A view of Dark Cave's exterior.

IT takes guts and an adventurous spirit to walk the mysterious Dark Cave in Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur.

Look down, and hundreds of cockroaches crawl about.

"If you have to look up, try not to open your mouth," warned A.V.Jayakumaran, a cave guide who is known simply as Jaya. "Bat droppings, also known as guano, come down every now and then," he said.

That explains the overpowering stench even as one nears the cave.

Cave guide Suja Yussof said there were different species of cockroaches, as were the bats, which made the cave their home.

After 23 years, Suja has not grown tired of exploring the rocky structures in Batu Caves. In fact, he likens himself to Indiana Jones, the famous movie archaeologist and adventurer.

"Each journey into the dark interiors is as fascinating as the last one," he said, adding that the Dark Cave was just one of about 30 caves in Batu Caves.

Suja said the rocks that made up the caves were more than 400 million years old. "The caves themselves are about 60 to 100 million years old," he said.

Suja said if a rocky formation has a length that was more than 30m, it qualified as a cave. "The Dark Cave alone is about two-kilometre long."

There are seven caverns in Dark Cave. Some are large enough to be turned into a hanger while the others are so small that one has to crawl through them.

Sometimes one has to crawl through narrow openings like this one.

Unlike the famous Temple cave, much of the Dark Cave is unexplored.

To get to it, one has to climb 204 steps. A gate on the left marks the Dark Cave's entrance.

The Malaysian Nature Society is in charge of the cave.

Jaya said in the early 1970s, the cave was lighted. "There were benches and covered pathways to promote it as a tourists' attraction," he said. "But, vandalism was rampant and they were destroyed."

Added to these, quarry works nearby have upset the cave's ecological balance.

Graffiti left by visitors.

"The Dark Cave was eventually closed to the public," said Jaya. "And, MNS Selangor formed a group called the Cave Group to protect the cave's welfare."

From about four years ago, the society allowed visitors in, but on guided tours conducted by Nice Greenery Sdn Bhd. Suja and Jaya are staff of the firm.

Besides cockroaches and bats there are also snails and snakes in the cave, though the latter aren't easily seen. "They are called cave racers," said Jaya.

Not all of the things in Dark Cave are scary or creepy.

The stalactites and stalagmites, rock formations formed on the cave's ceiling and ground, respectively, are breathtakingly beautiful.

Then, there is a cavern filled with "vegetables". Formations that resemble cucumbers and even mushrooms mingle with those that look like a Polar Bear or dragon.

The remnants of snail shells are all over the floor in the cave.

Adding creativity to the rock formations are cave pearls and cave crystals. Vandals have added their own artworks to these.

"In a million years from now their scribbles would be called cave art," said Suja of the drawings. "For now, they're just graffiti."

The stalactites took millions of years to form, but vandals take mere seconds to destroy them. One scrawl was in Russian, probably a visitor's name. There were others in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Tamil and Chinese.

Some had dates that go as far back as 1914.

THE Malaysian Nature Society offers three different types of tours to the public. They are the Introductory Tour (RM15 for 30 minutes), Educational Tour (RM35 for an hour) and Adventure/ Educational Tour (RM50 for three hours).

The three-hour tour includes climbing, sliding, and crawling through the caverns.

The Introductory Tour incorporates a 30-minute walk through Cavern A and Cavern B.

To visit Batu Caves, take the Rapid KL bus (No 69) from Medan Pasar in Kuala Lumpur. The ride is about half an hour.

For details, call Suja at 019-615 9705 or Jaya at 012-310 3464.

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