I was keen to leave the 'hostel' in Labuan and made my way to the airport for my flight with MASwings, a subsidiary of Malaysia Air, to Miri. Miri is generally just a jumping off point for travellers heading to the national parks. (The Pinnacles trek is supposed to be even harder than Mt Kinabalu!)

The hostel in Miri was great. Dillennia Lodge had free internet, free breakfast, real linen (as in a sheet and blanket), air conditioning in the dorms, lots of mirrors with big bathrooms, a book exchange, friendly owner, and a social vibe, as opposed to the other places I've stayed. All of the travellers would hang out in the lounge area and swap travel tips, plus leave behind magazines and papers from home (I'm now up-to-date on UK politics and gossip - apparently Nick Clegg has pounded on the piles since becoming deputy leader!).

I wanted to sort out transportation for a trip the next day to Niah National Park, about 100km south. The national park had several huge limestone caves, but there seemed to be no direct bus there. In order to get there today, I took a taxi to the bus station; a coach to a highway junction; and then the Lonely Planet said to get a private car the remaining 15kms. Private car I thought - like a taxi? No, as in a civilian's car!! Hmm this didn't sound too safe but it seemed like the norm, and when I hopped out at the junction I was offered a ride by a local for 30 RM. Although this was the price the tourist centre had advised, I managed to barter him down and off we set to the national park.

Arriving at the park's entrance, it was near deserted. The LP said getting a ride back to the junction was difficult, so I arranged for my 'driver' to pick me up at 3pm. I paid the entrance fee and then needed to cross the river to commence the walk to the cave. The river was about 15m across and there was no bridge - you had to pay someone 1RM for a boat ride across! What a rip-off.

Safely across the other side of the river (further down, there were signs saying crocodiles sometimes swam in it!), I started off on the 4km trek down to the caves. It was a hot walk, and I'm glad some fellow travellers had told me to load up on snacks and drinks, as I soon needed them. The caves are quite historically sigificant, as they tell historians about what Sarawak (the Malaysian state) looked like geographically, as well as history about people, as many coffins and instruments were found in the caves.

Another significant feature was a great wall of ancient drawings. In order to get there, you had to pass through the 'moon cave' - which was pitch black! Again, thanks to travellers' tips, I had my head torch (best thing ever!) and navigated about 500m through a pitch-black cave along a slippery walkway with bats flying over my head. Scared? Um ....

I then had to traverse my path to get back to the headquarters, where I was surprised to find it had already been nearly 4 hours. My legs were feeling a lot better today, going downhill is still a little painful but better than the past few days! My driver was already there waiting, waving, and then drove me up to catch the bus back to Miri. He even found the right bus for me and tooted at the driver to let me on, nice service!

Borneo seems to be a place for adventure lovers - to really embrace it, you need to either be a diver (and stick to the east coast, like Sipadan Island) or be a trekker (and do Mt Kinabalu and the parks in Sarawak). One week would have sufficed for me as all I really wanted to do was hike Mt Kinabalu and see the orangutans, but it's good to have explored it.