two showers (one cold, one hot, oddly) and a toilet. It was much nicer than I expected.... Because I hadn't expected anything :-). Beth and Kim were over the moon, so I'm guessing they had had very low expectations! The kids of course were in seventh heaven.

The whole park setup is really top notch - the main reception and welcome area, the grounds and the open ended cafeteria are all beautifully put together.

At 2:30, we gathered around and met our guide, Jasper. What's that you say? We were off on a trek already? That's right.... I told you Alex and I had arranged everything with careful thought - when to go, go, go and when to relax. If we'd left it up to our wives, we would have over committed and bailed later (they don't read this drivel....). Well, that's the plan, I have full editing control if this later does not pan out.

Jasper, an Iban native, was a great guide. The plan was to hike 3km to Deer and Lang caves, do some exploration there, then sit down at an observatory to hopefully watch the exodus of over 3 million bats from Deer Cave.

The walk was not what I had expected - it was all on elevated wooden walkways with railings or concrete paths. When you don't have to look down at what you're stepping on (like we had to in Bako National Park yesterday), you get to open your eyes to all the stuff around you. The jungle was beautiful - for all the times we'd said it felt like we were walking inside Jurassic Park before (northern Laos, Ha Long Bay, Phong Nha national park), drive your Kramer index finger into the table, "Now!!" we really felt it.

Jasper pointed out a lot of critters and plants - poisonous trees, millipedes, flowers, and he joked with the kids. His speaking style and smile were infectious - he'd often end sentences with "by the way" which added to his charm.

We made it to Deer Cave faster than I think Jasper had ever made it. It's not like we were rushing, but we all walked pretty fast (I understand from Jasper that apparently not all Gaijinzillas do actually walk this fast!!). Deer Cave, until recently, was the largest cave in the world (it was usurped by one in Phong Nha national park in Vietnam in 2012). The mouth of it was massive. I was totally impressed with the continuation of the walkway system throughout the cave. You needed to stay on the walkway, as the cave was full of Guano (the polite term for bat shit.... So you can now say things like, "jeez, Nana is gua-no crazy" (note: not our Nana, that's just an unrelated example). When you looked back at the mouth from the inside, you could see a massive profile that looked like President Lincoln...

The cave was full of squeaks from the bats sleeping (or just hanging, I don't think they actually sleep) above. It's really hard to get a scale view from a picture, but we did take a bunch of pictures where, if you look closely, you can see small ant people at the bottom in the far distance. This thing was massive - 125 meters tall at its highest point and 140 meters wide, by the way (damn Jasper, now I'm doing it!). We eventually came to a collapsed section of the cave called the garden of Eden which was a bright green bathed in sunlight that contrasted beautifully with the black hole of the cave.

Unlike Paradise Cave in Vietnam, this cave was dimly lit, mostly to give the bats respite from shining lights.

After about forty minutes, we hiked back out and went to explore Lang Cave. Lang Cave was smaller and had some interesting features - scalloping on the walls showed the progress of water passing through the cave millions of years ago. There was a "skylight" - a sinkhole way above the floor that let in beautiful light, and there were many more stalagmites and stalactites than in Deer Cave.

By the time we got out of Lang Cave, it had started to pour. We donned our trusty ponchos (well most did.... I did not bring mine! Over-weather-confidence at work!) and walked over to the observation deck in hopes that it would stop raining and we would see the bat exodus (they are not big on rain as they don't have feathers to keep them dry).

We did see the bats after all - it was very cool. The rain abated at about 4:45, and the bats started streaming out of the cave in a never ending twisting tornado of black mass. We were expecting a large cloud of bats to suddenly emerge, but the way they came out was very cool. They fly in a coil, as the bats are always trying to stay in the center of the "peloton" (ok, it's a cycling term for group, I can't help it) because they fear being attacked by bat Hawks. The first group of bats took about 15 minutes - a constant stream of millions of bats, out for the evening to eat all kinds of insects. Mosquitos and other flying insects are pretty rare around Mulu - the bats have to eat 18 grams of insects each every night, so they work hard to act as our personal bug repellents.

There was a pause and then another group came out,and Abby shouted over to me "Daddy, the first chase group!" With a huge grin on her face..... Another TdF reference - did I mention I need to change my Will? The bats, it turns out, take over an hour to leave the cave - all 3 million of them, by the way (:-)).

The walk back was one of those "evening energy walks" - we were all pumped full of life force. We were half way around the world, trekking through the deep jungle with our good friends from down the street.... So cool.

We had a great dinner. The food here is really amazing! And so are the Tiger Beers of course. The kids had a great night, capping it off with a viewing of their C-quality horror movie (hey Mudfords, this movie made Room 407 seem like an Oscar nominated flic!). A great first day in Mulu.... More adventures on tap for tomorrow!