Madai Caves are famed as a source for swiftlet's nests used in bird's nest soup. The caves are located in Tawau Division of Sabah, eastern Malaysia, on the island of Borneo.
Twice a year (between February and April, and between July and September), licensed collectors risk their lives climbing to the roof of these caves using only rattan ladders, ropes, and bamboo poles precariously attached together. It is a special festival event for the local Idahan villagers, who have held the rights to Madai Caves for over 20 generations.
Famous quotes containing the word caves:
“At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)