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A trip to Niah Caves
Written by Webmaster
Thursday, 30 June 2005
Niah Swiftlets and birds nest 5
A tourist's view to Niah Caves.Haven't seen a cave nests and swiftlets before? Niah Caves is a good place for you to explore ...
Niah Swiftlets and birds nest 6
Located 2-3 hours drive from Miri or Bintulu, Niah Cave in Sarawak is one of the biggest cave in the world, with human inhabitants found, traced back to 40,000 years ago. Niah National Park is also under the UNEP's Protected Areas Programme.
The Great Cave
For bird's nest and swiftlets worker, 'Niah' has been used and known as a symbol, to represent bird's nest from Sarawak.On Dec 2004, we visited Niah Caves. It's a tour to observe some of the bird's nest and swiftlets activities there, from a tourist's view.
Niah Lowland Plankwalk
From the Niah National Park headquarter, the whole trip will start with a 3Km trekking on a plankwalk through the lowland forest, to arrive at the Trader's Cave, continue to the 'Great Cave'. Optionally tourist can continue to 'Painted Cave'. This is the typical route to explore Niah Cave from a tourist's view.
Niah Trader's Cave
Trader's Cave is the first cave before others. This cave used to be the place where the buyer and the seller (colletor) of 'guano' (bird and bat excrement, used as fertiliser) and edible bird's nest conducted transactions. Of course, you will not find this activity today, so as this cave has been abandoned, leaving some of the roofless 'belian' huts and structures.
Niah Swiftlets and birds nest 1
The Greate Cave is huge. There is an archaeological site beside just at the entrance to the cave. Along the plankwalk through darkness of the Great cave, you can find countless swiftlet nests attached to the wall of the cave (hardly can see up to the roof clearly with our torchlight :) ). You can take some time to try your experience and knowledge to differentiate, which are the edible one.
Niah Bamboo Pole
During the bird's nest collection season, you can see the owners of the cave working there collecting edible bird's nest. We are not fortunate enough to see such activity this trip, but we still can see some of the wooden and bamboo poles and leaders to the roof, enough for a tourist, like me.
Niah Painted Cave, from www.sarawaktourism.com
With another half-an-hour walk from the Great Cave, Painted Cave is the other National Historical Monuments declared, beside the Great Cave. You will find some prehistoric drawing on the wall.
Niah Swiftlets and birds nest 2
Well, need to mention that you will need to bring some 'more powerful' torchlight for the sightseeing in the dark, especially in the Great Cave. And along the lowland plankwalk you can take your time and walking quitely, to see if you can spot some of the park's wildlifes.
Niah Swiftlets and birds nest 3
Some of the links from the web:The official Tourism Site of SarawakNiah National Park at the Official Tourism Site of SarawakHistory of the Great Cave of NiahNiah National Park at Sarawak Forestry SiteInformation of Cave - Recorded the Gua Niah as one of the largest individual cavern found Information of Sarawak at www.definition-info.com
Comments
Written by ng on 2005-07-10 05:35:52
alternative to cave nest Written by Eric on 2005-08-11 20:06:22very informative. what a big difference if compared to house nest... related article from AgroWorld.
comments Written by Min on 2005-08-26 00:46:08 A very good explanation I like the picture very much!!
Gua Niah Written by Aw Yong on 2005-08-26 00:53:16Oh Yes!!! The information is very good! and the picture is related bird nest I like it!
Informative resource for researcher Written by Azlin on 2005-08-28 05:48:59Hi..This site has certainly given a very exciting and informative resource. I would like to know whether you can arrange a tour to this cave for researcher involving research on the difeerent species of the swiftlets and their varieties of nests..
yada yada Written by kecyjackson on 2006-03-08 18:56:48hai i really like to go there. but there are some problems that avaid me to go there. Bird flu and many things. might be its quite dangerous for a young teenager going without their guidence. however it is a great palce i ever heard.
Dr Written by wong on 2006-05-24 18:21:42articles posted in the internet should be to encourage and give out, sharing information with other enthusiasts. After all, the world is big enough to cater for selfish people with small brains, and even that, there is plenty of room for that. Pictures are good. Congratulations
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