The caves itself is massive and very dark. Going deeper in alone is really not advisable for all the caves in Malaysia so as usual I just went in as far as the sunshine could guide me. Caves like these in the Borneo region tend to be farmed as natural resources. Traditional Chinese medicine such as birdnest or even Bat Guano seams to be very valuable to the local as an income.
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| Goamatang Caves |
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| Guano Everywhere - The Smell is no Joke |
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| Goamatang Caves |
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| Goamatang Caves Network |
I talked to some locals hanging around the caves and they told me most Caves in Sabah are owned by families. Its a bit grey in this sense since they dont have legal ownership papers but as with all land issues with arboriginal settles in Borneo, the claim to heritage land can be a messy and ugly item. Each year, the rights to the management of the caves is rotated within the large family memebers (can be the whole village) and they employ their own family members within the village to harvest the resources in the caves.
The sales and proceeds of that year would go to the lucky guy that holds the rotataion of that year which is also resposible to manage the caves harvesting season, how much to harvest, how many people to employ and so on. Seams like a very interesting micro social economics where if one greedy idiot deceided to decimate the caves during his turn, the rest of the family in line would suffer. Still it was interesting talk with the locals.
From Goamatang Cave, I decided to head further into Sukau where I heard there was some homestays by the Kinabatangan River. The main goal was to somehow visit the many wildlife sancturary along the Kinabatangan River which I was still unsure if it was feasible coz most wildlife reserve in Malaysia is actually not a tourism spot but just a protected area.
I found Sukau Sandipao which is built on the opposite side of the Kinabatangan River. The chearful owner assured me that Bluey would be well taken care off at the parking lot and he took me on his boat across the river to the homestay hut. Hand built by the Father of 7 kids ... he built one hut each for the kid as a holiday home and investment for tourism. By chance I was refered by a friend of a friend ... and the only way to find him is by google map and a phone number as at that time he was still not on any booking platform. +6013 4311312
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| Sukau Sandipau Stay - Opposite Kinabatangan River |
There is not much things to do really at Sukau, but the main goal was achived for each day they would take out the mini boat and ferry tourist on a Kinabatangan River Tour. Price was really up to negotiating skills but main idea is to share a boat with more people for the cost of running the boat is the same weather its one tourist or 10 tourist.
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| Sukau Sandipau Huts |
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| Sunset Along Kinabatanagan River |
Up the main Kinabatangan River then offshoot to the smaller river inlet open up a very dense virgin Borneo Forest. The experience is not something I am sure how to describe but it was serene and beautiful but at the same time eerie to frightening that I would not wan to be tracking this forest even as a group.
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| Offshoot from Kinabatangan River |
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| Makak Monkeys |
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| More Monkeys |
Wildlife was abundant everywhere along the river edge and we saw many monkeys, makak monkeys, proboscis monkeys, and even a wild boar with a long nose and tusk that run so fast before anyone of us could take a photo. Talking to the Sandipao owner, they told me sometimes for the more adventurous, they would organize a 3 days Kinabatangan Tour upstream. Bring some stuff and go up stream deep into the wild life sanctuary and then camp 1 night in the wild and 1 night in a Orang Asli Village before heading back. The cost however would be large and would need to be arrange in advance. Not for the faint hearted they say ... but it is definately a one if a kind experience.
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| Sunset along Kinabatangan River |
Traveled on : Sep 2019
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