Puerto Princesa Underground River: One of the seven natural wonders of the world

The cabayugan river arises at Mount St Paul at an altitude of 100m and flows underground for almost its entire length to an outflow in St. Paul’s bay. This river is 8.2 kilometers long and is said to be the longest navigable river in the world. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and of the new 7 wonders of nature.


The main features of this subterranean river national park are its spectacular limestone karsts and its rich bio diversity. But, as a tourist, you will find any things interesting. First, the ride into the dark river on tiny rafts and seeing the limestone formations inside the cave using searchlights will be very interesting.


Second, you will realize just how wide the cave is and the sheer magnitude of it will impress your imagination. Out of these 8.3 kms, about 4.5 is navigable, but only 2 kms are allowed for the typical tourist. For the full navigable distance, one needs a research permit.


The other interesting things are the innumerable number of swiftlets inside the river cave and the thousands of fruit bats inside. You will be cautioned not to open your mouth while staring up at the bats, but that is part of the fun.


Only people with necessary permits are allowed into this national park that allows a fixed number of visitors per day. These permits can either be pre-arranged through a travel agent or you can go to Puerto Princesa city and get it on your own.  The next step is to get to Sabang, the small beach hamlet from where the boat rides begin to the national park. Sabang is about 76 kms or roughly 2 hours from Puerto Princesa city. There are 3 ways to get to Sabang from Puerto – private vehicle, public bus and public van service. The public van service is air conditioned and fairly comfortable.


You can either explore the underground river as a day trip from Puerto or decide to halt at Sabang, explore its beautiful beaches and go for hikes amidst its mangrove forests. For the underground river ride, you will have to present your permits and ID proof at the checking counter near the boat jetty (anyone can guide you here) and they will help you with the boarding. You will have to pay for the boat charges here. It is then a 15 minute ride across open ocean to the Puerto Princesa Underground river national park.


At the national park, you can read a lot of material about the various flora and fauna living in this park as you walk through the dense thicket of tall tropical trees to the place where you get your life jacket and helmet. Once you all fitted with the protective gear, a tiny raft takes you inside the river. An oarman and a forest guide accompany each raft. The forest guide handles the search light and educates you on all the interesting stuff about and in the cave. So, please pay close attention to what he is saying even if some of them speak with a slight accent. The underground river ride will be over in 45 minutes, but you will marvel at its beautiful formations, the fact that the river upstream has fresh water and at the entrance is more brackish and the eerie like natural setting.


If you wish to photograph inside the cave, do carry a separate flash unit that will work over and above the search light as even the light from the search light will not be enough for even high ISO photographs. And watch out for the rowdy monkeys who are known to steal belongings of the tourist.


This natural wonder might not come across as truly WOW if you just do the underground river trip as we get to see only a bit of it (as the government is trying to preserve the natural setting and the wildlife), but if you explore the forests, try and understand the flora and fauna, I am sure, you will find the place truly a wonder!

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Nacpan Beach: Pristine Beach North of El Nido, Philippines

There are many beaches in this world that are pristine, super clean, have minimal infrastructure and are not usurped by an expensive resort. The Nacpan beach north of El Nido is one such place. It has a sensational 3 kilometer beach line of golden sand that is as hard as a floor. The waters here are great for swimming and perfect for a private beach getaway.


About 3 small streams join the sea here on this very beach offering an interesting mix of fresh and salt water. Except for a small fishermen village there is hardly any additional infrastructure. But, that offers a tropical concoction of old world charm under swaying coconut palms and paddy fields.


The access to this beach is through dirt and slush amidst paddy fields and before that about 15 kms of winding roads from El Nido. The ride/drive itself can offer a great tropical experience with beautifully green views. And when you reach the beach, you have open seas on one side and lush green countryside and hills on the other. One can even see the remote Duli Beach in the far distance.


This beach is ideal for a relaxed beach holiday for couples and families alike, where one can indulge in fishing, swimming, some beach sports and even dirt biking, if you feel like it. For food, you can either barbecue the fish you caught or ask the villagers to cook you some of their local favorites. Accommodation will be simple, but comfortable beach facing huts in this fishing village.


This is one of those beaches that you ought to see when you visit the Palawan island in Western Philippines. Except for its sand flies, everything about this beach is top class. A true tropical beach getaway where time stops.

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Island Hopping off El Nido, Philippines

Island hopping off El Nido has been the most treasured holiday for all Filipinos and there is a lot of good reasons for this trait. The foreign tourists are slowly discovering this too. Be it scuba diving, snorkeling, cave diving, swimming in lagoons, discovering caves and lagoons, relaxing on deserted beaches and/or sipping a tropical cocktail on a pristine beach, the waters off El Nido play host to innumerable options.


