What can you do when confronted with a statue of a crocodile with it's mouth open? Obviously, you have no choice but to put your head in it's mouth.
Here we are in the more familiar surroundings of a city, with pavements, cars and shops. We flew in to Kuching yesterday afternoon and spent this morning wandering along the waterfront.
I bought a Magnum but couldn't eat it fast enough before it melted, so most of the chocolate coating fell on the floor. Will stick to Cornettos from now on.
We got up early to do our own mini nature walk, but after a few minutes we hadn't seen anything so headed back. Sitting outside our front door was a six inch long green bug with a body that looked just like a pea pod.
Today is our last day here and we were booked on a trip to Clearwater and Lady cave.
We caught a speedboat for a 20 minute trip upriver, and then we walked to the bottom of a cliff. The entrance to the cave was up about 100 steps and was guarded by giant jaggedy teeth. In the photo you can see steps down into Clearwater cave on the left and Lady cave on the right.
Once inside, the cave is enormous and a river runs through it for over 100 kilometres underground. It has carved out a smooth passage and we walked alongside it for a while before climbing back up in to the daylight.
It was also full of amazing rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites.
Finally, we rounded our morning off with a swim in the Clearwater river, which is true to it's name.
I don't think I have explained how beautiful this place, and actually the whole of Mulu is. I would say, if you only visit one cave in your life, then make it this one.
This morning we followed a little path through the rainforest to the Paku waterfall, which flows out of a cave about 10 metres above the ground.
The water looked really inviting and the guides had told us that there were no leeches in the water, so we both just waded straight in.
I expected the water to be warm, but 'refreshing' was more accurate. The current from the river was quite strong and tried to carry me off down into the jungle, so after a quick swim I just paddled in the shallows while Daz tried to swim upstream.
Of course, we forgot to take a towel with us so we had to drip dry on the way back.
At 480 metres long, it is the longest tree based walkway in the world. The platforms stretch between 16 enormous trees and you walk amongst the canopy between 10 and 30 metres above the ground, at the bargain price of £8 each.
There were six of us including our guide in our group, and only two people were allowed on each section at a time.
It was my misfortune to be teamed up with Daz as he is never scared by heights. It was actually quite nice to walk along on my own, then he would jump on and shout that he was going to chase me. The whole walkway bounced up and down, then he stopped and started saying his knees were shaking and the skywalk shook dangerously. Not funny the first time and it didn't get any less frightening after half a dozen times!
As you might guess with all the messing around, we didn't see any birds or animals, but it was a great adrenaline rush.
Ps, he also knows I am frightened of dogs so every now and again he makes growling sounds, and last night when it was very dark in our room he started making ghost noises.
We walked along the wooden boardwalks through the jungle to see two of the famous Mulu caves, although I have to admit that a couple of weeks ago we had never heard of them.
First of all we went to Lang Cave which was beautiful - full of stalactites and stalagmites and bright white limestone that had been eroded by a stream for millions of years. No wildlife had settled in it and I really enjoyed the experience.
In contrast, Deer Cave is full of approximately three million bats, swallows, beetles and cockroaches.
It is enormous and very impressive, but there is an ominous background noise of fidgeting creatures and it absolutely stinks - nature's perfume, according to the guide.
We walked a long way around it and we could see huge black masses attached to the ceiling, which were the resting bats. I led the way out, and left the rest of the group behind as I sped along. I was very keen to get back into the daylight and out of the cave for the next event.
We walked to a small clearing nearby, arriving at about 5pm and just before 5.30 the action started. The time varies and two days ago it started at 4.45, so you can understand my panic to be out of the way.
Up to three million bats stream out of the small cave entrance to feed on insects in the rainforest. They fly around in a whirling mass to try and avoid the predator birds that are waiting for them every evening.
At first there were groups of bats and gaps between them, but after a few minutes it was a constant stream that went right above our heads.
An unbelievable sight and a great privilege to see it.
Almost didn't catch the 9.20am flight from Miri to Mulu. We were at the airport in plenty of time and were sitting near the departure gate. I thought the plane must have been delayed as we didn't hear an announcement, then when we did hear it no one else moved from their seats so we didn't rush.
We dawdled over, then walked down some steps and there was our little aeroplane with propellers. We took a quick photo, stepped on board, the cabin crew immediately shut the doors and along with about 15 other people, we were off on the 25 minute journey to Gunung Mulu National Park.
It is completely in the middle of a vast Rainforest and to get to the Park Headquarters you have to cross a bouncy rope bridge over a river.
Settling in to our longhouse room and just been on a nature trek through the forest.
Got a batcave to visit this afternoon - it's non stop today!
