Monday, January 12, 2009

Bird's nest soup, anyone? (Jan. 5/09 - Miri, Borneo, Malaysia)

The rains quit just as we were heading out for the day to explore Niah Caves, but we took our rain gear anyway - more for protection from falling bat crap than anything else! A well maintained boardwalk passes through about 3km of beautiful rainforest before reaching the caves, and the mist hanging in the trees made for a beautiful walk. Twisting vines and gigantic leaves hung over the trail, and strange trees grew to several metres in diameter with huge butress-like roots growing out of their bases to support them in the wet soil. Exotic birds and bug chirped and buzzed their bizarre calls as we walked, and bright red millipedes scurried across the walkway every now and then. Eventually, we could see towering white limestone cliffs through the trees above us, and the trail climbed up until the gaping mouth of the Great Cave was before us. The cave was monsterous - some 60m high and 250m wide, with a floor area of over 10 hectares! One side was fenced off to protect the area of the archaeological dig that has been underway since the 1950's, but the graves of dozens of bodies were obvious along the north wall of the cave. The floor was compact but slippery, the product of thousands of bats and birds that hang out on the ceiling and fly in and out of the cave each day. Pits were obvious where locals still collect the guano and sell it as plant fertilizer. As you could imagine, it didn't smell too pretty in there! We followed the cave into the dark corner at the back, where headlamps were necessary to see where you're going. The boardwalk climbed up and down over the rubbly cave floor, slick as ice in most places thanks to the ongoing dripping of water and guano from above. After several minutes, a skylight opened up in the ceiling way above us, and sunshine streamed in through the jungle as rain water dripped over the edge in a trippy slow motion waterfall whose droplets bent in midair to follow the breeze rushing through the cave. Four passages out into the jungle exist, and each one had its own unique picture frame of the green forest outside, characterized by elaborate stalactites and stalagmites of various sizes and shapes.


As we were entering the cave, two local men carrying headlamps and a bundle of interlocking bamboo poles were entering the cave too. We quickly figured out that they were going to collect birds' nests, and we hoped to catch up to them and see them in action. All throughout the caves are flimsy wooden poles strapped to the ceiling but detatched about 30 feet above the ground, which these guys hook their pole up to and climb freehand to reach the nests plastered to the caves' ceiling! These guys have to be crazy - some of the poles were at least 150 feet tall to reach the top, they were basically 2x4's strapped together with wooden pegs, and they climb them barefoot and without a harness of any kind. Some of the spots where the stick-like scaffolding was in place looked like it would be literally impossible to get to without spiderman suction cups! We did eventually see the two picker guys at work, and after watching them try to maneuver an 80ft long pole from the ground to pick a "lower" bird's nest off the wall, we realized why the namesake soup is so expensive - they spent over half an hour trying to get one nest and were unsuccessful!


We emerged from the Great Cave and followed the trail through swampy jungle to Paintings Cave, where the deteriorating remains of hematite paintings several thousand years old can be seen low on a wall behind the more recent stalactites. Most of the images depict people and boats making the transition into the afterlife, and along with the paintings, multiple death ship coffins and grave gifts were found.


We retraced our steps through the entire cave system, remarking on how we hadn't seen a single other visitor all day long. We treaded carefully on the dealthly treacherous boardwalks and continually wiped sweat off our faces, as the humidity was almost unbearable! It was so humid, in fact, that Ken's dive watch thought we were underwater! Glad for the easy, flat walk back through the rainforest, we retrieved our bags from the park office and headed back to the highway to grab the next bus to Miri. It was a short trip, and we were able to track down plane tickets and a room reservation for tomorrow's venture into Gunung Mulu National Park, as well as find a bank and somewhere to sleep. Unfortunately, we had our bearings all wrong and walked half way across town with our big packs in the wrong direction before realizing our map was upside down. We got a room at the lovely Harbour View Inn, and not only do we not have a view of the harbour (because we have no windows!) but the sink water drains out onto the floor and the shower somehow seeps out through the carpet in the bedroom. We'll add this one to the list! It became apparent that we hadn't stayed in a real hotel for a long time because when Ken left me in the room to go pay, the room went pitch black within seconds of him leaving. I assumed it was a power outage, and when he came back a few minutes later to find me fumbling aroud in the dark with my headlamp, we clued in that the power automatically goes out in a REAL hotel room when you take the key out of the switch when you leave.

While on the hunt for dinner at the night market, we ran into the Australian couple we shared Niah park with last night and we exchanged contact info so they can show us around Sydney when we get there in April. Then we found some Indian food for dinner and called it a night. Tomorrow we head back to the boonies!

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