Gopeng - Gua Tempurung

First timers and those with young kids chose to go on either Levels 1 or 2.

Fai having been in the cave before opted to go along with his sister and father for Level 4. We had with us head lamps and were wearing either sandals or sport shoes. Fai's feet ended up badly blistered by his sandals, so proper shoes are advisable. Keep your hands free as you will need to crawl and grab.

More info on tours available in Gua Tempurung here

Han and Ean were not keen, so I played by the stream with them

We were joined by those who completed their quick tour of the wonderful cave.

There were lots of fish but were very difficult to catch.

After 4 hours, JY finally emerged from the underground stream. First thing she did was to wash her shoes.

The rest strolled out with clean shoes as they had used the gushing water to wash their footwear before coming out from the cave.

Fai said he had a great time.

They had to crawl through narrow crevices, slide 20 feet down huge boulders, got to see a secret garden and much more.

Here's what DH wrote in FB:

" I encourage all families to go for it, the young ones will like it too. A bit scary, a bit dark, dangerous to some, let some imagination run wild, feel the fresh cold water, wet, dry, muddy, sandy and rocky earth with your bare hands, legs ...and soaked body. Its 4 hours of fun and thrills! Ask for the new extended route also. The feeling of danger is so invigorating. If your life is too safe its time to face some danger for a change. Experiencing team work with strangers and making new friends in the group is a bonus. "

There was a large crowd as it was a national holiday. There were at least 50 in their group and most of them had torches, so it was well lit - like a party in the caverns. Although only one guide was with them, the tour went smoothly with many willing to lend a helping hand.

I was most impressed with a young man who made it through Level 3 minus one leg and using crutches. Salute!

Clearwater Cave 5thMarch2011

Entrance to Clearwater Cave
Huge boulders greeted us after climbing up 200 steps. Puff, puff...it was not an easy task.
Out of the 4 caves that I visited in Mulu, this has to be my favourite.
No smelly guano, lots of scalloping, stalactites and staglamites to admire and the heart pounding sound of the river that flows through it.
I felt like one of the Famous Fives exploring a mystery in an underground cavern.
The cave was lit with dim yellow lights and the air was cool and refreshing.
'Foong Sup' (masuk angin) comes to mind though.

As in all the other caves, lots of interesting facts to read and ponder upon. I would have spent more time in here if not for Han and Ean pestering me to hurry up and get on with it. After 2 days of caves, Han and Ean had quite enough of looking at limestones.

Fai on the other hand couldn't get enough of all the information that he learnt from the guide's narration and from the signboards. I never got to hear much of what the guide had to offer as oftentimes I lagged behind the group....far, far behind.
Fai would insist on being in the thick of the action - with the guide. When I do catch up with him, he would excitedly tell me about all the interesting facts that he learnt and at times pull me to a particular signboard and have me read out and explain the details to him.

We crossed a bridge.

The view from the bridge was spectacular. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't capture its majestic beauty.

JY : Imagine this whole place was once under water!

It was a humbling experience.

Advanced adventure cavers would emerge from the far end of the cave and they would have to wade 1.5 km through the river.
This was the best part - jumping into the crystal clear water.

Millipede

Han washing his slippers.

He was observed by hundreds of fish.

After that refreshing dip, we boarded the long boat for our journey back to the resort.

Deer Cave, Mulu 4March2011

After the 3 hour walk from the Mulu Park HQ, we were greeted by this sight.

We rested for a while at the bats observatory before continuing on to the caves. Fai could spot the bats from where we were seated.

Fai: Look, those black dots that look like knives. Those are bats, Mummy. They are bats hanging upside down. Can't you see them?

Me (straining my eyes and wishing I had binoculars): Er...I am trying hard to....

First to Deer Cave then to Langs Cave.

After the caves it is back to the bats observatory to marvel at 3 million bats as they make they nightly flight out of the caves.

Entrance of Deer Cave.

Deers were frequently sighted in this cave once upon a time. Many believed it was because the deers came for the salt in the mineral-rich guano. The deers were easy targets and the last deer was killed in the 1970s.

The Garden of Eden - a jungle in the middle of the cave caused by a cave-in

It was a lengthy walk through the cave. One way in and out. The photo above shows how large the cave is.

Guano - the brown stuff on the ground

Throughout the cave we had to breathe in the strong stench of the bat's guano. At certain sections with less air movement, the concentration of guano was so high, it was overpowering.

And lastly, not-to-be-missed is Abe Lincoln's famous profile.

Langs Cave and the Bat Exodus from the observatory 4March2011

Map of Langs Cave. Han likes maps and he traced his finger along the route we followed repeatedly.
Langs Cave was touted to have spectatcular cave formations

It was easy to explain the formation of stalagmite and stalactites when the kids could witness for themselves the dripping of the mineralised solution from the stalactite above.

Lots of information was readily available. Signboards such as the one above explained the science behind what we saw and at times posted puzzling questions for us to mull over.

Jellyfish like formations. Similar to the ones we came across in Gua Tempurung.

After admiring the formations in Langs Cave, we gathered at the bats observatory to witness the nightly exodus of bats as they fly out from the caves by the thousands from 5 to 6.30pm.

The bats can be seen circling and gathering above the entrance of the cave and then leaving in a spiralling ribbon towards the forest. A moment later, another group of bats will leave the cave and this will occur continuously until nightfall.

As each colony of bats left the cave, my kids cheered and Ooohed and Aaaahed with the rest of the crowd.

We sat there and saw at least 10 colonies leave the cave. It wa

Here's a video of the bat exodus. Enjoy!

As we walked back towards the park HQ for our ride back to the resort, we could hear the bats swoosh by over head.

It was an amazing sight catching sight of them among between the trees as they flew by.

Drawing by Fai depicting the bats using echolocation to locate their prey.

The bat with Xs for its eyes hit a stalagmite.

"It forgot to use echolocation and hit its head" explains Fai.

He also drew the plankwalk we walked on.

I will need to ask him what the circle on the upper righthand corner is as well as the orange sketches on the upper left corner.

Sungai Kampar and Gua Kandu, Gopeng 8thFeb2011

From Gua Tempurung, we followed Mustafa's car. He led us along a dirt road and we passsed mining ponds before reaching his kampong.
Mustafa's treehouse is shown above as promised.
Run by an adventure company that conducts white water rafting on Sungai Kampar. My kids loved the sight of the treehouse. JY intends to organise a camp to this place later this year. So it looks like I will be able to make another trip to Gopeng this year. Hooray!


Halim, my guide into Gua Tempurung last year was enjoying the sight of carefree kids leaping into the river.

1,2...jump....run back up the river bank and leap once more. So much joy and laughter. No PSP or any other electronic gadgets required.

Kampar River. We just had to take off our shoes and dip our toes in.

A fisherman on the bridge took us into his recently cleared land and told there is a plant we have never seen before...and sure enough, we have never seen such a flower before.

The white flower looked like a tulip and was as big as a football.

An unopened flower bud.


We were informed by the fisherman that there were chalets and a nicer spot down the road. We followed his directions and came to a lovely river.

It had a swimming pool made by damming the side of the river with river stones.

Chalets and dormitories run by a former headmaster from Subang.

As we made our way back to Ipoh, we stumbled upom Gua Kandu. It can be seen from the North-South highway.

Looks interesting.

As it was nearly dinner time and the sun was about to set, we gave the cave a miss.

I will be back for Gua Kandu with proper equipment another day.

I love Gopeng. For all my trips to Ipoh and Gopeng, I have only encountered friendly and helpful guides who were more than willing to share their knowledge with us. I came away with more than what I expected.

Noticed this' For Sale' sign next to Gua Kandu.....so tempting :)

Gua Tempurung revisited 8thfeb2011

We were too late for everything but the Level 1 tour. I had gone it the previous year but decided to go for another round of it because I absolutely loved the majestic beauty of the cave and wanted to share it with my hubby.

The moment we entered the cave, the air instantly felt cooler. What a nice respite from the blistering afternoon heat

towering stalagmite

As before, the guide would point out shapes such as "Mona Lisa', 'Monkey driving a car', 'Elephant's head', 'Squating woman washing her long hair' and even 'Osama bin Laden'

Marble.

We were advised to come back during the rainy season to witness the waterfalls in the caves. All wet tours in the cave commence between 9 to 11am.

Being the last group in the cave, we managed to have a long chat with our guide, Mustafa, who has explored most caves in Malaysia and warned me against visiting a cave I had planned on exploring next - it is a crystal cave. He said that particular cave was so thick with dust that when you clap your vision is impaired. It was also full of guano and thus had high nitrogen content in its atmosphere. So my plan was aborted.

Mustafa asked us to wait for him, as he wanted to show us his kampung.

He said "I am sure you have never seen a house on a tree!"

He managed to pique our interest.

So we waited a while and the beauty of the area around Gua Tempurung was revealed to us......

Gua Tempurung, Gopeng 9th jan 2011

From Gunung Lang, we headed for Gua Tempurung in Gopeng.
My first visit to this cave was in January 2010 with S and her girls on our first road trip and I was very taken by its natural beauty and splendour. I had made a mental note to stop by this place again whenever I was in its vicinity.

We stopped by a roadside stall for a very late lunch enroute to the caves.

Our lunch.
Thirst quenching coconut and delicious durian.

We arrived at the entrance of the cave at 4.30pm and were told that we were too late as they closed at 4pm.

A group of guides were seated by the entrance and when they saw how dejected we were, they allowed us in for a quick peek.

Beautiful stalactite formations.

The guide told us that they were waiting for a few groups of visitors who had yet to emerge from within.

When asked if there were any bats around. He said that bats only came into the caves to nest. He added that when bats were around, it is advisable to stay away from caves as the bite from the bat's fleas is more toxic than a scorpion's.

Marble rocks have a greenish hue.

Since we couldn't go caving, we settled for the stream that originates from the cave.

The water was cold and refreshing.

Lovely layered rocks.

It was a lesson on geology for the kids.


Fai and Han made a house.

Fai showed me how the water would flow in, form a small whirlpool in the centre and flow out through another opening between the rocks.

Ean's stone bridge.

We will be back Gua Tempurung. This time at 9am and all set for your exciting and challenging tour.

Open daily. Closed once a year - 1st day of Hari Raya.