Sarawak - Borneo - page 355

Park HQ is 15km north of Batu Niah Junction, a major transport hub on the inland (old)
Miri- Bintulu highway. This makes getting to the park by public transport a wee bit tricky
(but it's much harder to get to from the new coastal highway).
All long-haul buses linking Miri's Pujut Bus Terminal with Bintulu, Sibu and Kuching
stop at Batu Niah Junction, but the only way to get from the junction to the park is to hire
an unofficial taxi. The price should be RM30 (RM40 for a group of four) but you'll have
to nose around the junction to find one. A good place to check: the bench in front of Shen
Yang Trading, at the corner of Ngu's Garden Food Court. National park staff (or, after
hours, park security personnel) can help arrange a car back to the junction.
From Batu Niah Junction, buses head to Miri (RM10 to RM12) from about 8am to 1am
and to Bintulu (RM15, two hours) from about 8am to 10.30pm. Other well-served destina-
tions include Sibu (RM30 to RM40, five to six hours) and Kuching (RM70 to RM80, 12
hours). Kiosks representing various companies can be found at both ends of the building
directly across the highway from the Batu Niah Food Court Centre.
From Miri, a taxi to Niah costs RM150 one-way or RM300 return, including three
hours of wait time.
Lambir Hills National Park
The 69-sq-km Lambir Hills National Park ( 085-471609;
www.sarawakforestry.com ; admission RM10; park office 8am-5pm) shelters dozens of
jungle waterfalls, plenty of cool pools where you can take a dip, and a bunch of great
walking trails through mixed dipterocarp and kerangas forests. A perennial favourite
among locals and an important centre of scientific research, Lambir Hills makes a great
day or overnight trip out of the city.
The park encompasses a range of low sandstone hills with an extraordinary range of
plants and animals - perhaps even, as noted in Sarawak Forestry's publications, 'the
greatest level of plant biodiversity on the planet'. Studies of a 52-hectare research plot
(closed to visitors) have found an amazing 1200 tree species! Fauna include clouded leo-
pards, barking deer, pangolins, tarsiers, five varieties of civet, 10 bat species and 50 other
kinds of mammals, though you are unlikely to see many of them around park HQ. Lambir
Hills is also home to an unbelievable 237 species of bird, among them eight kinds of horn-
bill, and 24 species of frog - and more are being found all the time.