Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ornaments that date back forty thousand
years - the first evidence that people lived
in Southeast Asia that long ago. he park
is roughly halfway between Bintulu and
Miri, 11km off the main road and 3km
north of Batu Niah, reached either by a
half-hour walk or by taxi.
bats, swiftlets, cockroaches that feed on the
bat guano, and carnivorous crickets.
The caves
he main walkway heads up through the
Traders Cave (so-called because early
nest- and guano-gatherers would
congregate here to sell their harvests) to
the vast west mouth of the Great Cave ,
its walls stained different shades of green
and the small temporary shelters of the
birds'-nest collectors dwarfed by the
cave's size. From within the immense,
draughty darkness, and if you're there
during nest-collecting season, you'll hear
the voices of the bird's-nest collectors
who gather swiftlet nests, and you'll see
their tiny lights near the cave ceiling;
their thin beanstalk poles snake up
from the cave floor like ultra-fragile
scaffolding. Once inside, the walkway
continues via Burnt Cave and then Moon
Cave for 600m or so in the pitch black
before exiting into the jungle again to
follow a pathway up to the Painted Cave ,
thirty minutes' walk away. Here, early
Sarawak communities buried their dead
in boat-shaped co ns, known as “death
ships” and arranged around the cave
walls; dating of the contents (which have
been relocated to the Sarawak Museum)
has proved that the caves have been used
as a cemetery for tens of thousands of
years. he red hematite figures of the wall
paintings are fenced off for preservation.
6
WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Niah National Park is spread over around
31 square kilometres of peat swamp,
forests and gigantic limestone outcrops.
he caves are joined by a wooden
walkway which takes you through the
lowland forest along to all the caves. he
marked route takes you into the depths of
the cave system; a torch is mandatory
(bring your own) and good footwear is a
bonus, since the walkway can be slippery;
you may also want to wear a hat and
poncho to protect you from the bat
guano. here are a couple of trails and a
400m limestone ridge which you can
scale, all of which are clearly signposted
from park headquarters.
A small museum (daily 9am-5pm; free)
just across the river from the park
headquarters covers the geology of the
caves and the history of the extremely
dangerous profession of collecting birds'
nests - a few locals still practise it
(see box below).
From the park headquarters, it's a
thirty-minute walk to the caves : take a
sampan across the river (RM1; on demand)
and then follow a wooden walkway
through dense rainforest where you may
see monkeys, hornbills, birdwing
butterflies, tree squirrels and flying lizards.
Inside the caves themselves, you will see
The trails
here are two other colour-coded trails in
the park. Jalan Madu splits off the main
walkway around 800m from the park
THE PERILOUS LIVES OF BIRDS' NEST COLLECTORS
The long belian (ironwood) wooden poles hanging down from the vast 60m ceiling of the
Great Cave are part of the scaffolding used by birds'-nest collectors - men who risk their lives
during the short harvesting periods to shimmy up these poles, armed with bamboo sticks with
an attached penyulok (scraper) to prize swiftlets' nests from the ceiling. Men fall to their
deaths every year, as no safety equipment is used. Their prize is a delicacy highly valued by the
Chinese who consider birds'-nest soup to be an aphrodisiac, and it is the most expensive
foodstuff on earth. The male swiftlets make their nests by regurgitating long threads of
glutinous saliva that hardens when attached to the cave wall. The nests of the white-nest
swiftlets are the most highly prized of all, fetching up to US$2000/kg; black-nest swiftlets' nests
are collected as well but require removing dirt and feathers. When cooked, the nests have a
gelatinous texture but little taste, making you wonder what all the fuss is about.
 
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