Flying from Kota Kinabalu into Gunung Mulu National Park, which Lonely Planet describes as "the single most impressive destination in all of Borneo", is the easiest way to access the park.

On board what could be described as a toy plane, we made a five minute stop at Miri to go through customs and a health check before embarking upon the final half hour flight. Soaring low over the tropical rainforest, and the meandering brown rivers, it really did feel as though we were stepping into the unknown.

We landed on the tiny airstrip, with only a small building in front of us; elsewhere, simply dense forest, mountains and low hanging, light, misty clouds. We had luckily managed to secure a two night stay in Mulu Park, the only accommodation actually based within the park itself. There is only one other hotel nearby the park, which is a resort, offering a swimming pool and evening entertainment. However, we figured that if we were going to stay in a park, we may as well sleep there too.

Faced with a wide rope bridge to cross to access the park's headquarters, was the first excitement, before we were greeted by one of the park's guides for registration and to conjure up an itinerary for us, ensuring we made the best use of our short stay. We were really impressed by this professional and efficient way of working, and the dorm was the best we'd seen to date too. Comprising of 21 beds, in spacious surroundings, with fans and separate shower and changing areas, we were suitably impressed.

The only amenity on site is a cafe cum restaurant, where time is happily spent lazing the day away between activities and getting to know fellow travellers over a cold drink. This place seems to shut quite promptly at half nine, however, when it seems it is bedtime all round.

We had signed up to do a night walk on our first evening, a two hour walk into the forest's interior, in the hope of spotting the creatures of the night. We were told that this would be our best chance of seeing mammals, - but it seems, our luck, as usual was out. We did however, see plenty of insects, all of which are ten times the size of the ones at home. The grasshoppers and stick insects had to be the strangest, looking as though they were about to face a battle, in a coat of armour, poised and ready. We also saw plenty of spiders, a scorpion, spotted by Lucy, frogs, bats and heard a whole host of other life. The noises were immense, and so loud and perfectly clear, resembling sounds like a dripping tap, and wild dogs.

Although the walk was good, we were also glad to be back in properly lit surroundings, and finally back in our room and able to shake our clothes free from ants, caterpillars and any other insects which had chosen to call our clothes home.

The following morning was an early start, as we were doing the canopy skywalk. Unfortunately, I barely managed sleep, as I had been so desperate for the toilet the whole night, but too afraid to go, for fear of all the insects. The bathroom was a kind of open air affair, so the insects flocked to the light, and the moth's were more like bats in their appearance, due to their huge size, so I just couldn't quite face it.

Having tossed and turned enough all night, I was actually thankful we were getting up early, just so I could finally use the toilet! Stepping out into the morning sun was blissful and quiet. We were the only ones awake and the air had a pleasant mist hanging over the dewy lush greenery. We met our guide at seven am, and set off along one of the plank walks and into the forest, for a half an hour walk, before we reached a tree house that marked the start of our skywalk. Thankfully we didn't have to climb a tree to reach it which I had been slightly concerned about, and was relieved to see a set of stairs. At the top, we were thirty metres above the ground, and faced with a series of rope bridges that meander between the trees. The canopy skywalk is rumoured to be the longest in the world, at 480m long. I was a bit daunted when I first stepped onto the bridge, as not only did it sway, but the two thin wooden planks creaked and moved about more than I liked. However, I quite enjoyed been high above the trees, although, at times, it barely felt as though we were above the ground at all as many of the trees still loomed high above us. Our guide told us that Borneo is home to the second tallest tree in the world, and my goodness are they tall, it's quite unbelievable. Unfortunately, we didn't see much in terms of wildlife, however, we did spot the pygmy squirrel - the world's smallest squirrel scurrying up a tree, which was rather cute. The walk between the trees was just long enough, particularly as our guide kept warning us to look out for snakes on the actually on the rope of the skywalk. She didn't however tell us what to do if we were to come across a snake, but thankfully we didn't. Back safely on solid ground, we strolled back to through the forest and to the cafe for breakfast.

