Subterranean River of Sabang - The New 7 Natural Wonders of the World

One of the new Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Subterranean River of Sabang (aka the Underground River) is a huge river system cutting a cave into hanging limestone cliffs overlooking the ocean. From Sabang, you have to take a boat along the ocean's edge, land at a beached back by limestone cliffs and board a tiny canoe to enter into the dark cave system.

(After recently being named one of the Seven New Natural Wonders of the World, it seems this attraction is getting more popular. They also limit the number of permits per day, so many people trying to do day trips from Puerto Princesa had to wait weeks to find an open spot.)

(Rough waters are common in the area, though luckily the ride from Sabang to the entrance to the Underground River is only about 25 minutes.)

(The area has a prehistoric feel to it, with strong waves crashing against the limestone cliffs, covered in thick forest.)

(The scenic limestone cliffs and hidden beach make a memorable landing spot for entering the Subterranean River.)

(Our group getting ready to enter into the dark cave. From Left: a hint of the guide's finger, a Filipino couple from Las Vegas, a French/Singaporean couple I met on the bus ride, me and a random German, and the German guy's friends in the front.)

(Green water flows out of the river, winding around a bend and draining into the ocean just about 100 yards away. This is the entrance into the cave, maybe just about five meters/fifteen feet high.)

(Guided boats cruise the river for about 45 minutes, going 1.5 kilometers into the cave system before turning back. In the front of the boat is a car battery with a huge flashlight hooked to it to help point out the different formations in the cave. Our flashlight-holding passenger wasn't too quick with instructions, so it took a lot of instruction to get him pointing in the right direction.)

(I think this was some sort of mushroom formation. The guide pointed out many different formations along the way, some obvious, some a little harder to imagine. We were also advised to keep our mouths closed when looking upwards (say mmmm instead of ooohhhh) "because there are two things that fall from the ceiling - holy water and holy shit." There are bats and swiftlets along the ceiling in some parts, but not close enough to really scare anyone.)

(One of the formations known as the fruit market, where you can see various shapes of fruit hanging on the walls. I think this was part of the bananas. Who knows.)

(Heading back out of the cave. Though the river is over 8 kilometers long, the tour only goes in for 1.5 kilometers, since going much further would require diving gear.)

(Another group descends into the darkness.)

(Coming out of the Underground River, waiting for our catamaran to come back and take us back to Sabang. While we were waiting, the Filipino couple from Las Vegas tried to open a bag of potato chips, but a nearby monkey heard the crinkling plastic, emerged from the woods, quickly ran over, jumped on the woman's shoulders, bared its teeth and stole the bag, disappearing back into the forest.)

(The beachfront at Sabang. I had lunch here before catching a minivan up the coast to El Nido. The van was supposed to be faster than the regular jeepneys, though our shocks gave out about an hour away from El Nido in the middle of a storm, on a dirt road, in the pitch black night, in an area with no cell phone coverage and no other cars. Nice combo. About 30 minutes later, we were able to flag down a passing car and have them call for another van to pick us up when they got to the next town.)

(Some sort of potato, carrot and chicken stew.)

(The long-distance jeepney. With 40-50 people stuffed inside, people also climb on the roof and sit on top of the luggage/cargo. On the way up to Sabang, I took this, and it was about 3 hours. On the way back, I took a private van, and it was about 40 minutes...big difference...)

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Palawan - The Last Frontier - Puerto Princesa and Ziplining

Palawan, a small island province in Southwest corner of the Philippines, is known as the Last Frontier, where thick jungles give way to huge limestone cliffs and hidden beaches. My first two days were spent in the capital, Puerto Princesa, where there's not much going on, and the intense heat and humidity keeps things from moving too quickly.

(Chaolong - with many Vietnamese immigrants in the area, Puerto Princesa has some good, authentic Vietnamese eateries, mostly just tiny shacks with a few benches and tables and very limited menus. This is a noodle soup with beef and a hard-boiled egg.)

(A random Filipino meal. Many small "cantinas" or other shops offer pots of various stews or curries, though I was never too sure what I was exactly getting. This one was actually more of a fast food chain version of it, hence the classy plate with dividers.)

