Sarawak, Day 9-"Magnificent 7 to rock the Pinnacles!"

Monday 7th August 2007

It was our ultimate day, hence we started out early. Actually we start early almost everyday. After a quick snack, we began our climb at about 7.30 in the morning along with another group consisting of 4 people, 2 girl, a guy and a guide. Uncle Richard, from Camp 5 joined us as well.
Only for about 5 minutes or so the ground was flat, and then the tortuous climb began. The hike to Pinnacles is only 2.4 km in length but rises up to 1,200 meters from Camp 5. It is so steep, according to Uncle Annad, Pinnacles Summit stands 45 degree from the ground. That means, we will be doing lots of bending to balance our gravity point. Sigh!

We climbed and climbed and climbed the Pinnacle for about thirty minutes before realizing that both Rain and Sara was missing. Elius and Bagio ran down to find them while the rest of us just waited there. After waiting for about 15 minutes, they finally arrived and we continued our journey.

For the first part of the climb, we passed through huge trees and razor sharp rock. The rock and the root from the tree made it easier for us to push our self up. At one point it felt like rock climbing rather then mountain climbing.

Upon waiting for Sara and Rain, the other group managed to catch up with us. The group now was lead by the boys and Sara. Akka was just couples of minutes in front of me and the other two girls were behind me. Half way through, Akka went missing and I was left behind with the two girls and their guide. On and off we were cutting each other till we reached the moss jungle, and I begin to lead. The trees were getting thinner and thinner and as the name describes, everything was covered by moss. Hence, it was very slippery and we had to be very careful with our step to avoid falling down. I knew Akka was just a couple steps ahead of me, but the mountain was such that I could not see her presence. So I kept on climbing trying catch up with her. Just then, the guide from the other group informed that, if we are unable to reach the first level by 10.45, we have to go down. I was shocked. There is no way I am going down with out looking at the Pinnacles. Not knowing what time it was, feeling rather tired, and not wanting be left behind, I vowed to my self that I will indeed reach the Pinnacles in time and upon seeing it, I am going to hug it. So I climbed and climbed, and climbed some more till I finally reached the second level in time. Phew! From there onwards, it was very vertical and hence required us to use rope and aluminum ladder for about 15 minutes to reach above. I totally got lost count of the ladders.

Mulu Tracks:

Once above, I continued my climb without waiting for the girls. It was only another 30 minutes or so to reach the summit, but I was not aware of that. Hence, continued climbing looking for Akka and the group. From that point on ward, the climbing was getting tougher and tougher. There were times where I need to go through little cave, walk in between two huge rock or even walk across 2 huge rock that was connected only by aluminum ladder situated on the ground all by myself. Phew, I sure felt like gymnast for a moment!

The more I walked, the silent the place was. I was all alone in the mountains. I neither could see Akka nor see the group behind me. Feeling so lost, I followed the arrow leading upwards. Finally after taking my last step, I finally saw everybody sitting still on huge rocks simply looking at open air. Yet there were no Pinnacles around. I was surprised with the quietness and walked further up and saw rows and rows of silver sharp razor rock emerging from the ground in the deep jungle of Sarawak. It felt like the Pinnacles just grew along with the tree. I was so mesmerized with gods creation that only tear didn’t fall from my eyes. I walked further up to the baby Pinnacles and simply hugged it. There was no better way to view the Pinnacle but in total silent. Sigh! The climb was indeed worth it.

Akka and me..hugging the baby pinnacles

The group cute guy from other grou(grey)p, me, akka, John(orange), Elius(yellow), Sara (red) and Rain(shirtless)!

VIews of Pinnacles:

A while later, the girls managed to reach the peak intime. We lingered for a while enjoying the view while having our lunch as usual, a musli and lemon tea, which we shared with Uncle Richard. We could not stay longer as the place was getting misty. In just seconds, it drizzled and we headed down.

