Have you ever been to a cave?

Would you dare to do so?

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I have my own pictures for this cave, but it's somewhere in my drive. Those are pictures from the Tourism of Sarawak's site.

Would you dare enter Niah Caves?

I've been to this cave twice. It's just an hour and the half from where I live. It is one of the places that not many locals visit and have a more international appeal. This cave is one of the largest limestone caves in the world and has some of the oldest paintings. The paintings were drawn by early humans at around 40,000 years ago. I have checked on Wikipedia and it is said that in 1958, deep skull was found there. If you want to read more about it, check it at the link below.

Niah Cave's Wiki page

This picture is from the official wiki page link here

I guess this was what Homo Sapiens were. The area where there are paintings have been fenced off, the last time I visited due to disturbances by hikers. This place is also cursed in some ways. I will get to this part in a moment.

This is the location of the painting which is fenced.
Google's map view

Deep in the jungle. After one hour and the half in the car. It's good to have a local driver who knows this road well. Many of the locations after Miri, the place I am at, doesn't have any phone signal. Usually if I get there, I will download an offline google map just for this section. I have tested it and it works well. The last time, I did that when I was in Sydney, Australia, I used google maps offline mode.

One thing also to take note: If you take a one day trip, it's better to get here early. The whole trail takes around 5 hours to complete. A one hour hike to this cave and you need to hike back where you came from.

The place where this limestone cave is located at is Batu Niah. There is a small town near by so no worries about supply but do bring lots of water and torch light. The cave inside is pretty dark and there are hundreds of bats just above sleeping. For those who have some respiratory problems, I would suggest you to not go here as the air inside here is usually pretty dense and pungent with the smell of bat excrement.

To read more about the different reviews by travelers here. The link below is from Trip Advisor.

Trip Advisor

BUKIT KASUT

There are many sections of the cave. This is the main cave. I have been to the other caves and it is really really dangerous. There is a one peak known as "BUKIT KASUT", translated to english as The Shoe's Hill, not sure why
it has that name. There were falling rocks everywhere and makeshit ladders that have been tied on the mountain side. You could just fall off and be gone. My friend at that time went with me complained alot, he lost his shoe and almost fell off the cliff but lucky for him a bunch of bush just besides the cliff saved him. I literally saw him rolling off the slope and I was in this panic mode that I had no idea what I should have done.

Anyways, back to this cave. You reach the entrance of the cave and then at the entrance pay for the tickets. Not much. Maybe around USD 2 to USD 5 but the chalets just below the mountain was a bit costly.

If you plan to hike here, do stay for a night and hike towards the cave the next day.

You need to take a short boat ride to the other side which takes around a minute. I think they would just have built a bridge to the other side. There is a museum on the other side. There you will then reach the entrance of the cave which I've shown earlier. There is a couple of graveyard there. The guide would tell us not to say things that you shouldn't say as the place is cursed in some ways. It's better to finish the whole trip before sunsets.

To be continued. Going to continue this tomorrow.

Trip to Niah on youtube by Patmax Adventures
This video will give you an idea of how creepy this place is.