[Mulu, Malaysian Borneo] Another flight today… We miss going overland, flying just feels like cheating. This time our destination is the National Park at Mulu which is deep in the jungle. Kota Kinabalu airport, besides being architecturally cool, must rank highly on ‘sleepinginairports.com’ – padded chairs without armrests, aircon not too cold, 24hr Mikkie D’s, the most awesome salt water aquarium at the fishmonger !?, immaculate loos and free WiFi. Pity we only got to spend an hour there. Our flight was with MasWings (another branch of Air Malaysia) on board a fair sized turbo-prop with a 20 minute stop at Miri. At every airport we had to go through immigration and collect more stamps even though we were just changing provinces.

From the air the runway at Mulu looks like a bald patch ripped from the jungle and nestled between gigantic limestone karsts. Somewhat like landing in the Amazon but at least the runway was tarred. After collecting our packs from the lone baggage handler we grabbed a shuttle to the park entrance and checked in. The place is very well presented (most looks brand new) and seems well run with a large variety of guided activities. We booked tours of the showcaves for tomorrow and headed to the hostel. Spacious with 17 odd beds scattered around the hall, it was full with travelers. We pushed two beds together – not PC in a dorm I’m sure, but we are the ranking ballies. The doors are open with no locks and the place is clean, but still expensive for what it is. We have got three full days here. Time to go sweat in the jungle again and see lots of bugs and trees.

[Pictures: Mulu Airport – pretty cool]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi