Among many of places we want to visit while we are living in Asia, the Niah Caves is one of them. After crossing the border into Malaysia we arrived at the Niah National Park about 2 hours later. From the park headquarters we boarded a small boat to cross the Sungai Niah. Once across the river we followed the raised boardwalk to the caves.
While walking through the rain forest the sights and sounds were amazing. At some points the sounds of the insects were similar and as loud as a dentist's drill. There were the most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen, some as big as a small bird. Kieran was wearing shoes with neon green laces. The butterflies were attracted immediately to them. He could have easily have had 2 or 3 of these winged creatures land on him if he hadn't have scared them away. As we walked the butterflies seemed to follow us all the way to our destination.
From the trail head it is a 3.1km walk to the Great Cave and another 1.4km to the Painted Cave. The top pictures you are seeing is called Trader's Cave. This is where the earlier bird's nest (used for the famous bird nest soup) collector's lived and carried on their business.
As you round the corner from the Trader's cave you come to the Great Cave. This impressive cave measures 250m across at the mouth of the cave, and 60m high at highest point. This cave is home to thousands of bats and millions of swiftlet birds. Upon following the boardwalk deeper into the cave the light gets more scarce. There are many pockets of light that dot the cave throughout so you are never in total darkness. We weren't able to continue on to the Painted Cave as it was getting late in the day. We'll save that for next time!
We headed back the way we came with a refreshing breeze steering us towards home. The boys had a great time exploring. It really is an amazing place to be in the midst of a lush rain forest. On the way back we spotted a huge centipede and some sort of green lizard. We were all weary from the distance we had walked, but left there so glad we came. I can hardly believe we have lived here this long with such a wonder in our own backyard.
