Travel to Palawan - Underground River

Palawan has been described as the Philippines' last frontier and aptly so. I was able to visit Palawan last month after years of just looking at photos and reading travel stories. The province is really safe contrary to the dangerous image created by the kidnapping in Dos Palmas in May 2001. Armed with our Lonely Planet Philippines and information culled from the Internet, we decided to stay in Palawan for 10 days covering the Underground River and Sabang Beach, Puerto Princesa and Honda Bay and El Nido.

We took the flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa via Cebu Pacific and immediately went to the jeepney terminal bound for Sabang. The jeepneys (150 pesos one-way) didn't have a fixed schedule so we left after 3 hours of waiting for the jeepney to get full. The supposedly 2.5 jeepney ride took 5 hours because we experienced 3 flat tires and tons of house to house deliveries from eggs, to cooking oil, to gasoline in huge containers. We were lucky to get seats in the front otherwise it would've been a tight squeeze at the back -- not only with people but also with baskets and vegetables and chickens! The Underground River was worth the long, dusty and bumpy jeepney ride though.

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean National Park popularly known as the Underground River is considered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered to be the longest navigable river tunnel in the world. It takes 30 mins by pump boat (P700 pesos good for 6 persons) to get to the park's entrance from Sabang Beach.

Visitors are only allowed to traverse 3km of the river's length. Hundreds of bats await you once you go inside the cave. It was eery, scary and at the same time amazing. It was like a scene straight out of Lord of the Rings!

The guided tour itself showcased not only the cave's and river's beauty but also the guides' sense of humor. We had to stretch our imaginations and creativity to make out The Holy Family, a cathedral and some other objects from the stalactites and stalagmites.

After the tour, we decided to stay in Sabang Beach to enjoy its other attractions. And yeah, we didn't want to injure our butts for another bumpy jeepney ride.