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Three weeks in Paradise
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Trekking in Mulu National Park

Mulu National Park

Mulu National Park is only accessible by airplane or 10hrs on a river boat. Unfortunately I didnt have time to do the river boat so I flew into the park from Miri. I arrived Miri by flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia after a long night bus ride from Hat Yai in Thailand.

Malaysian Borneo is split in two. Sarawak and Sabah. Mulu National Park is in Sarawak. Its famous for all its caves, and among the caves you find the world biggest cave passage and also the worlds biggest cave chamber. Its estimated that only 40% of the caves in the limestone rocks is discovered and now and then a new cave is discovered. Most people visit the "Showcaves". Caves easily accessed with lightning and path walk. Big groups of tourists aside, many of the caves are very impressive! Id like to do the adventure caving, which involves a bit more action in form of water, headlamp and climbing, but unfortunately I didn't have the time. The whole Borneo visit was more or less a bit impulsive and I stressed a lot to make reservations in different national parks before going (accommodation and treks)

I arrived Mulu on the 19th and the first day I visited the Deer Cave and Langs Cave. The Deer Cave is the worlds biggest cave passage and the home of 2-3 millions bats! You can spot them far up in the roof as a big black mass.
After the cave visit we waited outside to see the bats fly out. It was an impressive sight and lasted for 20-30 minutes! Coming to Borneo is almost like coming to Jurassic Park. Everything is bigger here, but haven't seen any dinosaurs yet!

Mulu airport.. strip in the jungle, only way to get here

Biggest insect I ever seen! (Stick insect)

Taking pictures inside a dark cave is really hard, so gotta excuse the bad quality. Also I just have a pocket camera which isnt the best in such conditions! Also photographing in the rain forest is really bad!

Sign outside Deer cave - the largest cave passage in the world

Opening to Deer cave

Inside the Deer cave, that is waterfalls from the roof

The next day I visited the Clearwater Cave, Wind Cave and Moon Milk Cave with some Malaysian youths. No photos as I forgot my camera! I spent the rest of the day sleeping as I was really tired.

Million of bats flying out at twilight - quite a sight and lasted for good 30 minutes

Copy paste from other blog post:
I dont know where to start. Borneo has always been a exotic destination for me and finally Im here! Dont know how many programs I have watched about Borneo on National Geographic, but its not few. I have to say, I thought Borneo was a bit more non-touristy, but there is actually a lot of package tourists here, and not so many backpackers. Borneo is actually split in three. You have Malaysian Borneo, Indonesia Borneo and Brunei, a little oil nation inside Malaysian Borneo! Im visiting Malaysian Borneo.

Well as I wrote. I dont know where to start. I have seen plants only growing a little spot in the world. I have seen millions of bats fly out of a cave. Ive seen the worlds biggest cave passage and some other amazing caves. I have slept in an Iban longhouse. I have trekked an old tribal war path of the headhunters. I have climbed The Pinnacles, a natural wonder of the world. I have climbed the biggest mountain between Burma and Papua New Guinea. I have seen orangutans, traveled on a river and trekked about 30km through the rain forest picking up several leeches on the way!

As you understand its hard to write about all these things in one travel letter so stay tuned for many letters from Borneo!!

The Pinnacles

Im still in Mulu National Park, but have taken a boat with three British army guys 1hr up the river from the park HQ. From here we trekked 8km through the muddy rain forest to Camp 5. Camp 5 is a researcher station built some 30yrs ago to host researchers in the field, but also tourists. Every year new species are found! The trek was through muddy rain forest we reached Camp 5 after 1hr and 50 minutes which, according to our guide, was quite fast! I think I pulled off 5 leeches before we reached the camp. Luckily it didn’t rain which make the leeches more active. I think it rained 80% of the time the last 3 days! I guess its why its called a Rain forest…

Driving up the river to our drop off point

Getting off at nowhere in the jungle

Once we arrived Camp 5 we were welcomed by a swarm of bees. It is bee season over here now and they are attracted by the salt in our sweat. I don’t think anyone got a sting, but its quite stressful to have 20 salt-horny bees around you while you try to eat some noodles! We had to wash the clothing in the river and put on some clean clothes (CLEAN???) to sort of try avoid them. I found my mosquito net the best protection. As I wrote in the previous letter everything is big here in Borneo, and some of the bees looked like a little bird if you ask me!

