I decided to head to Guah Niah today, which is a cave with evidence of human remains from 40,000 years ago, as well as cave paintings from 3000 years ago.
I didn't want to be up too early, so had a lazy morning, and then took a grab to the bus station, where I got the 10am bus to Guah Niah.
There was no signal on the mobile, even in Miri, so something must have happened to the service, but once we got out of the area it came back.
I grabbed some lunch at the junction around 1pm, taking some nasi putih and making up a plate with ayam bakar and vegetables and some other sundries, and then looked around for a taxi.
I wasn't able to find a taxi, so decided to walk to the junction proper, and walk along the road, though I abandoned this idea after a few hundred meters as I realised I was not going to get there in time for the last boats across the river.
I headed back to the main road and at this point a local in his jeep stopped and asked if I wanted a lift for money, so I agreed to give him 20RM to take me to Guah Niah. This was a great deal, as I had been quoted 30RM in Miri!
The driver gave me his phone number for when I finished at the caves, and then I headed round to the cafe to buy some water, and then headed to the jungle.
I made it to the cave for around 2.30, where I met a cute young girl from Macau who was taking selfies. She noticed that I was setting up my tripod to get a good photo in the low light and asked me to take her photo with her phone.
The girl told me that she had come across a white snake on the path and that it was very dark to go through the caves and should take a torch and watch my feet!
As I made my way through the complex of limestone, I came across Marco from holland, who was trying to get a good photo of a hole in the roof, but having difficulty due to the fact that there was dirt on the lens filter, and he couldn't remove the lens filter!
We walked together to the cave paintings, though we didn't see any snakes! Marco went on ahead to check further, while I took some photos of the painting using the tripod again, and then I caught up with him nearer the main entrance again.
We had spent so much time in the cave that we had to rush to get back to the jetty in time for the last boat, and only made it in time by running the last few hundred meters.
Marco picked his bags up from the park office, and then I called my driver, who picked us up. I had agreed with Marco that even though I had just given 20RM for the drive out, we would give him 30RM for the drive back, so shared the cost, making it only 15RM each.
We went our own ways at the bus stop in Guah, as Marco was heading down to Kuching, and I was heading back to Miri.