Back In Year 2007 (July)

I have a friend named Jimmy who was studying medicine in IMU. It was in 2007 when he approached me to join his coursemates for an elective project in the research of cave systems in Mulu National Park.




I had a hard time deciding whether to join or not to join the trip coz I was sure that I will miss lots of classes if I go. Finally, it's a "YES"!





The whole trip started from Kuching, then to Miri and finally to Mulu.


As a host in Kuching, together Jimmy and I became their tour guide.

So many of them. It's just so hard remembering the names!

Sarawak Cultural Village

lol...

Pantai Puteri

This's how I "Hafal" their names! Hahaha! (Their student ID)

At Miri

Cheng & "Cong kiok Mun"..lol =P

And yes...these pictures which I used as my blog's title images are all taken during my Miri trip

The crocodile farm near Curtin, Miri
Actually, we have been to many other places such as Gua Niah. But I've already posted them in detailed in my old blog - http://hschiao.xanga.com/?uni12935006-direction=p&uni12935006-nextdate=7%2f29%2f2007+13%3a8%3a0.873#module-12935006

Finally, we reached Mulu National Park, the largest national park in Malaysia. It's really a beautiful nature wonder. We stayed there for 9 days!

The "empty" mountain made from lime stones

Our group photo.

We had also been to the pinnacles, which is a tough journey. To get there, we had to use boat against the current and then hiked for 8 km to reach Camp 5. We overnight and climbed the pinnacles early morning next day.

The trail...always "going up"!

Jimmy

Some views up there

Camp 5...I remember the night there was short and wet. When the lights were switched off, I could feel something crawling on my body and near my face. Yuckss! I didn't dare to open my eyes and continued sleeping!

Our group became smaller and smaller when we proceeded to higher level challenges. Only 8 of us conquered the pinnacles

When we got back to the HQ, we started doing adventure caving, a whole new experience!

Interesting, dangerous and risky of course! Well, again, no risk no adventure! =D

Only left 5 of us

Climbing and squeezing through holes

Descending when u couldn't even see anythg underneath...

Spiders were everywhere in the caves!

If u observe carefully, u should be able to spot one of them at the lower left corner of this pic!

This "bull" friend of mine had scars everwhere...hahaha

At night time...

What we did when we were not climbing, hiking or caving...

Drawn by Jian Loong. He said he's going to draw something corageous on my back! Wtf..lol

Drawn by Sheah Lin

Medical student's vocab! They are basically foul language and sexual terminology...lol

The last trip - Sarawak Chamber (The biggest chamber in the world)
Only left 4 of us! Haha...

Leeches everywhere...We hiked more than 5 hours before we reached the opening of the cave! Imagine how much leech we got!

Another kind of bastard..the horse flies! They made us cursed along the hike! lol

Good Hope Cave

Sharp & slippery...dangerous huh?

In the chamber. Complete darkness. The guide told us if we were to continue, it should take us around 2 days to reach the end of the chamber or even more days! So, we stopped there. Anyway, we were just there for the name and achievement!

The guide also mentioned that 7 powerful spotlights carried in by the Japanese exploration team couldn't even reach the other end of the chamber. So,can u imagine how big is the chamber?

The sense of achievement is indeed undescribable!

During our last day there, we even walked to the airport. First time walking to the airport!

I'll never forget this trip as I missed 11 classes, which made me not in time for my OBU tesis! As a result, I had to postpone it to year 2008! But it's all worth it for such a wonderful experience!