May 11, 2007

Miri (BORNEO)

Impressive Niah Cave

Finally a proper night's rest, a proper shower, and real coffee. I haven't washed my clothes since leaving Singapore so that was high on my morning agenda, as was keeping this weblog updated.

Miri is a quickly growing oil town that is inundated with people of all shapes and sizes. Seemingly everyone is trying to capitalize on the quick growth, so it is interesting chatting with the locals and hearing how they are trying to "make it". One of the worst kept secrets in Malaysia (remember: both Sarawak and Sabah are officially Malaysian states) is that the Malay people are given preferential treatment over other races, despite their reputation as being lazy. Thus, the hard-working Chinese and natives often find themselves frustrated over the difficulty in being awarded contracts or government licenses while the (often) less able Malays  receive preferential treatment.

Over lunch I practiced my Chinese at a small noodle shop, and after hearing I was waiting to board a long-distance bus to the impressive Niah Cave, one of the men sitting nearby eventually offered to take me. The 54 year old Mr. Lu enjoys exercising and wanted to join me on the 13km walk so long as I paid for gasoline on the 240km trip. It was a great deal for both of us, and we set off at 1pm.

After checking into park headquarters, we boarded a small boat that took us to the jungle boardwalk. Mr Lu basically served as my guide while we scurried along at a brisk pace. Apparently, he takes part in an activity called "hashing," which is basically a free-for-all run through jungle terrain, across rivers, and up rock faces. Of course, cold beer awaits the 100 or so people who take part in the weekly outing. I would have loved to join them, but time is not on my side.

**FYI: My camera was out of batteries today so I couldn't take any pictures. It was a big let-down because the views were amazing.**

The boardwalk to the caves was a tricky ordeal as the planks were made of a sawdust-plaster combination, and a few days ago an Australian man actually put a leg straight through two of the planks as he was walking. The Aussie is still holed up in his hotel with a thrashed leg and severely sprained ankle. We passed four such holes on our way, so I made sure to walk above the supports the whole way.

The first cave we passed through was Trader's Cave, and it is where sparrow-nest trading once occurred. From there we continued on through the 100meter high Niah Cave where roughly 450,000 bats hide away in the dark corners of the cave. It took us 35 minutes of walking before we passed through to the other side of the cave, and we spent a long 15 minutes walking in pitch black a top a grimy plank with water dripping on us. Without a torch it would be impossible to find your way through, and without some one for company it is easy to be overcome by fear: I saw several massive spiders with my torch and on the side walls I could see swarms of bats sleeping.

We continued another few kilometers through the jungle to the Painted Cave where we saw a preserved "death boat," which is basically a suspended coffin where ancient natives laid down their important elders for eternal rest. There were also a series of faded paintings along the walls, but the paint was too faint to properly make out the scenes.

After a bit of wandering and cooling off, we backtracked back to the grand Niah Cave and waited around for the famous changing of the guard at dusk - when the sparrows return to their nests and the bats swarm out for night hunting.

Other than a handful of traders who live inside the cave to protect the nests from eager entrepreneurs, we didn't pass anyone for the afternoon. The trader's art works as follows: they climb to the upper levels of the cave once a month to collect sparrow nests, which are then sold for a hefty profit on the Chinese medicine market. Mr. Lu said a  trader falls to his death every couple of years, and I wasn't surprised as they have to shimmy up lengths of rope without any kind of support (there were roughly 50 such ropes scattered throughout Niah Cave). Once the men reach the roof of the cave, they position lengths of bamboo in crevices and work their way around in search of nests. Try imagining a 100meter length of rope hanging down from a blacked out cavern at the roof of the cave and you will be as impressed as I was.

By 6pm the swarm of circling sparrows found their way back to the nests, and the first bats began sneaking out along the roof of the cave. The bats looked like ants crawling along a wall, but the chew-chew-chew flapping sound gave away their real identity. As time passed the swarm of bats increased in density, and I could see them scouring the jungle for fruit trees. We strained our necks upward for 30 minutes watching in amazement before Mr. Lu and I set back in the darkness. We both had torches, but it was still slow going because the planks were so dangerous and slippery.

We arrived back in Miri at 9pm, and I was completely knackered from the long day. I took a shower and bought some dinner before joining Roger, Mick, and their wives for a few card games. We listened to a couple of good British artists that I would highly recommend: Keane and Raising the Light.

In the morning I will leave for the oil-rich state of Brunei.

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