Trekking to Camp 5 through the dense jungle full of leeches

Trekking to Camp 5, luckily some simple bridges over the worst

Map of Camp 5 and surroundings

Camp 5 - research station in the jungle

At camp 5 there is very simple facilities. You have to bring your own food and cook it yourself. Mutton curry on can and noodles!

The army boys having a swim in the river (cold!)

Leech sucking my blood, pulled off a few of these. This one fat of my blood.

Giant insects in Borneo, here a grasshopper. Bit sceptic

 The next day we got up early, about 6.30am, to start the trek to the Pinnacles. The trek is basically straight up a hill. From sea level to 1750 meters altitude in 2.4km. For every 1 meter that is 1.3 meter up in average! There was no flat parts! The path is difficult and covered with roots in all sized and razor sharp limestone!

It was a tough climb throug the jungle and razor sharp limestone. Every step had to be extra careful to not cut yourself or worse. Did I mention poisonous snakes?

If you ever been in the jungle it's hot and humid and climbing 1750m in 3hrs is hard. You loose a lot of hydration and I filled up with dehydration powder and eating lots of energy bars to cope with it.

One person has died and each year several people get injured on this trek! The last 400 meters to the top was basically straight up! With the help of 14 ladders and several ropes we got up there! I have to say this is some of the hardest things I have ever done, if not the worst! The difficult and steep trek aside, its also very hot and you have to carry a lot of water and some energizer snack (Snickers!). I was also drinking dehydration powder as I was sweating a lot and used a lot of energy. The “walk” to the top took 3hrs and the sight that awaited us was spectacular!

The Pinnacles - Amazing sight!

Yes! Made it - first man up too!

The group at the top

The Pinnacles is a forest of razor sharp limestone carved out by the rain and unlike anything in the world! The way down was even harder than going up. I thought I would never make it and I was soooo tired in my knees and legs. We also run out of water. I was just walking from tree to tree and couldnt care less if I stepped on a Cobra snake! 2.4km may not sound much, but when you walk straight up&down, its a lot! We used 3.5hrs down and that day we climbed in total 3500meters in 6.5hrs! I drank 5 cans of Coke when I got down and ate two dinners

View from the top of the mountain over Mulu National Park - 1750m above sea level

Paddling the Nam Song river, Laos

Today I went paddling down the Nam Song river to Vang Vieng in Laos. On the way we did some trekking through the jungle and explored two giant caves, one of them full of water so we had to swim through parts of it. The water was kinda cold too... It was a lot of fun, and the scenery in this area of Laos is stunning. Absolutely amazing. Might be paddling down to Vientiane tomorrow.

Trekking in SaPa, northern Vietnam

What to say... I could use all day to write about Sa Pa, but i wont. Sa Pa, at 1600m, is in the northern highland in Vietnam, and only a few mountains away from China and home to many of the ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Not unlike the Same people in Norway. Actually I saw some of the clothing was very similar. Sa Pa is about 500km from Hanoi and we got to Lao Cai after a good night sleep on the night train. From Lao Cai its about 40kilometers up to Sa Pa on not to good roads... It takes a while. Its a bit funny how people drive over here, let me try to explain: If there is a sharp turn, you will use the horn before the turn to warn people, if any, on the other side, but you dont slow down. Well, there might be a bunch of buffalos or goats around the corner, but their horn doesnt make sound.

Train station in Hanoi

Overnight train to northern Vietnam from Hanoi

Once in Sa Pa we got a cheap hostel for 4$ a night with a nice view from the balcony. Sa Pa is incredible beautiful!

