Niah and Mulu World Heritage Sites – A Travel Guide
Malaysia boasts of five World Heritage Sites. There are three sites in Malaysian Borneo. Niah and Mulu World Heritage sites are located in the state of Sarawak, Miri Division. Their year of inscription were in 2024 and 2000 respectively. The third one is Kinabalu Park (2000) in Sabah.
For the rest of Malaysia’s Heritage sites, they are as follow:
- Lenggong Valley, Perak (2012)
- Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca, Melaka and Penang (2008)
*year in brackets denotes year of inscription
For our purpose, we limit our article to Sarawak’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. And we hope that by adding more context to the inscriptions, you will consider Niah and Mulu heritage sites in your travel plan.
Things to Do At Niah and Mulu Heritage Sites
Niah
Altogether, there are four caves to explore. You will arrive at the Trader’s Cave enroute to the Great Cave. From here, it leads to the Moon Cave and then the Painted Cave. The Niah Archaeology Museum complements the cave experience. While in the Great Cave, you may see brave birds nest collectors in action. Be amazed at how they climb a single pole to harvest birds nest in the roof of the Great Cave.
The hiking trail is the default experience when visiting the caves. There are two trails that form this route. Along the off-the-beaten path, there are two others if you want more challenge. A fifth trail forked off the main trail leading to an Iban longhouse homestay. (more in our travel info section). The homestay adds a cultural dimension to the archaeological heritage experience.
If you have a guide presence, he or she will be able to identify for you the flora and fauna found in this area. Some are endemic to the area.
Mulu
The show caves and bat exodus are what most visitors do for a 3-day 2-night experience. But there are other interesting things to do. For these, you need to know what guided and unguided tours are at the national park are.
Unguided Tours
Watching the spectacular bat exodus (in the millions) is a must-do experience. The to-do list includes varying distances of hiking trails. The main walkways have well-distributed information boards that narrate how life in the tropical rainforest evolves. And what species of plants there are. At the canopy level, the 30-m tree top tower is a good vantage point to spot birdlife. The Discovery Center illustrates why Mulu is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
Guided Tours
Guided tours fall within the ambit of safety and security. Also, for the purpose of carrying capacity management. The four show caves, altitude climbing and adventure caving are such. Others include night walks, canopy walk and overnight camping. An interesting thing to do is the Penan longhouse visit combined with a waterfall dip.
The Inscription of Niah and Mulu Heritage Sites in Simpler Terms
Playing scientific rigours into tourism experiences is akin to field trip education. The theory comes before the in-situ experience.
This section deals with how Niah and Mulu achieved their inscription. To do that, instead of using scientific expressions of the criteria, we simply them.
UNESCO has 10 criteria for inscription as a world heritage site. 6 relates to culture heritage and 4 to nature heritage.
As an overview, the criteria for selection for a World Heritage list inclusion is:
- that a site must be of outstanding universal value
- it meets at least one of ten UNESCO’s selection criteria.
The significance of Niah and Mulu Heritage sites are these:
- Gunung Mulu National Park meets all four of nature heritage criteria.
- Niah National Park Caves Complex meets two of the culture criteria.
Niah National Park Caves Complex Archaeological Heritage
The Archaeological Heritage of Niah National Park’s Caves Complex UNESCO Inscription Dossier 1014
Criterion (iii)
The Caves Complex is a treasure trove filled with evidence of human history that’s over 65,000 years old! This includes prehistoric cave paintings still visible today.
We conclude that this individual was most likely to have been of advanced age and female, rather than an adolescent male as originally proposed.
Darren Curnoe et. all (2016). Deep Skull From Niah Cave and The Pleistocene Peopling of Southeast Asia. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXXVI (97) : 89-120
The Deep Skull is now displayed at the Borneo Cultures Museum, Kuching.
Criterion (v)
It is a story about people living in a cave with changing climate conditions. Sometimes wet, sometimes dry, sometimes cold, sometimes hot. They had to adjust to these changes by using different tools, finding new food sources. Not any different from how we make our homes more comfortable for ourselves and our families.
The Niah Cave archaeological and paleontological study is a big science project that has gone on for a long time. Scientists have discovered things that help us understand how humans adapted to living in rainforests.
The Niah Caves in Context
Today, excavation sites are still visible in the cave complex. In addition, one can see birds’ nest harvesting poles that rise high above the cave floor.
Niah Cave Complex cave paintings do not compare to other world heritage caves such as Lacaux, France or Altamira, Spain. What it lacks, it makes up for in understanding human’s history on earth as based on fossils.
