One of the world's Seven Natural Wonders.

We had aimed to catch a 9:30am minibus from El Nido back to Puerto Princesa, but that one was booked out so we ended up on a 9:00am minibus with the same company we had booked but ditched for the ride up. At least they picked up from out lodgings so we saved a trike fare back to the salubrious bus depot. Nothing much else to praise about the trip though. It was no more comfortable and took 1h:30m longer. This was partly due to an extra comfort stop, but mostly due to six passengers hopping out at Roxas just prior to our lunch stop. Not only did this involve extra time to unpack and repack all the luggage on the roof but the driver then had ample excuse to stop here and there to pick up extra passengers on the road side to refill all the seats. The other plus was that we were delivered to our lodgings in Puerto Princesa, which saved us any extra mucking around on arrival.

View of Palawan's Pristine Beach

The hotel seemed nice enough though we were initially concerned by the constant barking of dogs over the back fence. Fortunately it didn't persist into the evening or through the night. Meanwhile, having been cooped up on a bus for most of the day we decided to take the 10 minute walk down to Palawan Beach. It was signposted as "Pristine Beach" but having walked down the gravel path - and talking our way out of having to pay a beach access fee on the grounds that we were just coming to have a look for later - what we found didn't quite fit with our preconceived ideas of "Pristine". We would describe it as a semi-mangrove swamp with a very shallow and waveless muddy "beach", topped off by karaoke from the beach's bar. We were not disappointed that our schedule was unlikely to give us the chance to return to spend more time here.

Back at the motel we had a quick dip in the pool to cool off. We also managed to secure places on a day trip to see the Underground River tomorrow - requiring another early start with pick up @ 7:00am. (About four of these tours have also been cancelled due to rough seas, as with the boat trips in El Nido, so we were lucky to get on). With nothing much else around the hotel we dined in at their restaurant which seemed quite reasonably priced. Our night's sleep did not go so well though. We were plagued by what sounded like a random squeak in the air-conditioning so we eventually turned it off and switched on the overhead fan instead. Still there was the same squeaking, so we ended up just turning on the air-con again to try and mask the noise.

Despite having order breakfast for 6:30am we still had to wait for them to get it ready for us. Which put us under pressure to hurry because our tour guide was waiting for us by 6:40am, even though we'd been told pick up at 7:00am. However, after picking up another half dozen people we then had to go to the National Parks office to get the required National Park passes for just the two of us (something about the tour operator not having enough 'slots' to cover us). However this office did not even open until 8:00am and we were there waiting from 7:20am. Organisation - not!

The landing beach for the Underground River

Still, once those formalities were done (we were first in the queue - surprise, surprise!) the "one-and-a-half to two hour" drive to Sabang only took 75 minutes. However there was much more waiting in store for us there. Getting to the Underground Caves requires catching a small boat to a beach on the other side of the bay and with many previous days cancelled there were a lot of tour parties already there waiting their turn for the boats. Seeing the lines of boats strung out in each direction made me wonder if the evacuation of Dunkirk looked anything like this (with the shelling of course!). It could also be likened to two lines of ants I suppose. The good news is that after only an hour and a half wait we were boarding one of the boats ourselves for the 20 minute trip across the bay. After landing on the little beach it was just a short walk along a boardwalk to the boarding point for the actual underground river.

The entrance to the Underground River

We could see the cave that was the underground river entrance and we were loaded up into paddle boats for the 45 minute tour of the cave. The guide sat at the back and did all the paddling as well as providing the commentary. (Apparently he does 10 trips per days so he must have strong arms as well as a good voice). After entering the cave we were soon in total darkness - apart from the spot light being wielded by the passenger at the front of the boat and the occasional lights from other boats on the way back. We paddled just over one kilometre upstream through a number of different chambers, eventually reaching a point right underneath the top of the mountain, where the roof of the cave was over 60 metres high. The number and size of the limestone formations along the way was quite remarkable - with individual formations that looked like a giant mushrooms or the head of a T-Rex dinosaur or the Virgin Mary or a naked woman (with the corny name of Sharon Stone).

The T-Rex Head

Some of the stalactites reached down into the water, which the boatman had to steer around. Of course in places the walls and ceiling were lined with tiny, sleeping bats, which is why you were always advised to keep your mouth closed when looking up. A lot of swallows also call the cave home but more so in the areas closer to the mouth. The river is actually navigable for 4.5 kms but being a World Heritage site (and one of the official Seven Natural Wonders of the World) a special permit is required to go that far and these are only granted to researchers and the like.

Once we had returned to the drop off point it was just a short walk back to the beach. Along the way was saw some of the long tailed macaque monkeys who inhabit the area. We had been warned to not have any plastic bottles or cases conspicuous on our person as the monkeys have learned to associate these with food and will snatch them off you given half a chance. We witnessed one trying to extract plastic bottles from a locked garbage bin. Apparently they can also open zippers. It was just a short wait on the beach for our boat to come in from where it was at anchor (with the rest of the armada). It took the boatman a while to coax his engine into life but he made good time once he did, overtaking two other boats on the trip back. I can't help thinking that he must suffer industrial deafness though, because if the engine had a muffler it was in serious need of repair!

One of the Macaque Monkeys

Once back in town we were directed to our buffet lunch which was included in the tour. Over lunch we were talking to a young American couple who strongly advised against our plan to self drive around northern Luzon, due to both the terrain and traffic, and recommended the agent they had used to organise a car with driver to tour the rice terraces area in the hills of Cordillera. So we may yet change our plans though it seems a bit late to organise such a trip now.

The drive back to Puerto Princesa took much longer than this morning's trip, partly because we hit rush hour at the tail end. It had been a long day for 45 minutes of prime time in the Underground River but we agreed it had been worth it. During the day we also became well acquainted with a new compound word, used constantly by Filipino guides when addressing couples or groups - "Mam-Sir" - a rather quaint abbreviation of "Ladies and Gentlemen".

We were pretty exhausted after an interrupted night's sleep and an early start so we passed on the option of tacking another trip to see Fireflies onto the end of the day. Fortunately there was no repeat of noisy air-con or whatever to disturb our much needed slumber.

After breakfast next morning (our request for fried eggs instead of scrambled apparently was lost in translation) we figured we should at least see something of the city. We caught a trike into the Post Office as our first stop. Of course a visit to the Public Markets had to be on the cards, though it really wasn't the sort of markets we imagined. More like a collection of budget shops it seemed like. Outside something told us we might also have been close to the public sewer. Walking up the main street towards the NCCC Mall we happened upon small craft shop where the obligatory wooden lizard was procured. We also came upon the Dunkin Donut shop we had waited at in the van last Thursday morning so we figured we might as well treat ourselves while passing. The NCCC Mall was also not what we imagined - more like a slightly more upmarket collection of department stores. Still, Laura did manage to find a nice replacement for her handbag with the broken zipper for what amounted to just over AU$8. All this was accomplished with plenty of time to catch a trike back to our hotel and complete our check out by the noon deadline. We were then able to sit in the foyer (using their free Wi-Fi) until 1:30 when they gave us a free shuttle ride to the airport for our flight to Cebu.

So adios to picturesque Palawan!