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Cave exploring |
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Caving has a good following in Malaysia. The country is endowed with vast numbers of limestone caves, including a World Heritage Site. Malaysia’s caves are home to amazing wildlife such as Fruit Bats and birds with edible nests as well as having other natural attractions like massive, attractive stalagmites and stalactites.
Although major expeditions have been carried out, many caves have yet to be fully explored, proving alluring to explorers who are up for an adventure. People who have visited caves before, especially ones in the tropics, are always in awe of how a cave can change its form (mud, water level) in just a few months, a factor that is influenced by the wet weather.
Caves come with various levels of accessibility. Some caves have walkways for tours, while others require visitors to rough it out and crawl on all fours.
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Caves in Malaysia |
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In the Malay language, ‘cave’ is gua. An interesting oddity about Malaysia’s mostly limestone caves is that most of them can be found above ground. Caves can be divided into two categories: adventure and show caves. Adventure caves such as Drunken Forest Cave and Legan’s Cave in Sarawak remains close to their natural state. |
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Show caves such as Deer, Lang and Clear Water Caves in the National Park of Mulu are tourist-friendly, where they are equipped with lights as well as clearly marked paths and explanatory notes. |
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In the Peninsula, the list features Gua Kelam in Perlis, Gua Tempurung and Kundu in Perak, scattered historic caves around Lake Kenyir in Terengganu and Gua Ikan in Kelantan. Famous caves in Sarawak include Niah, Mulu, and Fairy Cave at Bau. The most famous cave in Sabah is Gua Gomantong, where bird’s nests are collected and sold to retailers as a Chinese delicacy. |
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Underwater, or river caves, can be found in Kinta Valley, but make up less than 10% of local caves. |
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Perak is famous for its cave temples, the most well known are Perak Tong and Sam Poh Tong, which house many Buddhist statues and religious cave murals. The Hindu cave temple in Batu Caves has shrines to the Hindu deities and is the site of the colorful religious festival of Thaipusam. |
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The Painted Cave in Gua Niah in Sarawak displays unique prehistoric paintings on its walls including boats that point to early man’s local civilization. Its chambers have hundreds of fascinating formations. |
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The Mulu caves in Sarawak have some of the biggest and longest networks of caves in the world. Although 195km of cave passages have been explored, this represents only 30% of the estimated total. |
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However, Sarawak’s biggest cave holds a lot of records. The Sarawak Chamber, 600m by 415m and 80m high, is the largest known cave chamber in the world. The Deer Cave, measuring 120 to 150m in diameter, is the world’s largest cave passage, while the Clearwater Cave, at 108km, is the longest cave in Asia. |
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List of Malaysian Caves |
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• Gua Kelam, Perlis
• Gua Tempurung, Kampar, Perak
• Gua Kundu, Gopeng, Perak
• Gua Harimau, Perak
• Batu Caves, Selangor
• Gua Ikan, Kuala Krai, Kelantan
• Gua Taat, Gua Bewah at Tasik Kenyir, Terengganu
• Gua Telinga, Gua Daun Menari, Gua Luas, Taman Negara , Pahang
• Gua Gomantong, Sandakan, Sabah
• Fairy Cave, Wind Cave, Jambusan Cave, Bau, Sarawak
• Great Cave, Painted Cave, Niah National Park, Sarawak
• Sarawak Chamber, Deer Cave, Green Cave, Clear Water Cave, Moon Cave, Turtle Cave, Mulu National Park, Sarawak
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