View from the hillside in SaPa

View from the hillside in SaPa

View from the hillside in SaPa

The first day we explored the little town. The tribes comes to the market to sell stuff and of course try to get a good price from tourists. Most of it is handmade and for the first time in Vietnam I wasnt too bothered to be bothered, because a lot of what they are selling is very nice! There is a lot of kids running around and become your bestfriend before trying to sell you some. They are so cute, and a typical conversion goes like this:

Native: Whats yu name?
Me: Oyvind, what about you?
Native: Tju. How old a you?
Me: 25, what about you?
Native: Ohhh you very young. Im 8. You have many brother sisters?
Me: Hehe, im not very young, you are! I have Two sisters
Native: Ohhh very small family!
Me: Thats normal where I come from
Native: younger older sister?
Me: Two older sisters
...And so it continues...
Native: Maybe you buy from me? (showing some textiles)
Me: Hehe, how much
Native: 60.000
Me: 60.000 to expensive. 30.000.
Native: nooo.. I make myself. You see, handmade
Me: Its very beautiful
...

Couldn't go anywhere without having these ladies hanging around, trying to sell stuff all the time

This little girl charmed herself to Tone and of course managed to sell some self made textiles

And some times you buy and sometimes you dont. But the kids are so cute you dont mind buying from them! In the start we would pay a lot, but as we got into how much stuff should cost we got a better bargain. Its a bit sad they are not going to school, but as I understood they had to help the family. Its a bit different over here.

We ended up buying a LOT in Sa Pa. There is a lot of handmade stuff, everything from textiles, jewelry to hand made items made from soft stone.

Later this day we rented a motorbike and went exploring up the valley to see a waterfall. While the waterfall wasnt too impressive, it was a nice ride. At the waterfall we sat down at a lady serving us grilled pork, local tea, rice in bamboo and some other stuff. Of course we bought a lot of stuff too, and mom can look forward to a very nice scarf and Sa Pa Chi (tea)

Driving around on the dirt roads around SaPa

Drinking tea

The second day we went trekking. We were looking forward to the two day trek and a night with homestay in one of the tribal villages. Our guide, a local from the H'Mong tribe, spoke very good english and told us a lot about the life in the villages and on the rise paddies. She had picked up her english on the street and from guiding tourists and I was impressed to learn she was only 17 years old! She spoke 10 languages; most of them various dialects (but appearently very different) in the different tribes.

The first day of our trek we walked about 3-4 hours. Along on the way we were accompanied with kids and elders going the same way. The kids were giving us flowers and was running around laughing. Of course we knew this was probably to sell us something later, but it was all fun. We also got to visit the family of our guide, and I bought a shirt her mom had made. She had used 3 months on it and I paid 100.000Dong (probably a lot), but only 6$. I later learned the shirt is made of marihuana! All the clothings over here is made of the stem of the marihuana plant, called hamp. They showed us how they make the hamp, and trust me, its a lot of work! We also got to see the local school were 200 kids would cramp together in the small classroom. School kids back home should see this and have a second thought about complaining!

When we arrived our village I went for a swim in the river. The ladies, sewing all the time, followed us down and tried to sell us stuff all the time. They dont take no for an answer!
The evening was spent with Kirsty from England and Preeti from Canada in our 4 person group. We had a very nice meal and got to taste rice wine. Its nasty!! First time Ive eaten rice basically sitting in the rice paddies where it comes from! When I got to bed I felt a bite in my back and took my hand there and felt this chrunch... shit what was that? I got on the headlight and a beedle was crawling around... argh! It must have been on my tshirt. I didnt sleep well this night.. the matrass was thin, and it felt like a lot of bugs where crawling all over me - but of course when I turned on the light there was none.

Local school

Mom of my guide from which I bought this shirt for 6$ (3 months of work)

The next day we only had a short trek of 2 hours. We walked again through some amazing scenery. We walked through rice paddies, bamboo forest, mariuhana fields and passed a lot of buffalos, not alway too eager to let you pass. We were picked up by a car in the end to return to Sa Pa. I have to say, this is the best thing I have done in entire Vietnam! The rest of the day we got some souvenirs and 5pm we got a ride back Lao Cai to get on the night train back to Hanoi 8.10pm.

Rice pads

Cheers! rice wine, taste like shit (even after a few beers!!)

I love Sa Pa!

(PS! I learned the snake I wrote about in the Hue letter is very dangerous. Its a bamboo viper and a bite will kill you within minutes... After I learned this I had a good look when walking through bamboo forest!!)