Palawan Day 2: Ugong Rock and Underground River

On our 2nd day, our destination was the Underground River Tour. We woke up early because it's a two hour drive from the city to Sabang. Van came around 8AM. We were combined with the other tourists (because we are only 2), the first tourists were a family consist of parents, their son and tita. The second group of tourists were a couple.

that's our van

Around 10AM, we arrived at Sabang but since I had read online almost everything about Puerto Princesa, I have an idea of the tourist spot near Sabang. And since i was really eager to maximize our time in Palawan, I asked the tour guide if we can go to Ugong Rock. And since it was still early, she agreed :)

Ugong Rock is a limestone pedestal jutting up from the rice fields on the way to Sabang. You need to climb at the top of the limestone to be able to see a part of the beauty of Palawan. According to what I had read, it's one of the promising tourist spots in Palawan and everyone should be able to see and explore the beauty of the cave.
We paid Php200 for spelunking and another Php250 for zipline. The fees were inclusive of helmet, gloves and a tour guide. To be comfortable in spelunking, one must wear very light clothes and sandals. There will be moments that you're like carrying yourself up and a lot of sharp stones around so be very careful!

for me this is the hard part haha 

Once you had reached the top, you have two choices of how you will go down. First was to go back again inside the cave or try zipline. We chose the second option since I really wanted to experience zipline and I don't want to go back to the cave anymore since it was really hard to go up, what more to go down! (bummer! haha).
When manong put the safety gears to me (harness), I just felt frightened for my life. Especially when they hanged me, it was like I'm planning to just go again inside the cave! I had a lot of questions to manong like "is this safe?", "will i still live after this? hehehe", "is there somebody who met an accident after this?" and blah blah blah. hehehe. All of the questions above were asked in Filipino language ;)

can you see where is the end of the zip line?

guidelines should be strictly followed

overlooking

me and BF

here comes BF!

BF super happy! Achieve!

exciting!

I did enjoy spelunking and ugong rock is a must-see. I just wish that they will somehow improve the zipline to make the visitors at ease to try it. It seems that the tools or materials used to established the zip line is not that safe (this is just my assumption). But overall I really had fun spelunking!


Around 11:30AM, we arrived at Sabang port. From here, we are going to ride a boat going to the underground river. The tour guide paid our fees and after a few minutes, we were travelling in the sea to explore the beauty of underground river.

look at the two kids..so cute :)

Underground River Map

the port

The view going to the underground river is very picturesque! It's amazing and I'm proud that the Philippines has this kind of beauty. I was really mesmerized of how the sea was very clean and well preserved. Hopefully, my future daughters and sons would see this as is.
The travel to Underground River lasted for about 15 minutes. Underground River is like located in an island. There were huge rock formations. My camera was almost low batt because all the things you will see around were very picture-worthy!

the calm sea

majestic stones

our group

The boatmen were taking their lunch when we arrived so we waited for 1 hour there. On our way to the Underground river, there were lots of monkeys. Yes they were cute but beware! They are like snatchers (haha). According to the people there, the monkeys have a collection of different cameras, cellphones, bags and their favorite were the plastic bags!

monkey with a baby

smiling monkey

Touring Underground river is hassle-free because there were a lot of boatmen and tourists were queued accordingly. When the boatmen finished taking their lunch, one by one they accompanied the tourists to their boats. 
I forgot the name of our boatman but he was really a comedian. According to one of the tourist, all the boatmen are comedians and sometimes their jokes were "scripted". But I don't mind it. He's still funny. hehe
It smells bad while going inside. According to the tour guide it is the "pupu" of the bats. But when we are already inside the cave the smell was gone. 
It was really amazing inside. I just can't imagine that the Philippines have this kind of beauty. A hidden beauty which hopefully will not be abused by human. Although I was kinda scared because there were huge stones all around and the boat we're riding was just a normal boat, still I was mesmerized with it's beauty. I assume our ancestors once lived here.

entering the cave

cave entrance..looks small right? 

dark inside 

so many bats inside

what can you see?

notice the eyes?

candle

i find this stone scary..according to the boatman it is already "dead" so it can fall down anytime

big candle

going out

BF so happy with what he saw :)

The tour lasted for 40 mins. but we just toured 1/4 of the cave. According to the boatman, if we want to tour the entire cave, we should get a permit and prepare ourselves for that because it would last for a whole day! But I am already contented with what we saw. Underground River really deserves to be one of the new seven wonders of the world and I am very proud that I was able to visit and witness it's beauty!


It was almost 2pm when we had our lunch on a neighboring island. I was really really hungry by this time so when the food was served, I ate immediately! hehehe. Here's what we had for lunch.

I love pets that's why I took a picture of this dog :)

more on day 3 here :)