Pinnacles covered by mist

Climbing down was 10 times tougher then climbing upwards. There is a high tendency to go slow, as we tend to watch every step to avoid falling down. With razor sharp rock, no doubt we had to be extra careful. Thus, everybody has their own timing. The boys were really fast, followed by Akka and Uncle Richard and I was some where with Bagio, Rain and Sara. The other girls were far behind us. We walked and walked and continued to walk for hours. As the time passed by, the place was getting darker and darker and the only noise I could hear were whispers from Sara and Rain. Finally after 4 hours of climbing down, with Bagio by my side, I spotted the flat ground. Ah, I finally made it. “Flat ground”, I screamed with joy. Bagio just smiled. He asked me to continue my journey while he waited for the two girls.

Upon reaching Camp 5, I saw Akka all freshened up, sitting at the eating lounge with a cup of tea. I wanted to jump into the pool again but instead just bathed and went to dorm to rest. A while later, Akka joined me and we went to kitchen to prepare dinner. We ate and chatted with Rosy and Rachael again and then went to bed, all covered with deep heat. Why? You will get the answer in a day or two.

Sarawak: Day 8- "Push, push, push the boat, gently up the stream!"

Sunday, 6th August 2006:
Woke up very early, made our own breakfast and headed to the park’s office to keep our unwanted bags at the store room. Once every one arrived, we were guided to a small jetty for our boat ride. Along with 7 of us were our guide, Bagio, a village lady and the boatman. Our first destination was to visit a nearby longhouse then to Clear Water Cave and Wind Cave, which, was included in our package. The caves were located up stream; hence we need to use motorboat to push against the current especially on shallow water. Every time the motor hits the rock, the boatman stops the motor and lady uses her long magic stick to push the boat. This went on till we arrived at Wind Cave.

School near long house



School

Eating area near Long House



Long House

The entrance to the Wind Cave is through Moon Milk Cave. We had to climb approximately 100 to 150 mossy slippery old stairs to reach the entrance of the Moon Milk Cave. Unlike Deer Cave or Lang Cave, the stalactites and stalagmites in Wind Cave was not so white or alive. Nevertheless, just as the name describes, it was indeed windy. From there our journey continued to Clear Water Cave by boat, which was just around the corner. The reason it was known as Clearwater Cave was due to its underground river that spilled into the cave and formed natural swimming pool. We walked on a concrete stairs to reach the swimming pool. The water was indeed crystal clear and cold. The legend says that, the water can cure ill and keep a person young. Hence, we all went down to wash our face with that icy cold water.

Clear water cave..

The joint stalactites and stalagmites on wall of Wind cave

Inside Wind cave

After resting there for about 20 minutes, we continued our journey to Kuala Berar. The journey started out well. In other words, we had smooth boat ride. The further we went upstream, the shallow the river was. Every time the boat hits the rock, the boatman stops the engine and the lady uses her magic stick to push the boat forward or sometimes simply jump into the river to push the boat. Soon, Bagio jump into the water and then followed by Rain. Finally came a point when they could not push all 6 of us anymore. Hence, we all had to jump out of the boat to push. The moment the boat goes to high water level we would jump back into the boat. Just when felt that the agony was over, the engine hits the rock again, the boatman shut the engine and we go into the river to push it again.

I came across an article by fellow traveler who describes similar situation. She said, “we stayed in the boat if it was floating, we walked if it was shallow, and we helped push if the current was strong.” Yah, that’s pretty much what we did! However, in our case, we had 4 healthy man pushing the boat and it was very difficult to keep up with their strength. So instead of pushing, it was easier to just hang on to the boat and keep up with their phase. But that would make the boat heavier and it was unfair to them. So, after falling down several time into the river, I totally gave up on pushing. I would just walk by and jump in when it starts moving. Finally after pushing the boat for sometime, we reached Kuala Berar at about 12 o’clock. We stopped for lunch before proceeding with our journey. Of course, we just settle down for musli and lemon tea.

Camp 5 was another 7 to 8 km away. So we continued with our journey. The trail from Kuala Berar to Camp 5 easy as it was flat ground all the way though we had to cross-rivers and bridges. Since it was flat ground, we refer to our third rule of climbing; run/walk fast! Hence with our heavy bag we walked as fast as we could, competing with each other to reach Camp 5. Half way through our walk, Uncle Annad who was ahead of us went missing. Finally after less the 2 hours walks, we saw the sight of Camp 5. Not only that, we even saw Uncle Anand standing on the riverbank washing his clothes! Yah, amazing old man!

