Niah Caves

Thirty years ago, Hedley, with his wife Mary and daughter Katie, visited the

Niah Caves in Sarawak, East Malaysia. They travelled by car ,

ferry , and boat .

They set off from Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei and

drove to the border with Sarawak. They crossed two large rivers by

ferry, stopped in Miri for lunch and then continued to Niah,

a small river township. Then they hired a small boat and sailed

upriver to a government rest house, where they spent the night.

They ate with the small group of scientists who lived in the rest

house and shared the cold drinks they had brought with them in

a cool box. It was a remote spot, deep in the jungle. They slept in

bunk beds with no airconditioning. It was a novel experience.

The next morning, they walked along a jungle path for half an hour

until they reached the Niah caves. Inside the caves, which were

very high, they saw men who climbed up tall bamboo

poles. The men wore lights on their hats because it was so dark.

At the top of the poles they scraped off birds’ nests from the roof

of the caves. The nests were collected by their mates on the cave floor

and packed into sacks. These nests were later sold and made

into bird’s nest soup, a Chinese delicacy.