The Great Of Niah Cave

On the east side of Sarawak, near Brunei, the Niah caves are conveniently located a bus ride a boat trip away from the city of Miri. In these caves, the oldest archaeological human remains in Southeast Asia are found. Moreover, the caves, decoratively located in the jungle, are home to million of bats, and it is where the bird nests are harvested for the Chinese delicacy of bird nest soup.

The first city we encounter in Sarawak is Miri. Here, we try to catch the bus to the Niah caves, but it doesn't leave for a few more hours. So we stay the night in Miri, which appears to be just another Asian town, where the Chinese run the shops, and our small hotel.

For tourists, they had to hire a boat to bring them to the headquarters of Niah Caves. The headquarters look nice. The Niah Caves are located in the jungle 3 kilometers from the park on the other side of the river. A huge cave complex appears and once inside, it gets pretty dark. With our flashlight the bas hanging from the ceiling, and the bird nests with some of the birds still on them. The tall constructions used by the locals to harvest the bird nests. These are the nests used for the Chinese bird nest soup. It is a delicacy for which the Chinese pay a lot of money. Also collected here is the guano, bat dung which is sold as fertilizer.

On the other end of the caves, in another piece of jungle, where boardwalks are leading us to the caves where rock paintings are found. At the entrance to the park is a small museum about the Niah caves. It shows the excavations made in the caves. The Niah Great Cave is the most spectacular; its vast interior has the character of a huge labyrinth, with tremendous shafts opening from the surface through the ceiling far above.

Niah Caves National Park is a lovely place to enjoy the jungle and the caves. The facilities in the head quarters are good as well. Water pours hundreds of feet down the biggest of these shafts in a dazzling spectacle. Flocks of swifts swirl overhead, their calls echoing throughout the mighty cavern. The floor is very jagged and every surface is covered with a slimy layer of guano. Small huts allow guano miners and bird's nest harvesters refuge from the constant rain of guano. Slender bamboo poles rise vertically to the ceiling, as much as 200 feet overhead; incredibly, these serve as primitive (and very dangerous) ladders for bird’s nest harvesters. ( 415 Words)