Friday, December 01, 2006
welcome to the superunknown
Hmm.. After I have read um2u's post back there, i felt speechless.. byk org gile kat lam dunia ni.. many people had become extremists..
but my post here is not about all the sad things in life .. Just a review on jalan2 .. I think we should put this under the category of jalan2 & makan2... now comes my review of the Niah Caves (for those who wanted to be smelled like bat dungs @ guano..ehehe!)
Niah?? Why do I have to go there?
- The oldest modern human remains in South East Asia was discovered HERE.
- Two (2) of the caves are gazzeted as National Historic Monuments (Great Cave & Painting Cave)
- U wanna see people hanging / abseiling on the top of the caves to get birds nest?
- U wanna see the bats? LOTSA BATS..
- Or u are bored suddenly u wanted to become an adventurer / cave dweller...
How to get there?
The easiest way is you board a plane bound for Miri or Bintulu (Kuching is a hell lot farther than this two places). Take a bus from Bintulu (Rm30++) or Miri Bus Station (Rm 20++) to Batu Niah (the transit town to go in Niah National Park). As buses don't go inside until the park HQ, u have to take taxis or prebet sapu at Batu Niah. Fees range from RM 20-30 per cab. Otherwise, it would be better if u rent a car from Miri or Bintulu as the journey will only take you half day (5 hours driving from Miri/Bintulu to Park HQ & back). Prices range depending on what type of car you're planning to rent. A Wira would cost you around 60-80 bucks a day.
Batu Niah is a typical transit town where you can get ur makan here.. alot of places or warungs as choices.. There's even a day market which sells veges, local fruits & at one time there's people selling ular sawas n tenggilings.. Exotic!
What's there anyways?
After your long journey, you will be greeted by the Park HQ for registration (RM 15 for adult, RM8 for students carrying IDs). After that, you will proceed to the river bank to ride a boat to the other side. RThe river only about 20-30 metres far from bank to bank. You will have to pay RM1 for each ride you take (and u basically need to ride it 2 times, pergi n balik). Quite expensive if I may say so.. The river ride is not THAT far even.
When u reached the other side, u will be starting your journey already. The first site that you will see is the Archeological Museum (in my case I'd visit the museum later, because the main attractions are the caves themselves). You will be walking on wooden planks which will be very slippery when wet. I was practically struggling and almost sprained my ankle as the wooden planks there was covered with moss. So, bring your best sport shoes when walking on the planks. The journey from the riverbank to the first cave would take you around 45 mins or an hour if you spend a lot of time admiring nature. The first cave is like a hall, where the cave wall is covered by practically green moss. Even there was this lines which looked like lines for a volleyball court at the centre of the caves. I bet the locals staying nearby used this place for sukaneka @ annual sports meet. After the first cave you will see the archeological digging site on your left. I asked the park HQ regarding this site, and they said that there are a certain week in a year that the archeologist will come and inspect the sites for any new findings. Whenever that time comes, the park wouldn't be open for visitors. The same goes for best nests picking, there are a certain period where the abseilers could not pick up bird nests as that is the mating season. So they will not allow those abseilers to go and pick up the nests. BTW, they only can pick up the empty nests only.
The Rest Area (where the sign in my pic up there is located) is a downslope of sandy area before you will be going in the dark caves (Padang, Burnt Caves & Moon Caves). You can have your rest here if you wanted to, because there is a big hut located in this area. After that, you will proceed up the wooden planks tangga with iron handrails (its a good measure to bring gloves as the handrails are covered in guano). Kalau xfit mcm aku.. mmg hampir putus nafas naik tangga ni.. seriously.. and it is a long trail of tangga from there going to the dark caves.. believe me.. naik Batu Caves pun xsemput mcm ni...
After the turun naik tangga.. you will reach the first caves which is only lit up by your flashlights (eh.. did i mentioned that u have to bring one? hahaha.. u can rent from the Park HQ if u had forgotten to bring one). It is really dark in there.. so watch ur steps.. There are a few smaller caves down here too, but you wont even recognize it as they're all are connected.. Some places have lights that penetrated the holes on the ceiling of some of the caves.. Picture time!! Then after about 15 mins in the darkness there will be light again at the end of the caves.. Another resting place for me.. Thank god!
The last cave would be the Painting Cave which is around 10 mins from the resting hut.. In this cave, you will find .. what else.. paintings.. I tried to look & examine the paintings on the wall of the caves, alas, I cannot comprehend satu painting pun.. There are some death-ships (keranda looking like a sampan) in that area too. The place gave out an eerie aura for me.. Heeeee....
There's a rest area osso here.. Take some pics & basically that is the end of the journey. You will walk back from the way you came in to the park HQ. All in all its around 3 hours of caves exploring fun!!
Now, pat yourself on the back and say that I have conquered Niah.. or Niah had conquered u.. Haha! Till then.. Jya ne!
My trip to niah can be seen here..
Labels: adventure, hairi, jalan2 makan2, travel
