Open left menu gunung mulu. Mulu National Park, Borneo, Malaysia What to take with you

One of the most striking places in Borneo for me was Gunung Mulu National Park.

Gunung Mulu National Park

Initially, when we were planning a route around Borneo, it became clear that the trump card of the island was the jungle, which, through the efforts of people, was preserved and became national parks. There are about 12 parks in Borneo (only the Malaysian part of the island).

Before this, I had already been to the jungle, for example, I still remember Chitwan Park in Nepal and the rhinoceroses that we met in nature.

And in Borneo, we decided not to limit ourselves to one park and visited 2. Including the Semenggoh rehabilitation park (center), where you can see orangutans in the wild. By the way, in Malaysia and Indonesia they can only be seen in Borneo and on the island of Sumatra.

But in this article I want to talk about Mulu Park.

The park was opened to tourists relatively recently - in 1982, before that there were a couple of expeditions, thanks to which the caves and the area became known. The caves in the park date back about 3,000 years. UNESCO has included Gunung Mulu Park as a world heritage site.

On the map you can see the park: near Brunei and the city - Limbang.

Borneo Map

Why Gunung Mulu Park is worth a visit

• Mulu Park is the largest jungle in Malaysian Borneo (about 750 km²);
• The park is extremely difficult to get to. There are 2 ways: the first is by water - and this is about 100 km + the rivers often become shallow, there is no clear schedule. The second is by plane (“cornhouse” for 20-25 seats, flight from Kota Kinabalu takes 1 hour). Due to the remoteness of the park, it is not very popular, there are not many tourists, and the nature is wonderful. And you can live surrounded by the jungle;

These are the paths we walked along

Road to Mulu Caves

Guesthouse in the jungle

• One of the largest grottoes in the world Sarawak Chamber, is located exactly on the territory of Mulu Park. This grotto is larger than Carlsbad Cave in the USA and can easily fit 50 airplanes.
• In addition to the grotto, there are many interesting caves in the forests, some of which have not yet been explored;
• In Gunung Mulu you can see many different trees and flowers, birds, animals and the main attraction is all kinds of insects, spiders, snakes, bats. For example, there are about 55 species of reptiles alone in the park, and 270 birds;
• In the park you can go trekking and climb Mount Mulu (2300m) and see karst rocks (however, the cost of trekking is quite high: about $100 per person);
• And one of the most memorable “entertainment” is night walks in the park, when you have the opportunity to see insects and animals active at night.

These are the grandiose caves you can see in Mulu Park

In one of the caves: a natural window

“Clean Water” Cave and underground river

Gunung Mulu is Sarawak's largest game reserve, with an extremely diverse landscape ranging from peat swamps to jungle-covered hills, home to some 1,500 species of flowers, 10 of which are carnivores. The peaks of Gunung Mulu (2376 m) and Gunung Api (1750 m) rise above the territory of the park.

How to get to Gunung Mulu

Mulu can be reached by plane from Miri, Limbang and Marudi. In addition, you can use the services of a regular boat from Kuala Baram to Marudi (travel time 3 hours). From there, a high-speed commercial boat will take you to Kuala Apoh or Long Panai on the Tutoh River (a tributary of the Baram River). The boat leaves Marudi every day at 12:00 and returns early the next morning.

Activities and attractions in Gunung Mulu

Visiting one of the world's largest underground cave systems is very popular in the park. It includes the largest underground hall on the planet (Sarawak Hall), which can simultaneously accommodate forty Boeing 747 aircraft. The most interesting caves are: “Deer Cave” (pierces right through the mountain) and “Cave of Clear Waters” (one of the longest in Southeast Asia, 51 km).

You should definitely pick your time and come to the observation deck in front of the Deer Cave by six o’clock in the evening. It is at this time that thousands of bats and birds go into the forest to hunt at night.

