Niah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia

4Shaun G 5:00 PM Mar 4, 2020

Explore cave and walk trough a boardwalk forrest
A national park, it provides amenities for the solo to the group traveler and visitor. Walk through the forest to the many caves within. Explore the multiple caves available with an easy walk through the forest on its boardwalk or you can get a guide to get you on the trails. With mini falls and event views from peaks. There is even a river boat ride to travel down. Get to know people and if your lucky, visit a village that is link by the river.

4Snook87 5:00 PM Nov 26, 2017

Impressive caves worth the visit - read for practical information
The caves are massive and well worth a visit when you are in the area. I m going to focus the review more on the practicalities of a visit rather than the caves themselves as we were a bit confused when planning our trip. Getting there: based on past reviews we tried getting an uber/grab car but the driver wanted 150rm for one way or 250rm return. We decided against it and took the bus. We paid 5rm to get to pujut bus station from our hotel. We didn't know when the bus would leave but we were lucky and were just in time for the 7:45am bus which cost 12rm per person (this was on a Sunday so weekday schedule might vary...if there is a schedule that is). Any bus in the direction of bintulu or sibu will get you there. The bus took just under 2h and was pleasant enough. You need to get off at batu niah junction which is an official resting point for the bus anyway. It's pretty big and there are food courts on either side of the street. Ok restrooms are available too. I recommend having a quick lunch here as the selection is a lot better than at the national park canteen. You then have to take a taxi to the national park which takes about 15min. The usual rate seems to be 30rm. Taxi drivers might not speak amazing english but they will know where you want to go. We were approached by a few when we got out of the bus, no problem at all. As previous reviews mention if you are more than two people it would probably work out cheapest if you can hire a car for the day. The national park itself: once you are there you will need to register at the park headquarters. Entrance is 20rm for foreigners. To get into the park you will need to take a little boat across a river. This is 1rm per person per journey so try to have a few 1rm notes ready. The river is tiny and I don't see why they couldn't just build a bridge. The boat journey takes about 30 seconds. Guess a boat keeps the boatmen busy at least. There is a note that states that the journey is 1rm during normal operating hours and 1.50rm from 5.30 to 7pm onwards and to speak with the boatman if you wanted to return during those ours. As we had planned to watch the bats leave the cave in the evening we asked the boatman if we cluld come back later. His reply was that if we are not back by 5:30 we're not gonna get back. (However the next day I heard the receptionist advise other visitors that the latest the boat runs was to 7pm- so at your own risk!). Once on the other side there is a museum. It takes about 45min to 1h to get to the caves depending on walking speed and how often you stop for pictures etc. The way is along a boardwalk and a concrete path. All I can say is that my hiking boots were utterly useless on it. Everything was really wet and slippery and covered in leaves and I slipped several times. Apart from that the boardwalk is well maintained. The walk itself is easy and pleasant. Once at the caves we saw some archeological excavation going on and the archeologists were kind enough to explain what it is they were doing even though they must be asked all the time. For entering the cave a torch is a must. It's not just getting a bit dark, it will be pitch black. From a rational point of view the caves are a health and safety nightmare, from an adventurous point of view they are good fun. The boardwalks continue through the cave though at some points they decided that railings are not necessary...the boardwalk is covered in bat and swiftlet droppings and water is dripping on it so it is very slippery. Where there are railings they are often covered also in droppings so if you have a problem with that bring some gloves. There is also a strong smell of the swiftlets and bats in the cave. Once you reach all the way to the end you will arrive at the painted cave where there are old cave paintings - they are behind a fence to protect them and they are a bit hard to see as they are quite faded...but hey what would you expect from cave paintings. You then go back the same way you came. The whole circuit took us about 4h but we really took our time. If you have problems with climbing stairs this might not be the best place for you, also if you are afraid of the dark and of big insects as there are quite a few massive cave crickets wandering about. Overall experience: if you come to this cave expecting a jungle adventure you will be disappointed. The place is popular with local tourists (and us going on a sunday probably didn't help). We wanted to look out for birds and monkeys and any other animals on the way to the caves but any chances of seeing anything were ruined by locals shouting, laughing and having loud conversations. The weirdest behaviour we came across was that quite a lot of them carry loud speakers in their backpacks and they keep playing loud music. So while we were in the painted cave we had to listen to some really bad asian rock music - not quite what I had hoped for. It literally erased all of the noise from the forest. All I can say is go there during the week and try to go as early as you can. Accommodation. There are various accommodation options available on site that can be booked online. We had a 4 bed room in the hostel (even though we were two people) which cost 40rm for the room. This had a basic but decent private bathroom attached. It does not have air con but a fan. It was quite Ok. There is a canteen that is open till 10pm that offers hot food. Prices were from 5rm upwards - it wasn't the tasties meal ever but it is better than nothing after a long day. Trekking - this is not really a good destination for trekking. There are only three routes: the ones to and through the caves. Then one that goes to a longhouse villages which is just a continuation of the boardwalk leading to the caves (we did it after the caves, it was interesting but only added maybe half an hour or 45min to our day). Then there is a trek to bukit (=hill) kasut this branches off from the main path to the caves. The sign said it takes 2.5h one way. We attempted this the next day. The first half an hour or so was really pleasant - off the boardwalk and on the forest floor. We could hear many birds (ever only got a glimpse of them), saw some gliding squirrels and some kind of deer that ran off. The forest is very pretty here. However, after a while you start walking next to a river and everything got quite boggy and muddy which wouldn't have been a problem if it hadn't been for the millions of mosquitos that were very excited about our arrival. We carried on as long ad we could but eventually had to turn around as while our deet kept them off us we were just walking through clouds of them which was really not fun. We never got to the point where you would start climbing the hill so I don't know how challenging this would have been. Getting back: the reception can call a taxi back to bukit niah (again 30rm). From there just hop on any bus that says Miri - you can pay the bus driver directly. Buses seemed to be quite frequent - they can stop on both sides of the street so worth to keep that in mind. We had lunch and when we were finished a bus just arrived - very easy. Overall a very cool experience.