Hedley's trip to the Niah Caves

Hedley, with his wife Mary and daughter Katie visited the Niah Caves in Sarawak thirty years ago, East Malaysia.

Then they used a boat and sailed upriver to a rest house, where they spent their night. They ate with a group of scientists who lived in a rest house and shared the drinks they had brought with them. They slept in bunk beds without AC. It was a great experience.

The next day they  followed the complete boardwalk to the Niah Caves. When they finally arrived there, Hedley was impressed. A huge cave complex appeared and once inside, it gets pretty dark. With a flashlight they saw the bats hanging from the ceiling, and the bird nests with some of the birds still on them. They also saw the tall constructions used by the locals to harvest the bird nests. These are the nests used for the Chinese bird nest soup. It is a delicacy for which the Chinese pay a lot of money.

On the other end of the caves, they arrived in another piece of jungle, where boardwalks are leading us to the caves where rock paintings are found. But they could not much of these paintings: they are very vague .On the way, they saw a hummingbird, a snake, and a flying lizard in the jungle.

At the entrance to the park is a small museum about the Niah caves. It shows the excavations made in the caves. These have shown that human life existed on Borneo for over 40.000 years, something previously considered impossible. There is also information about the different tribes in the area. Millions of years of heavy rain and the action of rivers and running water carved out the vast subterranean system that exists today.

Niah Caves national Park is a lovely place to enjoy the jungle and the caves. The facilities are good as well, and we would have spent some more nights here.