Akka, Uncle Annand (from India) and me - to read more on uncle Annand adventure in Malaysia, you can visit his webpage http://www.borneowonders.com/

Camp 5 is a simple hostel that consists of dorm, kitchen and flushable bathroom. It’s a large open room with no door, no window and looked like goat shed. A simple planked that was about our knee height, stretches both side of the wall and served as our bed. For more comfort, we were provided with hard matters to sleep. The kitchen was well equipped with gases, cooking utensils, kettle and so on. All one need is to bring food. This was way better then camping outside, as we need not bring extra things.

Front view of Camp 5..thats not the pinnacles

Camp 5

As soon as we unpacked our bag, we quickly changed and headed to the upper part of Melinau river where, lies crystal clear natural swimming pool. Absolutely no one goes to Camp 5 without jumping in the pool. Despite the weather being warm, the water was extremely cold. After a long day of pushing the boat and walking, relaxing at the pool was indeed nice.

After almost an hour swimming, we headed back to our hostel to bath and prepare for our dinner. Since we didn’t take packaged tour, we had to cook by our self. Upon arriving at the kitchen, I was shocked to see Rain still with his sexy swimming trunk cooking for Sara and Elious. The way he cooked, I am pretty sure he must be good cook. But what amazed me most was his passion for coffee. He actually brought his brewing tools in the middle of the jungle to make coffee. No one can do that except for Rain.

Unlike others, we had very simple packed instant 3 in one food. All we need to do was boil our water, dump the packet into the boiling water and wait till it heats up. Mine, being vegetarian was rather tasteless. Thank good I brought my pickles and fried salted chilies. Uncle Anand look at us and laughed as he never thought Indian in Malaysia will be so fond of India food, even in the jungle. After our dinner, we chatted for a while with Uncle Richard and his kids, Rachael and Rosy, tourist from UK before heading back to our hostel to rest. Since we were practically sleeping on open air, I had to put on my jacket, socks and gloves to avoid being frozen. With all that clothes on, I still felt cold and find it difficult to sleep.

Sarawak, Day 7:"What up doc, which way is to the jungle?"

Saturday, 5th August 2006
Woke up very early to depart to airport. Yet, we were late so skipped our breakfast. Pak Cik was already there knocking at our room door. We requested him to take us to the nearest bank to cash out money as we have banked in all our money yesterday. We need to cash out enough money to pay for our guide, boat ride, hostels, caving, food and etc, as there is no bank or atm machine in Mulu. Moreover, they don’t take credit card.

The airport was very near to Miri town. Hence, we arrived the airport by 9 o’clock in the morning. We paid Pak Cik and told him that we will call him upon arriving back on Wednesday. The counter was messy. Too many people wanting to go everywhere including the famous Bario we hear about from Stephanie. Our plane was the 19 seater twin otter aircraft. Hence, we only can take certain amount of weight.

The Baby plane, 19 seater twin otter..

Despites being a tinny plane, Air Asia still managed to provide stewardess and sold goodies. The journey form Miri to Mulu was very short about 30 minutes but provided stunning view of zigzagged muddy Sarawak’s river forming patterns on Mulu’s jungle. Upon arriving at Mulu, we quickly collected our bag and headed to the entrance to get a taxi. No vehicle was there except for a van from Mulu Resort, which was not waiting for us. Our guidebook told everything about Mulu except for transportation to the park headquarters or may be we overlooked that area. There was absolutely nothing there except for a little café. We stood there for a moment cracking our head, finding ways to get to the park. Akka then decided to enquire form the lady at the café about Mulu’s transportation services. According to her, Mulu do not provide any public transportation services. But for RM5 each her father will send us to the park. We quickly agreed. Hence, waited for the old man to take us to the park with his old jeep along with another tourist, John.

