spelunking

Sarawak's Niah Caves National forest houses a few of the biggest as well as most impressive caves in Southeast Asia. Found near the shore south of Miri, the Niah Caving give evidence of the very first residents in Borneo some 40,000 years ago.

The caverns are located in the forest wilds across the Sungai Niah River. After a brief journey across the river by watercraft, a lengthy boardwalk path winding several kilometers with an attractive rainforest results in the caverns. Rainbowlike multi-colored butterflies, flying reptiles, wild orchids and strange fungis are several of the views that captivate us heading.

Upon getting to the very first cave, the Investor's Cavern, we are greeted by a long row of stilted bamboo frameworks lining the internal wall surfaces of the cave. This vibrantly lit cavern is more like an overhang rather than a cavern as well as attests to making use of the cavern by bird's nest enthusiasts and investors, which offers it its name.

After stumbling with this cave, we get to the Fantastic Cave. Nothing can prepare one for the size of this cavern - it is substantial! The cavern mouth is a substantial hole on the face of the cliff, enveloped by rich vegetation as well as the tooth cavity extends deep right into the planet. The Great Cavern is the most stunning. Its large inside is a substantial maze with significant shafts opening up from the surface through the ceiling, which rises over 75 m. over. Water in spectacular phenomenon puts down the biggest of the shafts. Groups of swifts swirl expenses, their sobs echoing via the magnificent cavern. Traces of archeological excavations appear and also the earliest human scull in Southeast Asia was uncovered here. Bamboo ladders still hang from the cavern ceiling where farmers dangling precariously to gather swiftlet nests for bird's nest soup could occasionally be seen in action.

The huge expanse of the cavern is covered with a slimed layer of guano and also a set of unsafe stairways result in even more unsafe trails as well as complete darkness! To discover the interior of these caves, a torch is essential! In the recesses of the dark indoor resulting in the Moon Cave bizarre rock formations, stalactites, bird's nests as well as bats clinging to the cavern ceiling can be seen.

For eevn more detail browse through Exploring Rifts 

Soon after the Moon Cavern, a plank sidewalk emerges right into daylight and a short path via the jungle causes the Painted Cave, where renowned Niah cave paintings as well as the "death ship" burials are discovered. Here, 1000 years of age rock paints of tiny canoe-like watercrafts are presented. The pained wall surface indicate some "burial ships" - boat-shaped caskets including human remains as well as discovered on the cave floor.