In the Malaysian context, Lenggong Valley, Perak focuses on early human evolutions. While Niah Cave provides a glimpse into the early stages of human migration and adaptation in South East Asia. For perspective, Lenggong Valley discoveries date back more than a million years to Niah’s 65,000.
Gunung Mulu National Park: Nature’s Superlatives
Gunung Mulu National Park UNESCO Inscription Dossier 1013
There are four selection criteria under the nature heritage category. And Mulu meets all four of them.
Criterion vii:
Mulu has huge forests, tall mountains, and big waterfalls. The caves are as large as they are long. The Sarawak Chamber is so big it’s like a huge room – it’s 600 meters long, 415 meters wide, and 80 meters high! And then there’s Deer Cave which is one of the largest cave passages ever found. The Clearwater Caves is the longest cave in Asia at 110 km. The star attractions are its four show caves. They are the Deer Cave, Lang Cave, Wind and Clearwater Caves. These caves have beautiful rock formations and flowing rivers. The silhouette of Abraham Lincoln can be seen at the Deer Cave entrance.
Criterion viii:
Gunung Mulu National Park shows how the Earth has changed over time. The pushing up of rocks over millions of years resulted in three big types of rocks. From these, Gunung Mulu (2,376m) and the Pinnacles are open for extreme climbing. The caves and the rock layers tell us a lot about how the Earth and the weather have changed in Borneo.
Criterion ix:
The park is a great place for scientists to study how animals that live in caves evolved. There are some 200 different kinds of cave creatures. Many of them only live in the dark underground. There are also 17 different kinds of forests, each with its own plants and animals. Thus enabling researchers to learn in-situ the workings of this ecosystem
Criterion x:
Mulu is one the best places in the world for plants. Most notably palm. And there are millions of bats and swiftlets making the caves their home. The some 3 million bats in Deer Cave are one of the largest colonies found. And the particular swiftlets in another cave system is the largest colony ever recorded in the world.
What’s Special about Gunung Mulu National Park?
UNESCO has stated that only about 10% of world heritage sites meet 4 or more of the 10 selection criteria. Gunung Mulu National Park is part of this illustrious group. Some of these heritage sites include:
- The Grand Canyon National Park (USA)
- The Great Barrier Reef (Australia)
- Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)
- Ancient Maya City and Protected Tropical Forests of Calakmul, Campeche (Mexico)
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s other nature heritage site, the Kinabalu Park, Sabah only meets two criteria; ix and x. Here, sits the tallest mountain of Borneo, Mt. Kinabalu (4,095m). One does not need special equipment to climb this mountain.
Travel Information for Niah and Mulu Heritage Sites
The gateway city for both Niah National Park and Gunung Mulu National Park is Miri, Sarawak. Major cities in Malaysian Borneo are well-connected from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. These cites include Kuching, Miri and Kota Kinabalu.
Accessibility
Depending on your holiday itinerary, you can take a MASwings direct return flight to Mulu. From Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and from Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak. Suffice to say, the airline operates the Miri-Mulu sector at high weekly frequency. All sectors use the 72-seater ATR 72 twin prop plane.
There is no road access to Mulu per se. The last road mile to Mulu still requires a boat transfer. In the old days, a trip to Mulu was a full-day boat trip from Miri. This made it a long but adventurous option from the city. Similarly, a mix of rural and logging roads take you to the near-side of Tutoh river before a boat transfer to the national park. Without a doubt, these experiences are for intrepid travellers with resources.
As for Niah National Park, Miri connects to Niah National Park by road 91 km southwest of the city. There are three options to reach the park. A rental car gives you flexibility and convenience. Just make sure you set the map pin right! Here is a bonus activity to do. Make a stop at the Lambir Hills National Park’s waterfall to cool down after a sweaty walk at Niah. The star attraction here is the white sand ringed 25-m high waterfall. And it is only a 20-min walk from the park headquarters.
The cheaper public bus service requires a drop-off at Niah Rest Stop before completing the journey in a taxi. The Pujut Bus Terminal, Miri is where you catch this bus service. It is +/- 5-km from the city center.
The third is to join a tour. For this, we are at your service.
Accommodation
There is accommodation at both national parks. You have a choice of park ones or guesthouses in the vicinity. The Mulu Marriott Resort and Spa adds luxury in a jungle setting. You can book park accommodation here (Mulu) and here (Niah).
While private guesthouses are within walking distance of Mulu National Park office, it’s not the case for Niah. The exception is an Iban longhouse homestay within the national park itself. Rumah (longhouse) Patrick Libau lies 900-m from the junction of the cave’s main trail. In nearby Batu Niah, about 6km away (Google map), there are budget hotels.