Borneo - Sarawak and Islands

• Where to stay: The charming capital of Sarawak, Kuching, has beautifully landscaped parks and gardens, graceful colonial-style buildings, bustling markets and a beautiful promenade, as well as an impressive variety of hotels - from two-star hotels to five-star hotels. In the Bako, Gunung Mulu and Niah national parks you won’t be able to spend the night much, but there is still a small selection of lodges and campsites.
• What to see: Astana Palace, Fort Margherita, Courthouse and Square Tower in Kuching, as well as the Grand Mosque, picturesque waterfront and ancient temples. You should definitely visit the Sarawak Museum, one of the most beautiful in Asia. Must-see of the reserve

It is Sarawak's most significant landmark. The 150 km long cave complex was first explored between 1976 and 1984. To fully appreciate it, you'll need at least a two-day trip with an overnight stay. In addition, you need to have sufficient stamina, especially if you decide to hike to the limestone pinnacles on Gunung Api (mountain of fire).

There is a 35-minute flight from Miri to the airport near Gunung Mulu headquarters. Alternatively, you can reach the park headquarters (by land and by boat) also from Miri, but this trip consists of four stages. You must first take a bus or taxi to Kuala Baram, the mouth of the Batang Baram River. Here you need to hire a motorboat to Marudi to catch the midday boat to Long Terawan, then transfer to a longboat and head down Sungai Tutoh and Sungai Melinau to the park headquarters. This is the only alternative to flying, and you will have to spend a whole day traveling by bus and boats. Flying over the rainforest from Miri in a small plane is considered the best way to start your stay in Mulu. It is recommended to return in exactly the same way.

There are four main caves in Gunung Mulu that are shown to tourists - Deer, Lang, Clear Water and Wind. There are many more “wild” caves, but they are too dangerous and ecologically sensitive to be visited without special passes and qualified guides.

Considered the largest cave in the world, Sarawak Chamber Cave is the size of 16 football fields. Tours have been offered there since 1998, but usually only seasoned cave explorers are allowed there. If you want to see this impressive underground hall, discuss all the details in advance when purchasing tickets.

The closest places to Gunung Mulu headquarters are Deer Cave and Lang Cave. In the Deer Cave with a huge entrance, about 2 km long and up to 220 m high, deer once hid. It is unclear whether it was used by people as a burial place for the dead, since there are many other caves nearby. Like many other large open caves, it is also home to millions of bats, swarming out at dusk in search of food. One of the attractions of the caves is the “soul of Adam and Eve” - a cascading waterfall, falling from a height of 120 m from the ceiling of the cave. Deep inside the cave - about an hour's walk away - lies a hidden green valley known as the Garden of Eden.

Nearby is Lang Cave, which was discovered by a Berawan man named Lang who got lost while hunting wild boar. Although this cave is smaller in size, it contains a wide variety of stalactites and stalagmites, as well as impressive rock “curtains”.

The Clear Water and Wind Caves can only be reached by longboat from Gunung Mulu Park Headquarters. The Cave of Pure Water extends for 50 km. Once you pass the moss-covered stalactites near the entrance, you'll need a good flashlight to see the limestone formations. The hardiest cave explorers can enter the Wind Cave from the Clear Water Cave, but others should enter from the river bank.

To view the pinnacles, located 900 m from Gunung Api, you will have to add additional days to the excursion, but you cannot miss seeing them - this is a truly mesmerizing sight: hundreds of giant stone needles piercing the sky like petrified ghosts, hidden under hooded cloaks, towering above a continuous forest carpet. You will also need extra time if you want to attempt to climb Gunung Mulu (2376 m), the summit of which was successfully summited by Lord Shackleton in 1932 after earlier attempts in the 19th century had failed. Climbing Gunung Mulu can take up to five days, but experienced climbers can complete the summit in less than two days.

The park's rich flora and fauna have been the subject of many scientific studies, with 1,500 species of flowering plants, 4,000 varieties of mushrooms, 75 species of mammals, 262 species of birds, 50 species of reptiles and 281 species of butterflies discovered here. Among the birds, special mention should be made of the stork-like gurials, living along the banks of rivers, and the yellow-capped bulbuls, living in the forests.

To spot the wildlife hiding beneath the forest canopy, you can hide in the 30m-high observation tower or in the hidden area near the park headquarters, as well as just below the 480m-long suspension bridge.

Mulu Caves

With permission, experienced cave explorers can enter the less accessible Mulu Caves and wade through chest-deep water through underground streams. The best guides will give you miner's helmets with built-in lamps, which will allow you to penetrate deep into caves where sunlight cannot reach. You should bring very durable boots with rubber rather than leather, plenty of socks, durable old clothing, a pair of gloves and a light sleeping bag.