The journey form the airport to the headquarters was only 2 minutes. There was absolutely nothing except for a restaurant at the entrance of the park and trees everywhere. Upon arriving, we went straight to the park office to find out about our accommodation and then about climbing Pinnacles. We asked them if there were any other group wishing to climb Pinnacles or at least share the cost of the long boat. Unfortunately, up to that point no one have called in to book a guide except for us. Nevertheless, the park rangers asked us to wait till two, as there would be another plane arriving at about 11 o’clock and at 3.00 o’clock and there is a possibility for us to get some to share the cost of the boat or guide. So we waited. Just then a group of 4 people consisting of an old man (Unlce Anand), 2 young man (Rain and Elius) and a lady (Sara) approached the park office. Upon discussing with them we soon realised that they too wanted to climb the Pinnacle and didn’t mind sharing the cost of the boat and guide. John who was planning to the head-hunters trail decided to join us, as head-hunters trail was far more expensive then Pinnacles. Thus, all 7 of us agreed to climb Pinnacles day after tomorrow except for Uncle Annad who will only share the cost of the boat, as he will be climbing a day later. That has managed to reduce our burden of paying RM350 per boat and RM400 for guide. Phew! God had sent us a couple of angels, again.

We quickly headed to our dorm to unpack. We were told that there would be a guide taking us to the Deer and Lang Cave at 2 o’clock. So we quickly ate our lunch (Maggie), changed to smelly clothes and waited at the park office. Our guide, Jenny was amazingly knowledgeable. Similar to Bako and Niah cave, we had to walk about 3 km on wooden plank to reach the entrance of the Deer/Lang Cave. Though near, we took almost 2 hours to reach the cave entrance as Jenny stopped frequently to show the insect and plants in Mulu.

Mulu park entrance

Bridge that connects the park

The river at Mulu park

Our hostel at Mulu

Mulu Cafeteria

While we were heading towards the Deer/Lang Cave, we encountered another park ranger riding a bicycle heading towards the cave carrying junk food and beverages. He was Francis but I prefer to call him “water boy”. He is the youngest ranger to join the troop and he is amazingly hardworking. Morning, he works at the park headquarters, then he takes his bike to the cave and sells food and beverages in the afternoon and later in the night, he works at the cafeteria. In addition to that, he is also the official guide to Pinnacles. Hmm…hats of to him.

Various types of plants and insects we encountered in Mulu:

Lantern insect

Not flower! Bunch of caterpillars.

One type of Centipede

Stripped green spider.

Stick insect (like in Bugs life) this one lost one of his leg

Not sure about the name but its white and looks like white peagon.

Millipede

Fick tree..home of the spirit

Leaf with natural hole

One leaf plant..only in Mulu

Upon reaching the cave entrance, Jenny took us first to Deer Cave. The length of the cave was about 2 km long and 174 meter high. The wooden plank stretches into the cave making our walk much easier. The stalactite and stalagmite was so beautifully formed, it up to one imagination to describe what it actually looked like. I saw many things with my naked eyes. The most amazing part of Deer Cave face to look at the Abraham Lincoln face on the mouth of the cave, from inside, at one particular spot. Move one spot further and it disappears. We were not alone in the cave. Along with us, was the other tourist, bats and swiftlets but unfortunately, no deer. The indigenous people hunted it all long time ago.

Deer cave signboard!

Akka and me at Deer cave

Entrance of the Deer cave

Abraham Lincoln face at one point of Deer cave..move one spot it disapears!

BEautiful white Stalactite

From there, we entered another show cave called the Lang cave. This cave was so beautiful I hardly have word to describe it. It was the first time I encountered cave looking so white as if it has been decorated with white marble. After staying in the cave till 5 o’clock, we headed to the open theatre out side the park, facing the mouth of Deer Cave. Its not for live theatre performance but to view approximately 2 million bats rushing out of the cave in batches hunting for food. We waited and waited along with other tourist till our neck was about to fall off. “Water boy” was there too selling soft drinks and junk food for the tourist. Finally at about 6, batches and batches of bats were rushing out of the cave. Everyone went Ohh, Ahh and Wah and the camera never stopped clicking. It was indeed a good performance by the bat.

Front view of deer cave

Its the bird, its a plane no its millions of bats comming out of cave

Bats comes out from Deer Cave at about 6 pm everyday

More bats

Finally within couple of minutes, the show came to an end and we headed back to the hostel. We bathed and went to the cafeteria for a good meal of dinner, packed and then slept.