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The
HinterLand : Tour
Packages to Niah and Mulu Caves
Miri's National
Parks & Wildlife Office - (Tel) 60 85
434184
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Miri
is the starting point for your adventture
trips into the interior of Borneo.
Lambir Hills , Niah National Park,
and Loagan Bunut National Park can
be accessed by road and reached by
car. Other inland travel is undertaken
by boat, by 4WD on rugged roads, or
by small planes, which skim over the
wild terrain and land in the cool
highlands of centyral Borneo.
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Lambir
Hills National Park
: Legend
has it that seven Fairy princesses once
resided around the Latak waterfalls,
and these spirits enticed men to bathe
in trhe pools. The mythical ladies are
now believe to have married some locals
and left the place and live among the
local tribes. So now this place is safe
for men to visit again. This park is
easily access by car and its only 30
minutes drive from Miri Town.
The
journey is about 30km.Visitors
may take any commercial buses heading
for Batu Niah, Bintulu, Tinjar, Bakong
or Bekenu bazaars. Bus Station in Miri
is loacted at Wisma Pelita Tunku Bus
Station.
Lambir Hills National Park Office -
(Tel) 60 85 491030
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Niah
National Park
Located
on the Sungai (river) Niah, about 3
km from the small town of Batu Niah,
a 110 km to the south-west of Miri in
northern Sarawak. The park was first
gazetted as a National Historic Monument
in 1958, gazetted as National Park on
23 November 1974 and was published to
the public on 1 January 1975. The Park
is one of Sarawak's smaller national
parks, but it is certainly one of the
most important and has some of the most
unusual visitor attractions. The park's
main claim to fame is its role as one
of the birthplaces of civilisation in
the region. The oldest modern human
remains discovered in Southeast Asia
were found at Niah, making the park
one of the most important archaeological
sites in the world. The west mouth of
the Niah Caves is one of the most important
archaeological sites in Southeast Asia.
It is significant because of the wide
range of stone tools that have been
discovered from the Palaeolithic Period
(Old; Stone Age) to the Neolithic (New
Stone Age). The discovery of skull fragments,
considered to be the earliest definite
representative; of Homosapiens in Southeast
Asia, adds to the archaeological importance
of this attraction. Prehistoric wall
paintings also exist in one of the caves.
Besides exploring the profusion of the
limestone caves and viewing the prehistoric
wall paintings, visitors can also witness
natives perched precariously on tall
bamboo poles collecting edible bird's
nests.
Bird's
Nest Collecting is a feat worth witnessing
and occurs only twice a year at six
monthly intervals, usually in January
and June. The nests stick on the cave
roof and the collector climbs a perpendicular
pole to a height of some 60 metres from
where he scrapes off the nests with
a long bamboo pole equipped with a scraper.
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Mulu National Park is one
of Nature's most spectacular
achievements and the 'jewel in the
crown' of Sarawak's expanding network
of national parks. It is also the
largest national park, covering 52,865
hectares of primary rainforest, which
is criss-crossed by fast flowing rivers
and clear jungle streams. Mulu is
dominated by three mountains - Gunung
Mulu (2,376 m), Gunung Api (1,750
m) and Gunung Benarat (1,585 m). Yet
many of Mulu's greatest attractions
lie deep below the surface. Hidden
underneath the forested slopes of
these mountains is one of the largest
limestone cave systems
in the world.
The
oldest of Mulu's caves started to
form about 5 million years ago when
sideways earth movements resulted
in the formation of both limestone
and sandstone mountains, lying side
by side. Millions of years of heavy
rain and the action of rivers and
running water carved out the vast
subterranean system that exists today.
The weathering process still continues;
dripping water creates new rock features,
limestone is slowly worn away, and
underground rivers carve and sculpt
the caves, transporting limestone
debris to the cave mouth or redistributing
it within the system.
This system, a breath-taking natural
wonder, contains a number of record
breaking caves. With the world's largest
cave passage (Deer Cave), the world's
largest natural chamber (Sarawak Chamber),
and the longest cave in Southeast
Asia (Clearwater Cave), it is not
surprising that Mulu is now world-famous.
Over 200 km of cave passages have
been surveyed but this is thought
to represent just 30-40% of the actual
total.
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Loagan
Bunut
is a shrinking lake. Now you see it
then you don't. In the dry months of
February until June, it is possible
to walk right across dry mud flats of
this popular bird watching site. During
the rainy season they fill up to form
a large, shallow lake. Wildlife changes
with the seasons, wading birds giving
way to insect eaters as the waters recede.
The drive from Miri to Loagan Bunut
National Park takes 2 to 3 hours by
4x Wheel Drive. |
Hotels and Resorts in Miri
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