SEE MALAYSIA
The next day we were on a flight out to Mulu on a Twin Otter looking down at razor-sharp limestone spikes measuring up to 45 metres high on the slopes of Gunung Api.
We arrived at the Mulu National Park, a botanical paradise with eight different types of greenery, including peat swamp, heath and mixed dipterocarp, moss forests and stunted upper montane vegetation.Thousands of species of ferns, fungi, mosses and flowering plants can also be found. There is also the bintangor tree, believed to have properties that can help fight HIV.
Wildlife thrives in this primary rainforest. There are 75 species of mammals, 262 species of birds(including the eight species of hornbills found in Sarawak), 74 species of frogs and 281 species of butterflies and ants. Blind fish and crabs with empty eye-sockets are among the few peculiar creatures that resemble a sci-fi fantasy.
The Mulu Caves have been left undisturbed by the outside world for at least five million years. Early attempts to explore this ancient world had been thwarted by limestone cliffs, dense jungle and sharp pinnacles of rock. It was Edward Shackleton who came with the Oxford University Expedition in 1932 to unravel the mystery surrounding its isolation. Since then, two major scientific expeditions - the Mulu 80 Expedition and the Sarawak 84 Expedition - were made in Mulu.
Nothing is too large, wide or long in Mulu. The Sarawak Chamber, the world's largest cave chamber as noted by the Guinness Book of World Records makes miserable midgets of us. Forty Boeing 747s or 7500 buses can occupy the chamber space. It beats the previously know largest cave, the Verna Pierre San Martin in France.
Four show caves are now accessible to the public - the Deer Cave, Lang Cave, Clearwater Cave and Wind Cave. All are well lit and accessible by plank walks. The Lang Cave has rock formations and arresting stalactites and stalagmites. Sometimes inhabitants such as bats, swiftlets and even cave dwelling snakes can be chanced upon.
Another attraction is the entrance of Deer Cave, where a limestone silhouette resembling Abraham Lincoln sits. This is such an incredible sight! The main chamber has an astounding measurement of 174 metres width and 122 metres height. In the 60s, the main chamber was a natural trap for deer; hence the local Penan and Berawan natives named the cave Gua Payau and Gua Rusa(Deer Cave).
Three-quarters of the way inside is a viewing platform with a gushing stream below. The platform enhances the view of lush greenery outside the cave, dubbed as the garden of Eden. Aptly described by its pre-stone age name, vegetation thrives under beaming shafts of sunlight and after a rainstorm, a spectacular 190-metre-high waterfall cascades from the roof.
More thrills await at dusk when millions of bats(up to 12 million are believed to live here) perform rituals of dancing. skipping and somersaulting their way out of the cave before flying off to the forest to scour for food.
