How to go jungle trekking in Borneo

When we first decided to go Jungle trekking in the wilds of Borneo, we didnt have one bit of our hiking great with us, but we did have our sense of adventures!  After a few days of calling around and roughly getting an idea of what to do, we  flew from Kuala Lumpur to Miri with Malindo Air – at a cost of like $50 AUD each. It’s about a two hour flight over to Borneo.  Miri Airport is small in itself – kinda like flying into Hobart, Tasmania or any regional airport but much smaller.

When we stepped off the plane, we were confronted with Borneo’s humidity. Coming from Australia, we weren’t expecting such a humid, wet experience – Australia has a scorching dry heat that also gets cold in the evening. (I grew up in New Jersey, USA where in the summer, it’s hot and humid like a swamp – I found it a great reminder of my childhood!)

We were collected by our travel agent, Planet Borneo, which we arranged before arrival to Miri – this is just a stop over (we’re not in the jungle yet).

They looked after us from start to finish!  They dropped us off at the hotel (just for the night) and drove us to the airport for our flight to the jungle the next day.

Okay, so now we’re on the edge of the jungle!  This is Mulu.

We were looked after by a local guide who took us to our accommodation  at the Mulu National Park.

Our first jungle experience was experiencing Deer Cave from the inside out.

From inside, Deer cave is a natural mega structure.  If you look in the photo above, you’ll see the scale of the cave compared to the people in the photo.  It’s incredible.   And what’s even better is the  bat exodus of Deer Cave.

This is the cave where over thirty species of bats call home and that’s roughly three million bats!

The next day, we started our trek up river via long boat.

Considered traditional, these longboats glided up stream and yet did get stuck on occasion – and yes, we needed to get out of the boat and push it alone.  (But isn’t that the fun of it?  It was a true jungle experience!)