Now, I know I tend to hyperbole, but if I could choose one place to go to out of all the places I've been, Niah Caves would be it. It's a national park in Sarawak near the aforementioned Miri. Miri's a hole (thank goodness for the Americans--someone to gripe with) but man, I would fly back there in a heartbeat to go see the caves again.
I walked down the plankwalk to the cave--a good hour's walk!--and then through the caves another hour to get to the painted one. I was behind a noisy crowd for most of it, until the ringleader of that posse freaked out and they all turned around! So there I was, solo traveler, feeling very brave, and totally not freaking out in the gigantic pitch black cave. I made it. I met another girl coming out later on and I thought, "Yeah, you were in there, too, huh?" But it was worth it. The cave paintings are from 2000 "BP" (Before Present) and they are amazing, swirly red men and women on boats to the afterlife doing a crazy dance with some wild hair and spirals. I don't know what the spirals mean but they're in the local tribe tattoos, too. And that's why the Niah Caves are so amazing. The people who were there 2000 years ago--their great great great grandkids are still living there today. I saw some men collecting guano, two houses, and lots of ladders for collecting the birds' nests they used for soup (blech). But wait, it gets even crazier, because some archaeologists found a skull that is 40,000 years old. And evidence for habitation for ALL of the years in between! Meaning that the people who hang out there today, they've been living there for 42,000 years! In a manner of speaking. I'm not even sure what continent my ancestors were on 1000 years ago!
Now I'm back in KL--the last leg! If you don't hear from me, it's because I'm napping.
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hardy harr harr. i think that the pictures of which you speak of (dont many years British Petroleum) are probably fictional and fantastical as is all evidence of the existence of dinos-- fossils, etc. speaking of which.. i wonder if the people living there now believe in dinos. perhaps you should ask them. better yet.. maybe they are descendants of dinos. did you get a look at that skull that was found??
ReplyDeletenot "dont".... but rather "done". my bad.
ReplyDeletei took many a photo of the skull...and i think you're right about the cave paintings. probably humans made those like 2 weeks ago when we were all created.
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