Gunung Lanno revisited

In Nov 2001 I was part of an international caving expedition to Gunung Lanno. Lannno is one of the largest limestone hills in the Kinta Valley in Perak, Malaysia and is located a few kilometres south of Ipoh. We explored and surveyed many caves and published the results in an expedition book. This is available for sale, contact me for details.

Since the expedition I have not been back to many of the caves. In March 2013 I wanted to photograph the historical graffiti on the walls on the western part of Lanno.

There is officially no access now as a company is mining sand in the area. However my friend Hong talked to the owner and explained what we wanted to do and the man very kindly allowed us in and even led us to where we wanted to go.

I was amazed by the changes. In 2001 the area was heavily vegetated with secondary forest and it was hard to see cave entrances. Now the whole area has been cleared, and the land bulldozed right up to the hill.

Unfortunately this meant there were piles of mud in front of some caves. And other caves were being used to store materials such planks, pipes and fencing.

Quite a depth of earth has been removed -

Some nice notches and a keyhole passge have been exposed

I had forgotten that the 3 caves Selari, Pulau and Batu Nesan are all so close. In 2001 it had not been easy to see with the vegetation. Gua Pulau is now completely dry, leaving a dry island!

The water in Gua Batu Nesan is being pumped out

There are now good views of the blind valley to the north where there are plans to build chalets and a small resort.  There are goats wandering around.

We looked at the graffiti. The earliest we saw was 1928. There is a lot from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, but nothing more recent. There are several Sikh names. I wonder if they were police during the Second World War and then the Emergency. The first set are taken in Gua Selari. The line Hong is pointing to translates as "may our comrades continue to strive".

 

Sikh names

 The bottom right photo says PL which may mean policeman (?). The most recent date we saw was 1961.

There was some pottery but I have no idea how old it is

 The main thing I wanted to photograph was the drawing of a soldier shooting a man. I wonder if this is from the Emergency.

There were very few other drawings. There were some flowers and a 'ghost face'.

I was glad to see that the cave register numbers we had put in place in 2001 are still there

An electric box has been installed

The climb up to Gua Selari upper chamber is now quite exposed -

We went in one of the lower entrances -

[Hong's photo]

 

Looking across the landscape

Register numbers :
Gua Selari Prk 18/15,  Gua Pulau Prk 18/16, Gua Batu Nesan Prk 18/17.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Lenggong archaeological gallery, again

Went back to Lenggong Musuem again - or I should say gallery, as that is now its new name.

New sign on the junction to the museum

However at the museum, the new signs have not been put up yet - there is still a blank white space below the roof

 the old name -

It has been 6 months since my last visit (see link above) and 8 months since I posted a general blog.

The upstairs gallery is now open. However it is not especially exciting, it is just a series of posters of Malaysian World Heritage sites and many posters on how Lenggong achieved its recognition. There are just 3 small display cabinets and a video.

There was one "politically correct" poster showing people praying for Lenggong to be inscribed as a World Heritage, and shows people of 4 religions praying - Muslims, Christians in a church, Chinese in a temple and Indians -

At least all the posters are recent and mention Bukit Bunuh at 1.83 myo (unlike the displays downstairs).

As usual the English on the posters wasn't proofread and there are mistakes.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Elephants in and around Merapoh caves

The Merapoh area in northern Pahang is situated on the boundary of Taman Negara, Malaysia's largest and oldest national park. The park is home to large mammals such as elephants and big cats. Of course these animals are not restricted to the park and are found in other places in Malaysia.

Elephants are known to go into caves, the most famous example being the Kitum Caves at Mount Elgon in Kenya. In Taman Negara, Malaysia many years ago I was camping alone in Gua Kepayang Besar and when I left in the  morning there was a steaming pile of elephant dung in the cave entrance. I later saw an elephant as I was trekking.

In Merapoh in Sept 2012 we found elephant dung in Gua Gajah Marah

 and in Gua Putera Mandi in Nov -

Whilst visiting to Gua Hari Malaysia in Sept 2012 we found elephant bones both downsteam and upstream of the cave.

This is the tooth of an elephant -

In June 2013 I visited the Natural History Museum in London, and took this photo of the tooth of an Asiatic elephant.

When we visited Gua Hari Malaysia in Feb 2013, we found a lower jaw and a leg bone from an elephant. I wonder if all the bones came from the same elephant.

 

The leg bone

The bones were taken back to the Merapoh hostel

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission