It was more than three years ago when I finally striked off Mulu National Park from my list of must-visit places. Mulu NP is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which boast the world’s biggest natural enclosed cave - Sarawak Chamber. It is 700m long, 396m wide and at least 70m high. It is said that it can fit up to 10 jumbo-jets in it.
We departed on Christmas day in 2005 via AirAsia. Once we touched down at Miri, and breathe the air of borneo, we knew we are in for an adventure!
Walking the headhunter’s trail is a leechy and muddy experience. Especially when it’s done during the monsoon season. The trail follows the route taken by Kayan headhunting parties (long long time ago) who paddled up the Melinau River to the Melinau Gorge. They then dragged their longboats through the forest for 3 km until they reached the banks of the Terikan River, where they launched headhunting raids against the people of the Limbang area.
The first part is a flat beaten trek of 8km to Camp 5. It’s a relatively easy trek with few rivers to cross and leeches to avoid. Once in camp 5, we rest for the night with totally zero existence of light. It was pitch black when it’s time for bed.
The 2nd day we climbed Mt Api to view the Pinnacles but didn’t made it to the view point. Our ranger didn’t allow anyone to continue the climb because of heavy rain. So we continue our way to an Iban Longhouse the day after. After 4hrs of trekking and 2hrs of boat ride, we reached the longhouse, which is full with cultural folklore…
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All photos are taken by azhar, nurah and faisal.
Tilt shift photography usually requires a special lens which use a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth-of-field. But there’s more to it then just using a large aperture. Shooting with this special lens, a life-size subject will look like a miniature-scale model.
Below is my attempt to create a ’tilt-shift’ effect using photoshop.
Tilt Shift
