Holiday in Borneo: Day 5 (Niah Caves)

Well, this was supposed to be the highlight of our trip; a visit to the Niah Caves, located in the Niah National Park.

The World Heritage site is about an hours drive from Miri town. If you are renting a car for this trip, take the coastal road (starting from the Miri Marriott or Brighton Beach or Taman Selera beach/recreational park) because it is less twisty than the alternative, which is trunk road between Miri and Bintulu. The coastal road took us 1hr 10mins legally, while it took us 2hrs to drive back from Niah to Miri on the trunk road slowed down by many lorries and buses.

Once at the Niah park hq, you will buy tickets and head towards the cave. Wait, even before you start, you have to pass a checkpoint gate, where you must rent their flashlights (5RM each), if you didn't bring any. And then, past the checkpoint, you might be surprised to find that you have to take a ferry ride just to get started!!!



Just to cross a 5m/15ft river, you get on a small motorized boat, and pay the boatman 1RM per person each way. I guess building a bridge is not feasible?



Once on the other side, you will see very clearly signposted trails. We were headed to the most famous caves, the painted caves, which was 4.1km from this sign.



Then entire trail is on an elevated wooden path. Convenient.







Finally, after about 3km, you will reach the mountain.



After a short climb, we reached the trader's cave.



These wooden structures represent where houses were built.



Nice limestone formations...











Further along, we reach the "great cave". This is a huge cave, and after this point, the trail goes entirely into darkness. Hence, the flashlights.



Behind the fence is on-going archeological work...











Up, down, up, down, in total darkness...


Ainsley asked why it was raining inside the cave. I just said "yes, it rains." I didn't tell him what the "Rain" was ... until later...



There were a few places to take a break...before pushing on to the painted caves.





More fences, but these are to protect the wall paintings. You see, you could be so close that some idiots might just try to touch the 40,000 yr old paintings, or choose to add to them...



Here's one which my zoom could capture...





There are actually two major areas where there are paintings. However, the second (further away) site was closed because there was apparently some major dig going on...



And then the reality sunk in...there is only one way out, the same way...




So it was on the walk back that something happened. While in the pure darkness, something "jumped" at Ainsley from the floor and then hit me as well.

He asked: "What was that?"

I said: "Lizard."

He said: "A hairy lizard???"

I finally told him: "Ok, that's a bat."

He said: "Felt like a dog, furry."

And I explained that the rain was probably bat droppings. Whoopee...



There are other places to visit in the Niah national park, including some peaks and a small waterfall. But this 10m trek was enough for us.

Overall, how would I rate the Niah Caves as a tourism or historical site?

I would say nice, but underwhelming. Somehow, lacking that WOW factor. As caves, it pales beside those at Halong Bay in Vietnam...or even the Batu Caves near KL...but I guess the draw was the painted caves. Still, I am not sure about whether I would say this is a MUST SEE place before you die...