Caving in Borneo

One of the things I love to do is go exploring in caves. They are so dark and mysterious, a little dangerous, and you never know what cool formation you're going to see next. I've spent the past week or so checking out some of the cool caves here in Borneo. They are some of the biggest and most impressive caves in the world!

The Fairy Cave, where Fairies live, near Kuching

At Mulu National Park, I met a few fellow travelers and we did some 'adventure caving'. We hiked, climbed, jumped over crevices and hung by ropes to explore the beauty of the Stonehorse cave. It was amazing!

No one fell in a hole, we survived!
Also, don't we kind of look like a band? I tried to convince the guys we should totally be a band just based on this pic alone, but they didn't go for it.

One of the most famous caves in Mulu is the Deer Cave. It is an absolutely huge cave where 3 million bats make their home. At dusk, all of the bats make a huge exodus to go out hunting for insects. They snake and curve in a long dragon like line as they make their way out, and they keep it up for over an hour! My neck was hurting from staring up at them for so long!

The Deer Cave entrance

From a certain angle, the cave opening looks just like Abraham Lincoln!

Bats inside the cave

The mass exodus! How many bats do you think are in that stream?!

I also went to the Lang Cave, which was just filled with stalactites and stalagmites and amazingly cool formations that made me feel like I was on some weird alien planet.

We also went to check out the Clearwater cave which had a river running through it. To get there, we had to take a ride down the river in a traditional long boat which was really fun.

Top contender for best selfie ever lol. There are raindrops going in my eyes, hence the squint.
But Leon and Steve both look hilarious!

The river inside Clearwater cave

I also got to check out two caves near Sepilok. The Batu Tulug cave, where 500 years ago, Borneo people used to bury their dead in carved wooden coffins. This ancient cemetery cave is on the side of a sheer cliff, so it's kind of a mystery and a huge feat that they would have lugged those coffins up there and put them in a cave!

A few of the wooden coffins on a platform in the cave

Many of the coffins were adorned with animal head carvings

So I think this sign said something about not going any further... but I wanted to climb to the top!
I felt so badass as I hopped over and kept going! Anarchy! Haha :)

The view from the top of the coffin cave mountain was worth it!

The Gomantong Cave was the grossest cave I've ever seen! I mean, it was still super cool, but there were cockroaches everywhere, literally everywhere. I could her them crunching under my feet as I walked and they were covering all the walls. The amount of bat poop was unbelievable... the whole bottom of the cave was a giant mountain of bat poo! This cave is known as a harvesting area for the nests of swiftlest that live there. Apparently the saliva that these birds use to stick their nests to the cave walls is a delicacy in China, and can fetch over $4000 a kilo! The harvesters go up on 100 m tall ladders made of bamboo and rope to get the nests. Sketchy!! And they live in the cave during harvesting season. UGH the cockroaches must crawl all over them at night... EEEKKKKK!!! Worst. Job. Ever.

Entrance to the Gomantong Cave

The bugs and cockroaches have formed some sort of a creepy happy face on the cave wall

Even if I was about to fall to my death, I'm not sure if I would grab a hold of this railing!

Walkway slowly dissolving into bat poo, and cockroaches crunching under my feet!

Saw this little guy living in a cave wall hole

They call this centipede the 'Hairy Mary'.
It can be up to 6 inches long, and it is so poisonous if it bites you you can die!!!

Doesn't this bird nest look delicious?

The bird nest harvesters live in these little huts in the cave

It's actually pretty cute, other than the cockroaches all over the place, eeeekkkk!