(One of my nicer hotel rooms, including a private bathroom. Other rooms were not as big/clean/nice. I even had a fan and 24 hour electricity, which isn't always guaranteed on some parts of the island.)

(Halo-halo. Not to be confused with a German saying hello to you, it means "mix-mix", and it's basically a dessert with ice cream, ice shavings, and almost anything else ranging from rice krispies, tapioca, various types of jello, etc. hidden in the bottom.)

(The tricycles of Puerto Princesa were a little more uniform, with the blue or white covers for the sidecar. Apparently you can get up to five people in these, though I didn't test that claim.)

(The main road from the airport into the city...deciding to save $1.25, I walked the 10-15 minutes into town with my big backpack. Smart.)

(While waiting in town, I saw an ad for a new zipline, so I decided to check it out. Asia's longest zipline, you fly superman style (face-first) through the tree tops and over what is said to be the Philippines' cleanest river. I was the only one in the park (it just opened a few months earlier), so the combination of having the place to myself and feeling like I was literally flying above the treetops on the long zipline made for an amazing experience.)

(Not so amazing was the Sky Walk. The lady at the gate sold me on a combo deal, and while it was pretty, the hanging bridges over the river couldn't compete with having just come off the long zipline.)

(One of the best parts of the day was meeting David, the driver of the local bus who took me all the way into the park and waited while I did the ziplining (otherwise I would've had to have walked a long way to the park from the end of the bus line). On the way back, he told me stories about his family and the city while I helped him gather customers - basically just yelling out at people along the road to find out which way they were going. Bayan? Bayan-po?)

(A tiny vegetarian restaurant in the city held great promise, though the stir-fried tofu and green beans weren't as good as I was hoping. With only a few tables, I shared my table with a random Swedish/Swiss girl who was pregnant but sick of her friends on her trip, so she came down to Palawan while they went to a more party-oriented island.)

(Mangosteen! You break open the dark skin and staining pink part to reveal the sweet white middle, broken into pieces similar to an orange. Great tropical fruit can be found all over the Philippines.)

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Hiking the Rice Terraces - Batad, Cambulo and Bangaan

My second day around Batad was spent hiking, walking, trekking, climbing, etc for about 8 hours through some incredible, green scenery varying from sharp mountains to freshly planted rice terraces to wind blown grasslands covering the side of the ridges.

(A view of the lower part of Batad, showing the "trails" along the edges of the terraces. The terrace walls in Batad are held together with rocks, while those in other parts are pure mud.)

(Just after sunrise, I opted for a quick, protein filled breakfast - eggs, tomatoes and onions.)

(Bits of rain and clouds passed by in the afternoon, but just after sunrise, the amphitheater was incredibly beautiful. That's the other half of Batad tucked down in the bottom of the picture.)

(Freshly planted rice. Just add a little adobo and voila - Filipino meal!)

(Batad Part 1 in the valley and Batad Part 2 on top of the hill. Or maybe it's the other way around. Or maybe I just made up those names. Who knows.)

(Part of Batad sitting in the middle of the extensive terraces.)

(Steep stairs and dirt paths lead up and down over the terraces. Many parts are only a few feet from very large drop offs to the river gorge far below.)

(Along the trail from Batad to Cambulo. I was enticed by the prospect of a nice hanging bridge in Cambulo, but it didn't look as nice as the one in Banaue, so I cut off a few steps and turned back just before I got there.)

(Not the aforementioned hanging bridge, but a little bridge around halfway from Batad to Cambulo.)

(On the way back, clouds began coming in, though the rain stayed away until later in the afternoon.)

(The tiny village in the right center is Cambulo. The other stuff is mountains and rice terraces. Fairly simple concept.)

(Hot and sweaty - tropical heat and humidity tends to do that to you when you're hiking up and down steep slopes. Fortunately, the higher elevations here make it a little cooler.)

(Workers planting the rice stalks for the upcoming harvest. Apparently the area is the greenest around May or June. I'll have to take their word for it.)