That afternoon, we visited Deer and Lang cave. Mulu Park is apparantly home to some of Borneo's best caves, and these one's are known as show caves, which have been made accessible for visitors to access easily through organised walkways. The walk to the caves took around an hour through the forest, which was more than enough i the blistering heat. We entered Deer cave first, which allegedly boasts the world's largest cavern. Another thing it is famous for is the three million bats that live in the cave, and emerge at dusk, when swiftlets simultaneously go inside the cave for the night. It is meant to be one of those must see spectacles, as our guide had met David Attenborough, who had filmed at this location before, t witness this. Before gathering to watch this, we entered Lang's cave, which has some magnificent stalactite and stalagmites. We then retreated to a seating area and viewing platform set below the mouth of deer cave to wait in anticipation to witness the bats and swiftlets in action. For a while it had seemed the clouds had been darkening, and not due to nightfall. The thunder soon began to roar, and the lightening lit up the sky. It held off for a while, and we waited and waited some more, and then the rain began to fall, hard and fast, Even so, we continued to wait, and one by one the other tourists began to disperse and head back into he forests interior. We donned our poncho's, which we had packed as we had been warned about bat poo, and headed back through the forest in near total darkness, with the rain beating our aces, and the lightening sporadically illuminating the path. We made it back to the centre's headquarters, just before the darkness had completely taken over. We were sodden and muddy, and had no choice but to shower in the moth ridden bathroom, which actually wasn't as horrendous as we thought.

We certainly slept well that night anyway, and good job too, as once again, we had an early night ahead of us. It was our last day at the park, and we had arranged to see the final two show caves, known as Wind cave and clearwater cave. As we didn't have time on our side, as our flight was that afternoon, we took a boat up river to the caves, stopping halfway at one of the indigenous tribes villages, known as the Orang Ulu, which means man of the forest. The villagers live in small wooden shacks on the side or the river, and children were running around, chasing chickens and puppies, which were in abundance. The whole village looked like something out of the Wizard of Oz, as though the shacks had been in some whirlwind and simply landed on random areas of land. The women of the village have a small craft area, selling locally made handicrafts, which was good to see, before getting back into the boat and going onto the caves.

Wind cave was our first port of call, which has a natural vent of some sort, allowing you to feel a blast of wind whilst deep inside it. And finally, Clearwater cave, apparently South east Asia's largest cave, boasts the longest underwater river. It was a shame it was such poor visibility inside this cave, although, I'm sure it would make an excellent location for a film set, if it hasn't been used already. We had staggered up more than two hundred steps to reach the cave, and had to force ourselves back down them, I was just glad we were getting a boat back, as we were soaked through in sweat, and still had a flight to look forward to in this condition.

We seemed to be waiting quite some time at the airport and our flight was delayed for some unknown reason. However, soon after we were informed that the flight wasn't coming at all! We couldn't believe it. Although we thoroughly loved getting back to nature we were ready to go back to civilisation, and more so a nice pool, which we were going to be treating ourselves to in Miri for a few days. We were however, going to be put up in the Royal Mulu Resort for the night, with dinner and breakfast included, it was still an inconvenience,but hey, it would be good to compare notes on the only other hotel in the area. We immediately found the staff to be rude, whether this was because we weren't paying guests, I'm unsure, but there is still no reason to be rude. Dinner and breakfast were both buffet style, so we made the most of it, and ate our way though the selections of free food, before watching the evening' entertainment, showcasing local dancing. Finally there was karaoke, which we happily watched for a few hours before a good night's sleep was had. The resort was in a gorgeous location, all set on stilts, and overlooking the river, with great limestone cliffs peering magnificently over. However, we definitely made the right choice to stay in the park, and fulfil the experience properly.

A slightly delayed ten am flight, found us in Miri a mere thirty minutes later, where the next few days would be spent by a beautiful pool, at a mediocre, would have been nice hotel had it not been for the rude reception staff.

Nevertheless, we loved our few days of utter relaxation, and tried to forget, as best we could about the rude staff and the numerous problems we encountered.