NIAH NP – Sarawak, East Malaysia – 26 September 2024
I’d heard about these caves from Garry KS, he and a group of caver friends had visited Niah, hiring a “people mover “vehicle to get them there. The photos Garry took looked amazing so I decided to add Niah to my Mulu trip which meant we had to stay at Miri and then catch a flight to Mulu for the conference we were attending, so it all fitted together.
We were picked up by our guide (Alan) at 8.30am. We thought of hiring a car and driving ourselves down to Niah, but it was a 2 hour drive, I wasn’t sure how good the roads were, nor if the signposting to get there would be sufficient, and A$100 each for a full day of being guided sounded like good value for money (lunch and park entry fees included). A week or so later, when talking to one of the East Malaysians, he told me that it was a good decision, as the roads in the area were like a maze and Google didn’t help when you were trying to get from A to B LOL.
The guide insisted that we needed a shot at the NP entrance!
When we arrived at the NP headquarters, we went in to buy some coffee and the guide assured me that it was the same type of coffee with sweetened condensed milk that I’d had when I was in Malaysia 50 years ago. So, I bought a cup, and yes, it was the same, but not as “fantastic” as I remembered it lol.
An ovrview of where we’d be walking. The “white area” is the karst, and is just a big lump of karst in the middle of no-where, apparently there are other “lumps of karst” in the area, but this is the only one that has caves open to the public.
After our coffee, we wandered down to the river for the river crossing. It would be possible to build a bridge across the river, it’s not that wide, but the locals (Dayaks I think) don’t want one as ferrying people across the river is a good income for them.
And, I have to say, it was a nice relaxing way to start our tour.
A notice to beware of swiming adross the river.
Once across the river, Alan took us to the museum which has been recently opened. In hindsight it was a good idea to do the museum first as after the caves I would have been too tired to pay attention.
The museum was great, lots of history about the archaeological excavations that have taken place here, primarily based on a skull that was found in the 1950s. There are excavations still taking place in the caves, and we were able to see them during the tour.
Old photos taken during the excavations in the 1950s. During one of the presentations at this ISCA (International Show Caves Association) conference, we heard more about the excavations.
A shot of many of those excavating. Apparently, during the excavations they removed about 3m of guano from the site – my question was “where did they put it”.
A beautifully carved piece of wood, you don’t see this caving around much any more, too labour intensive, so what they do is paint the designs on the wood.
Once we’d had our fill of the museum (and frankly I could have stayed there longer), we started our walk on the boardwalk.
The 8k round trip would be on a combination of the wooden boardwalks, and these cement boardwalks. During the ISCA conference we saw pictures of how the archeologists got to the caves through the forest, they built raised wooden boardwalk (about 30cm wide) to the caves and the boardwalks we see today is what replaced the narrow walk way.
The first area in the cave system that we visited was Traders Cave.
Apparently, the villagers built shelters at this cave because it was higher than the level of the river during the rainy season. These structures are what’s left of the dwellings.
It’s called Traders Cave as some Chinese apparently set up a trading post selling odds and ends to those who lived in the area. The locals have been collecting birds nests to sell for over 600 years, so I am sure that from time to time those collecting the nests would have lived here in the overhang
Photo from 1959 showing some of the villagers living in the shelters.
Looking back at the shelters. It probably isn’t technically a cave because there’s no dark zone, it’s more like an overhang.
These areas enclosed with mesh are current archeological digs.
Towards the end of the overhang. There are also a couple of “wells” that had been dug in the overhang to provide water to the villagers.
Once we’d finished with Traders Cave, we headed back to the boardwalk and the start of what would be a series of steps and stair cases taking us through the caves.
We were soon at the Great Cave. This is where the archeological dig in the 1950s took place and where Swallow and Swiftlet birds nests are harvested – primarily for the Asian market to be used in birds nest soup.
The site of the archeological dig. In the top LH corner you can see some “gray rock” and then some “white rock”, the gray rock is where the height of the guano would have been and the corrugated iron sheeting is what covers the majority of the dig where bones were found. One of the most interesting things that they dug up was a brass earing or Chinese origin. When you think about it, that was an awful lot of guano to remove. The site is fenced off now so people can’t go inside.
The bamboo that the birds nest hunters climb up, and some of the “platforms”, if you could call them that, that they stand on to get to the nests. The villagers have been harvesting the nests for over 600 years. Each bamboo pole used to have a family group who had a license to collect the nests, they would harvest the nests but it was a hard life, then the Chinese came along and bought the licenses off the locals and now they work for the Chinese.
One of the villagers with a bag of guano that he has collected. They are allowed to remove guano from the cave as well as the nests.
Apparently, the bamboo for the poles must be harvested during a full moon so that they’re strongest (local legend). Some of the poles were short, out of arms reach and just hanging there, that’s to dissuade someone else from going and stealing the nests.
Interestingly, when we were on our river cruise a few days ago, the guide pointed out a “house” with no windows but little holes in the walls and these are being built with the hope that the birds will build their nests in a building rather than the caves. We were told that they work, but the guide said that the nests aren’t as good as those found in caves. Something about them not being of the same quality and when boiled up didn’t taste as good.
Looking back at the entrance to the Great Cave.
From the entrance looking back into the cave. There are a lot of steps to be negotiated to get to the exit.
From the steps, looking into the cave and you can see in the middle is a light, this is one of the villagers collecting the nests that one of the harvesters is knocking down to be picked up. Apparently, the swiftlets only use their nests once, so there is no environmental harm in collecting the nests.
One of the daylight holes (there are a few), we were there at the right time to see the sunbeams.
The walkway we used to get to the exit chamber, love these river passages.
More of the river passage.
Out of the cave and we’re now headed for Painted Cave.
The entrance to Painted Cave. We didn’t go too far into the cave, just the entrance area where there was another archeological dig.
The dig (fenced off), and the guide shining his light on the art work – very hard to see. Apparently, they’ve now used new technology and found many more images than they originally thought. This was possibly a burial site.
Ancient canoes found at the art site. These were possibly coffins, but they look like canoes.
These structures were all along the boardwalk, apparently they were part of a lighting system that had been installed, until they discovered that the bats in the cave (and probably the swiftlets) didn’t like the lights, so part of the infrastructure was removed.
The Painted Cave was the end of the caving, so we made our way back to the boardwalk and the 4k trip back to the river. It was a good tour, would thoroughly recommend doing a guided tour, not only do you learn a lot more (and have someone to answer questions), but you are helping the economy by hiring a guide.
Thanks for the photos Jim, and big thanks to Alan for guiding us.