UNESCO World Heritage Site

Mulu National Park Review | UNESCO World Heritage Site

Julio Moreno Malaysia, UNESCO World Heritage Site , , , , 6 Comments
Mulu National Park Review | UNESCO World Heritage Site

Last Updated: Aug 7, 2022

Deer Cave Mulu National ParkLocation: Mulu, Sarawak, Malaysia

Visited: July 28-31, 2016 and July 22-27, 2022

Site Type: Natural

Inscribed: 2000

Background and Opinion: (2016 with a few corrections)

Gunung Mulu is a National Park deep in Malaysian Borneo. It contains dozens of caves including one of the longest in the world, Clearwater Cave. The caves are situated within 530 square kilometers of forest with over 3,500 species of animals and 21,000 species of plants.

Bat Exodus Gunung Mulu NP

One of Mulu’s main attractions is the “bat exodus,” a 10 million strong stream of bats that leave the caves to feed at night. Even if you’re expecting it, nothing quite prepares you for this hour long spectacle.

Clearwater Cave Mulu
A river flows through Clearwater Cave.

Enough with the numbers though, here is my not so technical evaluation. It is freakin’ mind-blowing. The best time to go is yesterday, but the second best time is now!

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The Great Korean Road Trip

Julio Moreno South Korea, UNESCO World Heritage Site , 4 Comments
The Great Korean Road Trip

Finishing a road trip across the Korean peninsula was something I wanted to do for years. For the most part, everything went according to plan. I zig zagged back and forth, hit both coasts, and visited all the main places I wanted to visit. One thing you should keep in mind is that the goal here wasn’t to hit all of the highlights in Korea. I’ve lived here for 8 years and have visited pretty much everywhere of note in that time. If you’re interested in the best things to do in Seoul or best things to do outside of Seoul, hit those links! This trip, instead, was to visit those secondary, ‘off the beaten path’ spots that travelers usually skip because of time constraints.

This page is a navigating resource of that 3000km road trip. Click on whatever day you want to read about and look at the map below to see where it is. If you have any questions, by all means, feel free to ask!

The Trip

Day 0 – Intro

Day 1 – Kyodong Island

Day 2 – Ganghwa Dolmen Sites (UNESCO WHS)

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The Great Korean Road Trip – Day 25 – The Master and Apprentice

Julio Moreno South Korea, Uncategorized, UNESCO World Heritage Site , , , 4 Comments
The Great Korean Road Trip – Day 25 – The Master and Apprentice

You may already know this, but although I am writing the final day of this road trip sometime in February, this entire trip happened over July and August of last year. I stopped posting real time posts during the road trip when I made it to Jeju around day 16 and simply didn’t have the motivation to do it as I traveled longer and longer distances. Nonetheless, my excitement for this, the last day of the trip was so great that I did write up a long post about it on my Instagram. This more or less will be an extended version of that post. It is fitting that this day stats in Jeonju as this story starts here too, way back in May, 2019 during the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF).   

Sit down…this is going to be a VERY long post Read more →

The Great Korean Road Trip – Day 24 – Gangjin Celadon and Kiln Sites

Julio Moreno South Korea, UNESCO World Heritage Site , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
The Great Korean Road Trip – Day 24 – Gangjin Celadon and Kiln Sites

Gangjin Celadon

Ever since I read the historical fiction, A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, I’ve been fascinated by Goryo era celadon. The book is about a poor orphan boy who dreams of becoming a potter and gets apprenticed by a local master. It is connected to the mystery of the 1000 crane vase, which is a Korean national treasure, but I won’t spoil it in case you want to read it. Read more →