NIAH CAVES

Access to the park begins with a boat trip across the River Niah. Then follow the wooden walkways to the caves. Due to the humidity, these can be very slippery, so good footwear is recommended. You'll also need a flashlight to light your way through the caves. A wide-brimmed hat can be useful if you don't want to collect precious bird droppings on your head. The first cave is an hour's walk away. If you return after dark, you may spot some luminescent mushroom species on the way back.

Traders Cave. The Niah caves are home to tens of thousands of swallows and bats. Local villagers collect the swallows' nests, which are worth a fortune on the Chinese gourmet market. Guano is also collected for use as a natural fertilizer. The Grotte des Marchands was once a meeting place for the swallow's nest and guano trade.

Great Cave. The Great Cave measures 250 m wide at the entrance and 60 m high at the highest point, making it one of the largest cave mouths in Malaysia. But it's only once you've gone deep into the bowels of the cave that you discover its gigantism and the singular atmosphere that reigns there, reinforced by the play of light coming down from orifices in the vault and reflecting on the rock formations with their mineral relief, living like a spirit in the cave. It takes a good hour to explore the cave, during which time you must be careful not to slip on the guano-covered floor. It's not a good idea to hold on to the handrails either. The best time to come to the Grande Grotte is at sunset, to enjoy the incredible ballet of swallows returning to their nests while the bats emerge for their nightly stroll.

Painted Cave. The most famous of Niah's caves attracts visitors for its prehistoric cave paintings. The frescoes depict the journey of the dead to the afterlife. The floor is littered with the remains of boat-shaped coffins. The bones contained in these sarcophagi have been transferred to the Sarawak Museum in Kuching. Archaeological research has shown that this cave was inhabited as early as the Paleolithic era 40,000 years ago. The frescoes, on the other hand, date back to the Iron Age, around 800 BC. The Grotte Peinte is the only cave in Borneo to bear unmistakable witness to a very early human presence.