Mulu is isolated. It is so isolated that there are no roads leading to Mulu. The only roads in Mulu are that leading from the airport to the national park and a bit beyond. The Melinau River that flows through the national park is the main land-based gateway into land-locked Mulu. Indeed, it is a journey of many hours by speedboat from the downriver town of Marudi to Mulu.
The only other practical way to get to Mulu is by air, and there are only four flights per day to Mulu, good weather permitting. All four flights are operated by MASwings which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines. There's a flight from Kota Kinabalu and two flights from Miri. Then there's also the 1½-hour flight from Kuching.
When we sat that flight from Kuching, the ATR 72-500 aircraft was full. Fully packed with tourists visiting the Mulu national park. It was a rather surreal experience. Here we were in Malaysia and I was amazed to find not more than 10 local passengers. The rest were foreigners all very eager to visit a Unesco world heritage site. Common, Malaysians, where are you? Why are you not appreciating the beauty of our own country?
The flight out of Mulu was totally different. We arrived to a near empty airport. And on board the aircraft, there were only about 10 or 12 passengers. Imagine, a whole aircraft almost to ourselves. Where did the tourists go, if not to Kuching? Perhaps onward to Miri? Or Kota Kinabalu?
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| In-bound to Mulu |
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| Out-bound from Mulu |
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