Caving in Merapoh - Taman Negara

Caving is not for the faint hearted or the claustrophobic. In fact, its’ a tough thing to do. Pitch darkness, lots of guano, thousands of bats, hidden snakes, scorpions and other sorts of cave specialized creepy crawlies. My idea of a day perfectly spent. Whilest on field work in Merapoh, I had the opportunity to visit a few of the hundreds or so limestone caves in the area. The biggest being Gua Padang Kawad. The name is associated with the existence of a communist camp and field nearby the caves during the Japanese invasion of Tanah Melayu. The communist army for their parade area used the field. Thus, local people recognized the cave as Gua Padang Kawad (Parade Field Cave). The cave is ~ a kilometer long with a stream that is to be followed from one end to the other. Crawling in small spaces, climbing 5 waterfalls (upto ~10 meters high, some require a rope and strong upper body strenght) and generally feeling your way through. The way back includes absailing the same watrefalls. I strongly recommend this to anyone in the area. However, consider that there is no medical help nearby and should anything go wrong within, it’ll be a difficult journey out and to a doctor. So be absolutely sure this is what you want to do and that you are physically and mentally ready to do it. If you arent then try some of the smaller caves around. There are a few tour operators in the area. SGI outdoors and Merapoh Adventure come highly recommended from me.