Traditionally, all the attention of beach vacationers go to Boracay, the party capital of Philippines. It also has great beaches and good connectivity with the rest of the country. May be, this was the reason, El Nido went undiscovered for a long while. Even today, getting to El Nido would mean taking a flight to Puerto Princesa and then doing a 6 hour bus/van ride to El Nido or taking an expensive private charter from Manila. Today’s visitors are bearing a little hardship to indulge in El Nido’s nature and charms.


Whatever the reasons may be, the limestone karsts, the sensational cave systems, the amazing underwater life and nature here follows a life of its own. It is believed that the Palawan island was once connected to Borneo and due to tectonic forces moved away as a land mass of its own millions of years ago. Hence, most of Palawan’s ecosystem is related to Borneo and in some ways unique.


Most of the people who wish to do island hopping off the waters of El Nido stay in El Nido, keep it as a base and do island hopping as day trips. There are other luxurious options where in one can stay on the luxury resorts on some of these islands and explore from there. Off late, a third option has become a possibility where tourists can camp in basic style amidst the rugged nature of one of the remote islands. All three options have takers, but the one that is more popular is the first one, since staying at El Nido comes with various perks, like good food, decent party scene, healthcare and connectivity.


One can either take a private tour or go on a group tour to visit the various islands. There are many tour companies who advertise the options and their prices. As a thumb rule, the tour package and the price remains the same. The prices remain standard unless you join at the last moment, in which case, you can request for a discount.


If I remember right, there are tours from A to F and Tour A and Tour C are said to be the best of the lot as they offer a good combination of swimming, snorkeling, lagoons, caves, beaches and more. Most of the tours cost between 600 and 1000 PHP per person. This includes snorkels and lunch. If you are vegetarian, you might need to inform in advance to give you vegetarian food for lunch. Generally, lunch consists of pork, fish, salad and rice.


A typical tour would start in the morning at 9 AM from the El Nido beach on a banka (traditional Filipino boat). Depending on the size of the banka, the group size could vary from 8 to 20 people. If the weather is bad, the boat ride could get rough, but generally, the short distances ensure that sea sickness is nearly unknown on these island hopping trips. Depending on the tour, you will spend time swimming in lagoons, snorkeling in coral reefs, crawling through caves, climbing up view points, sipping a cocktail, seeing beautiful sights and/or relaxing on a beach.


If you happen to plan a holiday to El Nido, do ensure that island hopping stays on top of your to do list. If you have less time, try out Tour A and C and if you have more, try all of the tours. The perfect El Nido holiday is waking up to the sounds of waves crashing, having breakfast, going on an island hopping tour, indulge in pristine nature along with some physical activity and sunshine, a relaxed evening and then some partying in the night before continuing the same routine for the successive days. Get ready to be enchanted!

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Travel Photo: Filipino Boatmen

Filipinos by nature are very easy going and welcoming people. It is hard to see them without a smile on their face. They seem to have taken their tough past and poverty in their stride and seem to enjoy whatever they do. During my travel days in the Philippines, I would always end up having great conversations with Filipinos and Filipinas alike.


In this case, I had an interesting conversation with these two Filipino gentlemen who take the Puerto Princesa Underground river customers from Sabang to the river on their boat. They come from poor backgrounds, have very basic education and apart from taking tourists, they double up as fishermen in the night. In spite of all this, they seemed to enjoy their work and seemed to learn a lot of things too. The people of Philippines have a lot of humility and joy in them and it was personified in these two Filipino boatmen.

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Duli Beach: Remote Beauty in Northern Palawan, Philippines

A lot of travelers to El Nido miss visiting some of its most beautiful beaches on the mainland. Some diehards brave the sand flies and visit the very scenic Nacpan beach, but only a few crazy travelers brave the bad roads and cross green paddy fields to reach a section of forest that leads to the Duli beach. To the outside world, Duli does not exist, but if you check with the locals, they will guide you towards a small dirt track that is navigable by foot, bike and motorbike. This stretch through paddy fields and forests leads to a very remote stretch of beach flanked by tall hills on either side of it.


The good thing about this beach apart from its remoteness is the relative lack of sand flies when compared to the Nacpan beach and the fact that the waves are gentler here and the waters are very sandy. This makes the beach a heaven for swimming and sun bathing. There are some trees on either corner of the beach where you can put your towel and hammock and read a book if you wish to stay away from the sun. In terms of infrastructure, there is absolutely nothing here. You will not even find another human soul here unless some crazy traveler like you has made it there. If you need any food or drinks, head back the dirt trail and cross the 8 kilometers over the hill and goto Dagmay beach. Duli beach is about 35 kilometers from El Nido and one needs to rent a motorbike or car to reach here. The last kilometer can get slushy in the rains and hence caution is advised. If you ever go there, try and keep the place as it is so that many more like me can enjoy its remote and clean beauty.

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