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For the past few days, Eco-Challenge Sabah 2000 competitors have been streaming through the vast limestone chamber of the Madai Caves, 13 kilometers (a little more than eight miles) west of the coastal town of Kunak.
Though a memorable cultural stop, many racers found the ascent through the cavern both difficult and disgusting. "It was like doing 100 pull-ups," said Team Hi-Tec's Jacques Boutet.
"It was gross in there; it was kinda grimy, and it really stank," said his teammate Karen Lundgren.
But long after the racers have vacated the ancient caves, local Idahan nest harvesters will continue to scale its dank walls in search of valuable birds' nests.
Coveted as both an aphrodisiac and health tonic, the tiny, swallow-constructed treasures command a hefty fee throughout Asia; in fact, an entire economy has sprung up around the belief. Depending on grade and quality, the nests, which are constructed and attached to the cave walls with bird vomit and spittle, can bring upwards of 1900 ringet per kilogram ($500 for 2.2 pounds).
Their mysterious powers are administered orally, through expensive bird's nest soups or porridges. Few enjoy the delicacy for its taste, craving the nests for their health and sexual benefits. "This is not depending on the taste, this is depending on what people believe," explained a Madai local.
But the lucrative nests do not come without serious risk. The men who toil in the darkness for several months of each year harvesting the fist-sized bird shelters put themselves in tremendous danger. Scaling rickety bamboo and rattan ladders hundreds of feet into the air, the harvesters also risk sickness and disease from a centuries-thick goopy buildup of bat guano.
Twenty-seven-year-old harvester Rosman Ismail has been working at the Madai Caves for more than a decade. In 1989, he survived a 350-foot tumble, breaking several bones. Yet, Ismail, looking fit and satisfied after a successful day in the cave, carries on his family tradition with pride. "I enjoy it," he said. "I get to see the birds every day."
Though scientists have found evidence of human habitation in the Madai Caves dating back 15,000 years, the nest-hunting tradition is known to have existed for at least a millennium. For generations, Idahan families have passed down nest-hunting rights to certain parts of the cave, which they harvest three times per year, for a month at a time. Families bring in as many as 100 kilos per harvest season.
Some of the 200 Madai cave plots are guarded carefully by rotating family members who live in rickety shelters inside the smelly cavern. Members of many nest-hunting families are buried in plots inside the cave.
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