One of the big tourist attractions around Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan province, is the underground River. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is reputed to be the longest navigable underground river in the world. It goes in something like eight kilometers. Though it is one of the prinicple attractions of Puerto Princessa, it is actually located near the small town of Sabang, about a three hour bus ride away.
One of the highlights of the trip was actually the jeepney (small buses) ride to Sabang where I got to finally experience the thrill of sitting on the roof of a dangerously overcrowded bus. This is a common thing in Palawan province as transportation can be limited so every jeepney is packed to the brim with people and cargo. It might sound strange to say that riding on the roof of a bus was a highlight but it really was. In Canada we'd get a hefty fine for trying something like that whereas here no one gives it a second thought. I got a really great feeling of freedom holding onto the roofrack while speeding along a bumpy dirt road and over rickety wooden bridges. It was really a fantastic experience. (forgive the blurryness of this photo)
The underground river itself is quite spectacular... well maybe spectacular is the wrong word. It is just a bif hole in the rock with a river flowwing out of it, but there just isn't much else like it in the world and i've certainly never seen anything like it. The entrance is rather unassuming but as you go in deeper huge galleries open up stretching as high as 65 meters! There are thousands of bats and interesting limstone formations.
The tour only took us in 1.5 km, but it was impressive nontheless, the fact that it continued on for another 7 km after that is really mind blowing. Pretty crazy what water, limestone and a few million years will do.
Port Barton
After the underground river, we headed to a small town called Port Barton, a sleepy little tourist town not too far from Sabang. It was possible to take a boat from Sabang to Port Barton but we were too unorganized and ended up going back to Puerto Princessa for a night and then took another Jeepney to Port Barton.... On possibly the worst road i've seen in the Philippines, and that is saying something.
The first thing we saw upon arrival, aside from the beautiful scenery, was a small boy being carried out of the water by his mother. He was screaming in agony, like really screaming. Turns out he got stung by a jelly fish, one of the badish ones. There are lots all over the place but the bay at Port Barton seemed to be particularly swarming with them. Both the annoying itchy ones and the make you scream in pain ones. It was enough to limit my swimming to only twice staying there four nights.
But on the bright side we found a fantastic room at a very reasonable price. This was the best place i've stayed at in the Philippines, it was huge and had a massive deck and we were the only people staying at this place. It was called Villa Marguerita, and was owned by an Australian who uses it as a cottage and rents it out when his family is not there.
Though it was too bad about the jellyfish in the bay there was plenty of fantastic island hopping and snorkelling to be done. (these were relatively jelly-free) Our boat-man was named Dong and he was a nice fellow all around. He took of to a nice snorkelling reef first off, and then to an Island called paradise, and it seems to be called that for a pretty good reason.
A man named Alvin lives on Paradise. He was a very nice fellow and took us snorlelling, the highlight of which was seeing a sleeping sea turtle. We never would have found it if it weren't for Alvin. He has been on that island for like 5 years and has no salary from the owner, so he charges a small entry fee to go there, we were happy to tip him extra. After that we went to Exotic Island and just kind of hung out on the beach. I was already burned and fairly snorkeled out but it was a pretty nice beach to just take it easy on.
Port Barton also had a bit of hiking to a nearby waterfall (I didn't post pictures of it because it kind of paled in comparison to the falls at Guintubdan, see earlier post). The trail getting there was a little tricky to follow but some nice locals showed us the way. They pointed out a really cool snake we would never have seen without there keen eyes.
Port Barton has been a big highlight of my trip and it would have been easy to stay there another week.
(yes this should have been two seperate posts, but I am a lazy and disorganized man)
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