Leeches, Pinnacles, Headhunters, Rice Wine...

  Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia
Sunday, July 22, 2007

Deja, bonne chance pour les francais, c'est long et on n'a pas le courage de tout traduire alors tous a vos dicos si vous avez du mal, mais normalement, tout se passera bien!


So after a little absence we're back to tell you all about our adventures in Gunung Mulu Nat'l Park, and boy did we have some! Knowing that we were going to be backpacking, we were able (so thankfully) to drop off a bunch of our stuff at the place we're staying in now, before our flight into the park. We arrived midday at the park headquarters, and had just enough time to drop our stuff at our room and eat before taking a tour of the much-anticipated Deer and Lang Caves. For those of you familiar with the series Planet Earth, Deer Cave is the one with all the bats and the huge pile of guano (caca de chauve souris), and having seen this on You Tube ourselves, we were excited to view the "bat exodus" in person.
 
 
The caves were interesting enough, Lang has some beautiful Stalactites and Stalagmites, while Deer Cave is famous for being the largest in the world, and of course having all the bats...and by the way, watching Planet Earth, you miss out on the stench (l'odeur de caca) of guano which fills the air all around and of course inside the cave. Unfortunately, nature was not on our side this day, and right before the bats were supposed to spew (sortir) out of the cave in a nonstop stream for 45 minutes, it poured (yes, the Rainforest is called so for a reason). We waited around anyways, and after a bit the rain stopped, but the bats only came out in small spurts (par petit groupe), nothing compared to our expectations, so it was quite dissappointing. Especially since, when talking with people who'd been there the previous day, we learned that they'd had an amazing show, bats pouring out of the cave and swirling around the sky before taking off on their hunt (over 3 million bats which eat 15 tons of insects every night...hard to believe, huh?) for a good hour straight. Oh well.
 
The following morning, we took a boat to visit some other caves (which were getting boring, we must admit...4 in 2 days is a lot) and then the boat continued on, dropping us off at the trail head. We hadn't had time to eat breakfast (long, uninteresting story) and had packed some ramen (pates chinoises seches) noodles, crackers, and peanuts to hold us for all three meals for the next three days. Obviously, it wasn't enough. We ended up doing all our hiking with 2 guys from Strasbourg we'd met, Jean Noel and Yannick, who were the only other ppl doing the same treking itinerary as us, so we shared all fees for guides, boats etc...and they were really fun. While walking into camp (8km through the wet jungle) we each got a leech (sangsue) on us! Very disgusting.
 
We arrived at Camp 5 where we would spend the next 2 nights, and spent the evening complaining about our ramen noodles while the tour groups next to us ate a ridiculous multi-course meal cooked and served by their guides (but later on we got the leftovers (les restes)), and playing Uno. Bedtime was early since all the generators turned off about 9, and we had to wake up at 5 to start the Pinnacles Trek.

The trek was incredible. Here's how it went: 2.4 km distance, climbing 1175 meters in all. All in all we were 9, 10 with the guide. Besides us and the 2 other French guys, there was an english family, kids in their 20s and a 67 year old dad, who amazed us all. The "trail" was really wet and slippery, with lots of roots and sharp limestone (une roche un peu calcaire mais tres dure et glissante) rocks to climb over. The first 2000 meters was sort of like doing a stair master, but scary, and slippery (glissant), and the last 400 was basically rock/ladder (echelles, cordes sans aucune securite) climbing straight up, with no security barriers or anything...if we fell, we fell, and could easily die or smash our heads. Within the first 10 mins of the hike we were all drenched (trempes de la tete au pied) head to toe in sweat. It was a challenge, but reaching the top was amazing, and worth the pain. 
Climbing back down, however, was really really hard. 

The first 400 meters were terrifying (we learned after that there are indeed accidents quite often, and no surprise since everything is slippery and the limestones are sharp (pointues) and give no traction (sans adherence)). This was the kind of thing that would never exist in the states. Our guide was far behind us, and everyone went at his/her own pace, so there were times when we were slipping down these rocks all alone, and anything could have happened. After the first scary part, the rest (repos) was just really long and tiring and hard on the knees (genoux). Needless to say, arriving at the camp and throwing ourselves into the river was a huge relief (soulagement)! We were a little sad to sit down to another ramen dinner, this time with no leftovers, after such a strenuous day, especially knowing that we had 11.3km to go the following day with just a few penuts to hold us until we reached the end.


 
Another early wakeup to start the Headhunter's Trail (chemin des chasseurs de tetes), a 1000 year old trail used by the local Sarawak Tribes (notably the Iban) when they were at war with other tribes. 


This was much less interesting than we were expecting. We went at a really fast pace (kyla with 3 6ft-tall boys, taking 2 steps for each of their 1), led by 2 guides, (and we have no idea why guides are needed, unless it's to push us to go really really fast). In any case, we had no time to enjoy the scenery, or see any animals, as the trail was slippery and muddy (glissant and boueux) and we'd been warned about leeches so we had our eyes on the ground the whole time.


At the end of this trail, we hopped on a longboat which took us to the ranger station for lunch, and then to the Iban longhouse where we were staying for the night.



 
The longhouse was indeed that...a really really long house. There were a bunch of other tourists staying there as well, which was disappointing at first, but then it turned out that they'd organized a big party with the Ibans, with traditional Iban dance and lots and lots of rice wine, and Langkau, a really strong rice liquor. We played with the little Iban kids, and were shown around the small village by the son of the "chief," who is a handicapped-Olympic swimming multi-medalist. It was amazing to watch him swim using one arm and one leg against the current in the river, he went faster than most of us with the use of all of our limbs! The dinner was excellent, and the party was really fun. 


Despite our rendez vous with the boatman the next morning at 6, we drank rice wine and Lankau until 3am and talked with the Iban guys (not many women around to party with us).
 
This morning, the wake-up was painful...we were still drunk at 5:30am, and had a boat ride and van trip ahead of us, going to the Limbang airport where we were hoping to get on the same flight as Jean Noel and Yannick. Unfortunately, arriving at the airport at 8:15 am, we learned that the 10:45 flight had been changed to 1:15pm so we lounged around and tried to sleep, waiting until we could buy our tickets, not even sure if it would be possible. Fortunately, it was, and we ended up taking the scariest (le plus effrayant) (although JP loved it) flight ever, in this tiny plane which fit about 15 people, and we could see the pilots doing all their piloting...terrifying.


 
Now we're here in Miri for one night, tomorrow we head to Kota Kinabalu where we'll climb Mt Kinabalu on our very very sore (corbatures) legs. Hopefully we'll be able to get some nice cheap massages before we head up, or at worst, afterwards.
 


Joyeux anniversaire Fred, (en retard) we love and miss everyone!!! Gros bisous, nous vous embrassons tous!!!
 

xoxoxoxoxo