Day 2 Tour Kuching, capital of Sarawak state. It has statues of cats everywhere. Kuching means cat...(I was the last to know). Visited a number of museums and market places filled with fish and fruit and tshirts. Eat foul, exotic fruit (durians) and practice haggling for bargains. Stroll along the riverfront and discover Tiger beer.

Day 3 Flew a few hours along the coast to Miri and then a toy prop plane up into Mulu National Park. Three more join our group Allie: London, investment manager Heidi and Tod: Sydney, occupational therapist and IT guru Walk a couple miles into the rainforest to visit bat caves which are some of the world's largest cave chambers. Mountains of roach infested guano piles inside. Very slippery! Watch 2 million bats come slithering into the evening sky in snake like clouds. It takes over an hour. Day 4 Take long boats up river and visit more limestone caves and then go "adventure caving" in Clearwater Cave which is Asia's longest at 66 miles. Jump in a cave pool and follow narrow tunnels in the dark and water for a mile (only one flashlight among us). Get a semi deep gash in my ankle. Doh! Emerge in at a big lagoon where we lunch and swim. That evening we revisit Deer Cave and watch the bats again. Deer Cave has the largest cave opening in the world. The chamber is 600 ft wide by 400 ft wide and is over a mile long.

Day 5 Journey to Camp 5. Ride a longboat upriver for 2 hours. Longboats are just that, long, 20-25 ft long sitting one or two across depending on the boat. The river was low and we were weighed down by our packs so we had to jump out and push a dozen times. The water was warm but swift and we were bruised up from tripping and falling on the river rocks, but had lots of laughs. Then we do a 5 mile backpack on the Headhunters Trail through the rainforest. Easy hike but you had to watch your step with the tangle of tree roots cutting across the trail. The jungle is dense, the trees soar, and it's hot, humid, and incredibly noisy from the nuclear sized cicadas. Reach Camp 5 which is a stunning miniature version of Yosemite. We cool off in the crystal, clear river which we also drink from. The camp is crowded with researchers from around the world doing various studies on people and nature. Sleep on wood platforms in communal rooms.

Day 6 Hell day: The Pinnacles The Pinnacles are limestone outcroppings that can only be viewed from the top. I was excited to see them because the zoo I work at recreates them in our Asia exhibit. I didn't really study the brochure that hard, thought our mountain climb would be alpine strolls and not muscle aching mountaineering. Climbed a vertical rise of 4000 ft over 1.5 miles. The grade was a good 60% to 70%+ the whole way up in 90 F and 90% humidity. There were hardly any switchbacks. The last third was a series of strategically placed ladders and ropes over and up crevices and rock faces. The climb was like 30,000 steps on a stairmaster. The lead group made it up in 3 hours and 4 of us followed in 4. Thought I was in better shape. The view was worth the effort though. Thought I was going to die on the way down and soon vomited on the side of the mountain. Heat exhaustion. I suspect my cold didn't help matters. But the sound of the cold river beckoned and I jumped straight in as did everyone else on the return. Examined my feet and 4 of my toes are black and blue, shoes too small, plus my shins are all bruised up from hitting boulders. But, ...it was fun, really!

Day 7 Recovered quickly and feeling good. Leave Camp 5 and backpack 7 miles on The Headhunters Trail. (although all the trails in Borneo can be called that because it still occurs, murder weapon of choice) We cross a wicked rope bridge over a river. No one falls in.
Meet up with longboats for a 3 hour ride down river. The first hour we are basking in the sun and then skies let loose with torrential, bone drenching cold rains. It was pretty bad. We all huddled together to stay warm but some of us were white as ghosts and shivering from the cold AT THE EQUATOR. We end up at an Iban longhouse. It is around 300 feet long and as many as 200 people live in it. We stay at the tribal chiefs' quarters which is the only one with electricity, stereo, and TV. Everyone else lived by candlelight it seemed. Had the umpteenth big meal and then our guides and the chief did tribal dances which we all had to imitate and then chug down rice wine. Then surrealville hits and we do a 50s sock hop for an hour because they love to dance and then go to the back room for karaoke night of Abba and Bee Gees. I couldn't stomach the rice wine (had my fill of it in Japan) but they ended up drinking 4.5 gallons of it and went to bed at 3. We could hear the rats scurrying behind the walls at our heads as we slept on the floor. Day 8 Say goodbye to the longhouse and take longboats again 2 hours downriver this time in sun, see some water buffalo. Float by major areas of lumber clearing. Then a 2 hour bumpy bus ride to Limbang, civilization. Nap in theafternoon and then hang out drinking and eating at the night markets.
On to Sabah...