Maggie came for a 2 week visit in early October and we managed to do a fair bit of exploring together. We did all the usual Miri haunts (all detailed here in previous blogs), but the highlight of her visit was our trip to Mulu.(Howard was away in the Netherlands)
First our flight - 30 minutes from Miri into the interior.....
You can see the oil palm plantations and their destruction of the jungle. Every inch of ground has been squared off
Here's the hotel we were staying at seen from the air as we landed. Our baggage arrival...
And what did we find? A lovely resort in the jungle, with a pool..
amd very nice rooms.
This is our breakfast spot....and the bridge over the river to get to the hotel.
Lovely staff and entertainment
The canopy walk - 60 metres up.....
The caves....complete with Ab Lincoln..
...and a few million bats. We had 2 attempts to see the bats. They won't come out when it is raining, which was the case the first night we were there. So second night, second attempt. Long walk in but well worth it.
You need to be fit to visit all the caves...this is to Clearwater cave, from Wind cave. The 200 steps up was a bit of a hike.
Lots of opportuity to get on the water. The river the hotel was on was a very nice quet flowing river, but the main river was a different story. Can you see the meeting point between the smooth and the muddy, rough water here? - this is the intersection of the 2 rivers. From the boat you could smell the mud in the water. Touch hairy actually...
Our destination was a longhouse, where they were busy making rattan strips for weaving
The baby is asleep.....
No school age children around, sadly, as they all have to weekly board at another village.
Another boat journey took us to a longhouse with a little craft market and this lady selling nose flutes..I bought one but my nose is not flat enough...!
.....this is a video of said lady...note the pieced ears.