Entrance Fee
There are two broad categories of entrance fee at all parks. For Malaysian and Non-Malaysian categories. These are further divided according to the respective demographics.
At Niah, entrance fee ranges from MYR3 to MYR10 and MYR7 to MYR20 (non-Malaysian).
In contrast, a 5-day pass is applicable for all entries in Mulu. Malaysians pay MYR10 for adults and MYR5 for kids. For Non-Malaysians, it’s MYR30 for adults and MYR15 for kids (6-18 years old). It’s free for the under 6. (As of 2024, August)
Guided and Unguided Tours in Niah and Mulu Heritage Sites
Visiting the parks can be in the form of guided and unguided tours. There are information boards at points of interest along the way if you choose to do it on your own.
Park guided tours involve activities that demand security and safety. In Gunung Mulu National Park, guides are mandatory for show caves visits. Others include adventure carvings and altitude climbing adventures. Climbing the iconic Pinnacles is a main draw.
Generally speaking one can do a self-guided tour in Niah National Park.
Doing tours on your own does not mean throwing caution to the wind. Security guard check-ins are necessary for off-the-beaten path trails to ensure accountability.
Paradesa Borneo runs standalone tour packages to Niah and Mulu. Our 17-day Malaysian Borneo multi-center holiday package includes two heritage sites. They are Niah Caves Complex and Kinabalu Park in Sabah.
The 9-day Sarawak National Parks and Wildlife package includes the 4 Mulu show caves.
Be prepared to do a lot of walking in the national parks. This would be a useful guide for families with young children.
The flat plank walk to the Niah National Park Great Cave entrance is 6.2-km round trip. While the longest flat plank walk distance totals 9-km to and fro the Deer Cave entrance at Gunung Mulu National Park.
Boat trips are part of the Mulu experience. Most common trip is for the Wind and Clearwater Cave visit. At Niah, you need a short ferry crossing to continue your plank walk.
When is the best time to visit Niah and Mulu?
Although all Sarawak national parks are year-round attractions, floods can close affected ones. But they are rare. Unlike other well-known caves in the region that has a typhoon season operating constrain. And fortunately Borneo is spared from this kind of weather pattern.
Rain is common in the afternoon, typical of a rainforest experience. The monsoon season is from November to February.
Be aware of peak tourism season when planning. The June – September peak coincides with the summer holiday season in the West. Closer to this region, the Malaysian and Singaporean school holiday period matters. Thus, accommodation and air-tickets are in greater demand especially for Mulu.
What to bring?
With rain comes preparation for it. Ponchos and quick drying clothes are your standard issue. Your luggage will love you for them. Locals swear by ‘kampung adidas’ – a cheap rubberised studded shoes for wet and muddy trails. A cheap pair of slippers we might add. In the dark of the caves, any portable lighting device is useful. Now, a hat is useful not only to keep the sun off your head but for clear vision as well. When rain falls thick and fast, keeping water off your eyes serves a practical purpose. It keeps your hands free as well as maintaining a normal line of sight. The rim of your hat/cap does that.
Rain also brings out the leeches. Leech socks may not be as effective as wearing a panty-hose underlayer! Keep a small packet of salt handy to dab on those nasties to drop their snare from your flesh. Remember the repellant to keep the ‘peskies’ away.
Stay hydrated in the high humidity of tropical rainforest. This is when a hydration pack or reusable bottle becomes your trusty water butler.
There is no bank nor pharmacy/chemist in Mulu. But one is closer to urban conveniences in Batu Niah (see Accommodation para).. There’s broadband (4G) connectivity at both destinations. As a guide, Digi-Celcom service provider is strong in Niah while Maxis is for Mulu.
Useful Links for Niah and Mulu Heritage Sites
- Official Niah National Park website
- Gunung Mulu National Park Tourism Zone
- Niah Archaeology Museum (opening hours and admission fee)
Related Links
- Borneo Cultures Museum (opening hours and admission fee)
- Sarawak National Parks that are Open to Visitors
- Sarawak Nature Reserves that are Open to Visitors
Why Sarawak is a top nature-based tourism destination in this region
Sarawak has a total of 42 gazetted national parks and reserves. To date, 14 parks and 7 nature reserves are open to visitors. The protection and conservation of Sarawak’s forest began as early as 1957. And, Niah and Mulu heritage sites bear testament to this foresight..
Our adventures tour packages take you to some of these parks and reserves. We are contactable here to answer your questions.