Borneo’s living cave

The stench of ammonia was unmistakable. From the thick forest, the smell assaults you from all directions. Finally you get the whole whiff as you come to a clearing marked by a cluster of stilt houses. Beyond the clearing is the largest chamber of the Gomantong Caves.

Poisonous, long-legged centipedes cling to the wall of the cave

The Gomantong Caves are located in Sabah, at the northern tip of Borneo, the world’s third largest island. The caves have been described by conservationists as "the best-managed edible bird’s nest cave in the world." The caves are also said to have been in use many years ago, supplying the Emperor of China with the delicacy for centuries.

Borneo itself (divided between Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia) is a hothouse of diverse flora and fauna. Generally, caves in tropical climates can host more living things than caves in cooler parts of the world, and the deeper you go, the more interesting the cave fauna becomes.

Two cave complexes make up Gomantong Caves and within them about 20-plus chambers. The two complexes -- Simud Hitam (Black Cave) and Simud Putih (White Cave) -- are where bird’s nests are harvested. The White Cave yields the expensive "white" bird’s nest, so named because the nests are free of the droppings and debris that characterize the "black" bird’s nest.

The Black Cave is about 30 meters wide and approximately 100 meters tall. It is the more accessible of the two cave complexes and can readily be visited from ground level. An elevated, circular wooden walkway has been built along the wall of the cave in order to let visitors observe the cave and watch the harvesting of the nests.

The curious can witness the harvesting between February and April, and again between July and September, when the eggs would have hatched and the nests abandoned. On off seasons, the show turns to the cave and its fauna.

Gomantong Cave is clearly a living cave. Guano (bat droppings) is commonly harvested and sold as fertilizer. Not so here. The guano has been left uncollected on the cave floor and now resembles a black undulating hill. This is to let the natural cycle of cave life go on uninterrupted by humans.

Bats inhabit the cave by day, leaving it en masse at dusk to feed on fruits and insects in the forest. Taking their place at night are swiftlets who build their precious nests on the nooks and crannies of the cave’s roof.

Because the guano has been left to accumulate, all manner of bugs and insects, worms and moths, flies and beetles, inhabit the living floor.

Cockroaches, shiny and plump, cling to the railing of the walkway. In the darker parts of the cave, they are so thick they resemble some bizarre wall treatment of clustered grapes. On the cave floor, sprouting from the mountain of guano on which they feed, are meter-long millipedes that resemble spaghetti with feet.

Shine your light at the cave walls and eye-level with you are five-inch centipedes, with legs that are just as long. Remember how they tell you that you shouldn’t fear big scorpions because it’s the small ones that are deadly? No such thing here. These long-legged centipedes (Thereuopoda sp., to be exact) are as deadly as they look. One sting from them, said our guide Rudy, and off to the hospital you go.

In the farthest corner of the Black Cave, we hear a faint but persistent meowing. A cat, an orange tabby, screams at us but fails to wake her master, who is fast asleep on the makeshift shed. Feral cats have been known to reside in caves, though this particular one seems to be kept as a companion by the human.

Yes, there are people who live inside this cave. For a share of the earnings, they take shifts guarding the precious birds’ nests. These are also the same people who perform daring acts of balancing on the unique rope-and-ladder system used to harvest the birds’ nests.

We are halfway through the circular boardwalk when we are met by fellow visitors, Europeans from the sound of their accents, hurrying to cut short their tour. One of them pointed to the umbrella our guide had given us before entering the cave and said, "Good idea!"

It seems that in addition to risking a guano facial, one also might be showered with the various mites, ticks and fleas that could fall from the bats sleeping overhead. That being said, did I mention that we each paid RM30 (about P420) to enter the caves?

The cave rises to nearly 100 meters. Here, a portion of the cave roof has collapsed.

The point is, tourism is not the point. The Gomantong Caves produced over three tons of bird’s nest for Malaysia last year. In nearby Sandakan town, a kilo of bird’s nest goes for RM7,000. Online, a kilo of white bird’s nest sells for $1,700. Do the math and you will probably understand why the folks running the Gomantong Cave Visitor Center probably do not mind the fact that this Fear Factor experience might be a hard sell to the average tourist.

We exit the Black Cave and feel that our footwear had somehow grown heavier. "I think I stepped on something," my companion said, not without a bit of amusement. As we proceed to rub clean our shoes against a thick patch of grass in the clearing, we hear something crash from the trees.

The stream that runs near Gomantong Cave is connected to the famous Kinabatangan River and is just south of the orangutan reserve at Sepilok. Not surprisingly, the orangutans, macaques and countless hawks, serpent eagles and kingfishers that inhabit the nearby river and forest easily make the trip to these parts. Consequently, the 15-minute walk from the Visitor Center to the caves can be highlighted by the shuffle of macaques playfully swinging from the tree branches.

The crash that we just heard was a 200-lb male orangutan falling from his perch on the trees. What made him fall so clumsily was his slow but relentless pursuit of a female, now looking back at him and probably laughing at the misfortune of her suitor. She coyly proceeds to lead the male in this canopy courtship and the pair disappear into the thick foliage leading to the hill above the cave entrance.

"Now there’s something you don’t see everyday," my companion said.

I couldn’t agree more.

For more information on visiting Sabah, visit www.sabahtourism.com. Air Asia flies from DMIA Clark to Kota Kinabalu.

To get to the Gomantong Caves, take an Air Asia flight to Sandakan. There are several hotels to choose from in Sandakan (try Mark’s Lodge, www.markslodge.com), and also several in nearby Kinabatangan. Barefoot Sukau Lodge (www.barefootsukau.com) has packages for river cruises and knowledgeable guides from North Borneo Safaris.