Bird's nest soup

Descendants of the nomadic Penan tribe, who in the 19th century. rediscovered the wealth of bird nests in the caves of Nia, dividing the cave into jealously guarded “shares”, which are passed on from father to son. To remove nests from the ceiling of a cave, the Penan people climb walls more than 60m high using swinging bamboo poles tied together, or crawl through narrow "chimneys" in the rock. As the old song says, “Many men made it, but many men died” - and no one knows how many. The high price of the delicacy is explained by the high risk for hunters of this prey.

White-bellied swiftlets (a type of swift) they create such expensive nests practically from saliva alone, without impurities, which feeding on seaweed makes especially sticky. The lower quality product is called "black nest" - it is created when swiftlets mix feathers with saliva. Not everyone, of course, will appreciate such a dish, but the Chinese claim that the viscous, transparent soup is simply delicious. It is incredibly popular in the Chinese market.

Mulu Park is not only a jungle, but it is also an amazing system caves in Malaysia, for which tourists mainly visit the park. It is in Mulu that you can see the longest cave in Asia - Gua Air Jernich (189 km), as well as one of the largest grottoes in the world - Sarawak.

In previous articles, I talked in detail about Mulu Park, as well as how to get to the park from Kota Kinabalu, how much the permit costs and where to live.

Cave of the Winds

Having purchased a permit for 5 days of visiting the park, the very next morning we went to the main office of Mulu to find out about excursions and prices. The main office is located in the park itself, not far from the entrance. Let me make a reservation right away that the prices for various excursions to Gunung Mulu are not budget.

So, for example, we visited the most interesting Mulu caves and paid 130 Malaysian ringgit per person ($35) for it. They gave us a discount since there weren't many tourists. Regular price from 150 Malaysian ringgit ($45).

This card is issued at the Mulu Park office. It shows paid and free routes.

Mulu Park Map

World of dating caves in Malaysia started early: at 8.40 we were already standing near the main office in the park, waiting for our guide. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to the park from our guesthouse - D’CaveHomestay.

Our entire group is 6 people: a couple from Sweden, a girl from the States, a guy from Australia, and me and a travel companion. In order to get to the first caves, we had to sail on a special boat (long boat) along the river - Melinau. This river also partially flows in a cave - Clear water.

We sail along the river to the caves

The water is very low, periodically we had to carry the boat

A boat is a small wooden vessel, hollowed out of wood. Quite unstable, you need to sit on small crossbars. The river has become shallow and therefore our guide warns us right away that in some places we will have to help drag the boat further. After 10 minutes we understood what he was hinting about. The boat hit rocks, and every time this happened, I had to get out of the boat and start pushing or carrying it to a deeper place.

And so 5 times throughout the trip.

40 minutes to the caves turned into 1.5 hours

About another 15 minutes later we had a small “halt” in a local village - Batu Bungan.

This is the real jungle

In the village you can see the market for all sorts of hand-made things: baubles, bags, various jewelry, and also see how these same wooden boats are made.

In their spare time, local residents make various decorations

Wooden boat

What was most interesting to me was to see how the locals lived: houses on high stilts, livestock and small vegetable gardens. There are no schools. Self-study here.

1 healer for the entire village. The guide told a “recent” story about a python that stole chickens and it seems that even people suffered from it. This is a reminder that you are in the jungle.

Far from civilization

We get on the boat and go to our first cave in Borneo - “ cave of the winds"(Cave of the winds). It received this name due to the sound of the wind, which can be heard or felt as a cool breeze. The Cave of the Winds is part of the Clear Water Cave system.

The walk through the first cave, which is about 350 m, took us about 15 minutes. Along the way we encountered many interesting formations: stalactites, stalagmites, hard corals. Bats flew overhead.

Cave of the Winds

Very beautiful

I've never been in a big cave before.

Cave of the Winds

Cave of the Winds

Cave of the Winds

Cave of the Winds

Bats are common in caves

Cave "Clean Water"

Coming out of the Cave of the Winds, we walked along the beautiful bridges to the entrance to the cave - Clear water. Nearby there is a picnic area, as well as a small clean lake with cool underground water. Since it was hot, we even swam there.

