Back in the philippines and on this round it's time to try out the area on and around palawan.
Puerto Princesa is the capital of Palawan and it's a charming small city with all one might need to sort out things for the travel forward. I stayed there for 3 days to start with and must say it's an easy gateway to the philipino way of life with all the amenities one is accustomed to.
More on the town and our accommodation on later posts.
Today we tried out the underwater cave-tour in sabang, about 75kms up from puerto princesa center. It's shortlisted as one of the finalists for the next 7 wonders of the world and definitely the main attraction for its area.
You can hire a car or a motorbike and ride up yourself or get on one of the jeepneys taking you on a day-trip, including a guide, transportation, lunch and the entrance fees to the park and caves. Almost every hotel and travel agent sell tickets to the trips, which are supervised by a local tourism authority.
view along the way
We booked the trip from our hotel and got picked up in the morning after breakfast. Patience is a virtue i possess only in small quantities and got reminded about the philipino outlook on time when our pick-up was 40 mins late from the scheduled departure. Luckily at 7.30 in the morning my brain is not up and running yet so it didn't ruin my mood at all.
Our guide Gigi was a true professional with great personality and seemed to like her job. She was catering to our every need, telling interesting information about any rock formation or tree we passed along the way while making jokes and keeping up the atmosphere on the jeepney (in finland we'd call it a 8-seater while here it fitted 15pax with ease...).
It was a cloudy day to start with and i was happy to have brought my hoodie along allthough all other tourist seemed to be sporting barely more than hotpants and a top.
sabang harbour
Sabang harbour was the first stop where we were loaded on typical philipino style banca-boats. The searide took about 15-20 mins and can be quite rough if you're not accustomed to it.
At the entrance of the park you'd have to fill in your details and get in line for the river boat-tour. The wait was quite long, allthough the time we were told before to enter didn't stretch too much from the promised.
It started to rain really heavily and there was quite a commotion when the guides were trying to keep the crowd organized and get their own groups into the boats. It's a good idea to wear something that dries quick, my sweater was a big mistake at this time since waiting in the rain with soaked clothes tends to get cold..
banca-boats
We got another guide, who also served as the boatman on the river-ride. They're excellent professional people and the informative tour with a lot of jokes cheered everyone up again.
The underground river itself is truly a marvelous place. I've never seen anything like it and the excitement floating in the dark caves with only a halogen-torch (the person sitting in the front gets to operate it to the boatman's instructions) was a beautiful and enchanting experience.
inside the cave
loads of bats hanging..
So, all and all this is definitely a trip worth making, pack up a change of clothes if you wish to arrive back dry and have a relaxed attitude towards the little inconveniences that might come your way. Another thing to keep in mind is to hold on to your snacks and all little things you might be carrying, the monkeys around the park are sneaky little creatures who expertise in jumping at you and grabbing stuff from your hand or pockets :)
for more info check: www.puerto-undergroundriver.com
