Some more photos from part of my grand trekking of April/May…yeah, the one that started my hips down the trail to disaster.

These are all from the incomparable Mulu World Heritage Site, Mulu National Park, taken around the HQ and the Mulu Rainforest Lodge.

The photos in order:

A picture of the Rainforest Lodge with rainbow
And without rainbow
Aerial roots of a fig tree falling down to the water – taken from the canopy walkway
A lantern bug next to my laptop.
A millipede on a boardwalk handrail.

While watching that rainbow, flights of bats came streaming out of the caves skeining through the coloured archway as if it had been built for them in celebration of their release. They bunched up and then strung out, expanding and contracting like a single entity, scribbling living patterns across the sky.

And now I sit, contemplating 3 months rest to get rid of this pain, and remember.

Today I was in the MPH bookshop in Midvalley. I wanted to buy the book “The Gift of Rain” by Malaysian Author Tan Twan Eng, a novel set in war-torn Penang. It is published in UK, and has been reviewed, reasonably favourably, by the Times Literary Supplement. Seems like an author that Malaysia can be proud of, right?

And the bookstore was hung with posters saying: “Proud to be Malaysian”. It was a “Buy Malaysian and get a discount” promo…

Now I know I am clueless. All I could remember was that it was by someone surnamed Tan, and I thought Eng was in his personal name. And I couldn’t remember the name of the book, but I knew what the story was about and that it was published in UK recently. Should have been enough for them to recognise what book – surely Malaysian bookshops would want to promote that rare commodity, a Malaysian getting overseas attentions and kudos. How many have we had over the past 10 years? Enough to use all the fingers on one hand? And this was a 2007 publication. All told, I asked 4 assistants and they consulted 2 computers – nope, never heard of him or his book.

I eventually found it myself. And I scolded the shop assistants for not living up to their own promo. Tan, I hope they listened.

And we all know the iconic Malaysian hornbill, don’t we? Sarawak calls itself “The Land of the Hornbills”. The top photo shows a stylised one in front of Mulu National Park with its huge and distinctive curling casque.

The next two photos show the birds at the Mulu Rainforest Lodge, which is the upmarket hotel just outside the park gates. Two more hornbills, right? To show that we are proud of our birdlife. Yeah. Only trouble is, they are toucans. Found in South America.

Rapids and still waters. Sun sparkles on the surface. Glimpses of distant mountains, close encounters with limestone cliffs. Penan children splashing in water so clear you can see every pebble on the river bottom. Remoteness, the river a lifeline in a land without roads.




Egrets and Lesser Fish-eagles flap away from the boat, and I have never seen such magic dragonflies, flashing colour like fireworks as they catch the sun….

Mulu. Go there.

Remember, you can click on the photos to make them larger.





Apart from telling you that I am basking in the knowledge that the final book of the Mirage Makers trilogy, Song of the Shiver Barrens in now number ten on the bestsellers list in the speciality bookshop in Sydney, Galaxy, I am not going to mention writerly stuff.

Instead I am going to return to May when I went walkabout in Mulu. Mulu is a World Heritage Site and a national park in Sarawak, East Malaysia, and it has been having a hard time recently because the airlines serving it don’t seem able to get their act together, which is a real shame because it is a breathtaking spot… [One flight we took had 4 passengers and we had to distribute ourselves around the plane to balance it!] Mulu is famous for its caves and its bats, but really it could be just as well known for its scenery and its rivers and its forests. The birdlife wasn’t half bad, either. We saw the rare Hose’s Broadbill on a fruiting figtree, along with well over 100 other species.

The first photo shows where we stayed inside the Park, at a reasonable amount in great comfort. the last is an Agamid lizard, and yes, that stick like bit it its tail. It was about 40 cm [15″] long from tailtip to nose.