Nice road to the next cave

It’s + 35 outside, and the water is + 2-5 degrees :)

Cave Clear water- a very beautiful underground world: it is 150 km of different passages and weaves. Only a small part of the cave is open to the public (2007). Some areas are still a “white” spot and unknown to man.

One of the most beautiful caves in Malaysia

Cave clear water

Amazing underground world

"Window" in the cave

Cave clear water

And here is the underground river

Most of the cave is pure water, never opened

Fastlane cave

After this cave we went by boat to see another one - Fastlane. This is a small but beautiful cave 1.5 km long. There are a lot of all kinds of living creatures in the cave: spiders, snakes, crabs. In the darkness of the gloomy vaults of the cave, I was especially glad that I did not meet any living creatures.

This is how underground “statues” arise

Very beautiful

The fantastic world of Borneo caves

Cave beauties

Deer Cave

After Fastlane, we went to watch " deer cave» - Deer cave (local name - Gua Rusa). At one time, deer hid in this cave, hence the name. This is the largest cave that I was able to visit.

Since the day was busy, and we had already seen 3 caves, it seemed that nothing would really surprise us. But the size of the cave is really impressive.

Deer cave was opened relatively recently, in 1978, and for tourists to visit in 1984. The width of the cave is 170 m, the height is 125. Seeing the entire cave is difficult, since you need to have good lighting. If you go a little deeper into the cave and look at the entrance, you can see a profile that for some reason is compared with the profile of A. Lincoln.

It’s a pity that I didn’t have a better camera, but you still need to watch such natural beauties in person

Deer Cave

Lincoln's portrait?

The smell... it was very pungent and strong

Walking through the cave, you can notice an unpleasant and pungent smell, and also hear a high-pitched sound - these are thousands of bats, of which there are so many that the cave roof seems completely black.

In the evening you can watch mice fly out of the cave to hunt at night. There are approximately 27 species of bats in Mulu.

The bats

The total length of the route in Deer Cave is 2 km.

At the end, an interesting picture opened up to us: in the vault of the cave there is a “natural window”, which overlooks a small valley covered with vines and tropical trees - this is the so-called “Garden of Eden”.

Nature is still trying to take its toll :)

Near Deer Cave there is another small cave - Lang cave.

We also looked at it and that’s it for our intense Borneo caves the day began to come to an end.
We returned back to the guesthouse through the park, which is 3 km through the jungle.
By the time we got there, it was starting to get completely dark.

In conclusion about Mulu Caves

For extreme sports enthusiasts there is a tempting offer - adventure caves. This is something like a quest, where you are given a flashlight and a guide, together with a group, climb through different parts of the caves, look for snakes, spiders and much more.

In addition, this is a different level of exploring caves, in conjunction with equipment, in some places you have to “raft” along underground rivers, and in others you have to remember rock climbing (if you have ever done it). Often such adventures are focused on several days + an overnight stay in a camp in the jungle. Sounds interesting and the price is higher than what we did.

________________________

: the jungle in the dark - I’ll tell you this, a great way to learn a lot of new things about yourself and cheer yourself up.

: how to get from Kota Kinabalu, how much the permit costs and where to live.

Here is a detailed map of Gununga Mula National Park with the names of cities and towns in Russian. Move the map while holding it with the left mouse button. You can move around the map by clicking on one of the four arrows in the upper left corner. You can change the scale using the scale on the right side of the map or turning the mouse wheel.

In which country is Gunung Mul National Park located?

Gunung Mul National Park is located in Malaysia. This is a wonderful, beautiful place, with its own history and traditions. Coordinates of Gununga Mula National Park: north latitude and east longitude (show on large map).

Virtual walk

The “man” figurine above the scale will help you take a virtual walk through the cities of the Gununga Mula National Park. By clicking and holding the left mouse button, drag it to any place on the map and you will go for a walk, while inscriptions with the approximate address of the area will appear in the upper left corner. Select the direction of movement by clicking on the arrows in the center of the screen. The “Satellite” option at the top left allows you to see a relief image of the surface. In the "Map" mode you will have the opportunity to familiarize yourself in detail with the roads of the Gununga Mula National Park and the main attractions.