(Like something straight out of my dreams, this little hut appeared on the top of a steep mountain, with a friendly man and his daughter selling cold water and Gatorade. Apparently they near the town 1.5 hours below, but they found a pretty good spot to sell to hikers. They should really raise their prices, though...I would've paid a whole lot more for that bottle.)

(Huge green mountains along the trail from Batad back to the main road and Banga'an. There's a little village hidden at the base of the mountain.)

(The last few minutes through the rice terraces before arriving at the junction/Banga'an.)

(The tiny village of Banga'an, again hidden in the rice terraces. At this point, I had a group of 5-10 little children following cautiously behind me, wanting to tag along and a few were brave enough to come hold my hand and ask me questions.)

("What's your name?" "Where are you going?" "Where's your mom?" These three guys followed me for about 30 minutes along the dirt road back to town, asking the same few questions over and over again, excited to see where I was going. They happily posed for this picture at one of the huts/lookouts along the road above Banga'an.)

(Tiny Banga'an clustered together in the bottom of the valley.)

(Vegetable curry back in Banaue - surprisingly great - a nice curry with a bit of peanut and maybe coconut. This was one of my best meals of the trip. And yes, there was rice. Presumably from the nearby terraces...)

(Another overnight bus ride took me back to Manila for most of a day before heading to the airport and South to the province of Palawan.)

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The Rice Terraces of Banaue, Batad, and Tappia Falls

From Manila, I headed up into the central mountains for some hiking around the so-called Eighth Wonder of the World - the rice terraces of Banaue.

(Adobo - one of the national dishes of the Philippines. Basically a mix of chicken or pork, soy sauce, garlic, vinegar and other spices. Not bad.)

(Solomon, the tricycle driver, took me around to some of the viewpoints over the valley of rice terraces. A tricyle here is basically a motorcycle with plastic/metal covering to protect it from rain and a little sidecar for guests. Not to be confused with a tricycle that a little kid would ride - somehow I don't think I'd fit on one of those anymore.)

(The mountain town of Banaue. I stayed in People's Lodge, right in the center of the picture...not because of the amazingly creative name but because of the nice views out the back.)

(In mid February, small plots of rice had just been planted, though most of the terraces are still flooded with water. Each of these little clumps of rice are painstakingly planted by hand in the muddy soil.)

(A colorful jeepney parked along the road above Banaue. A friend pointed out that the tires are pretty worn, but I think that's sometimes the least of your concerns riding on these things on the edge of some of these treacherous roads.)

(The view from further up the road, looking back towards Banaue. Rice terraces were carved into the sides of many of the mountains in the area, built nearly two thousand years ago.)

(Another variation of pancit/noodles.)

(The city of Banaue, viewed from the back of my cheap hotel. Many of the buildings on the main road in town are 3-5 stories high, carved into the steep edge of a hillside over the river below.)

(Looking the other way down the valley. Check out the hanging bridge in the bottom right corner.)

(For my second day, I made a deal with Solomon's friend to drop me off at the junction to Batad, an hour away. Winding along the dirt/mud road was a little scary with our tricycle, but in the end, it was fine.)
(After hiking uphill for an hour from the road below, you can see the tiny dirt path carved into the mountainside on the right that leads back to Banaue...yes, that's the road.)

(Pita sandwich or something! Somehow that's Filipino...or not...I don't ask questions, I just eat...Cheese strips, tomato and egg, for those that were wondering.)

(Batad is a tiny village with one part perched on the steep hillside and another part nestled in the valley below, amongst the rice terraces. I stayed in the blue-green guesthouse in the middle of the picture...not to be confused with the blue-green guesthouse slightly to the right of it. There must've been a sale on that paint.)

(Water buffalo lounging in the mud, living the good life. These things are huge.)

(Small trails of dirt or stone line the edges of the rice terraces, allowing you to hike through the area without actually slogging through the terraces.)

(Tappia Falls - about an hour's walk and approximately two million stairs away from Batad. Though steep and a little treacherous, the 30 meter/100 foot falls are definitely worth it. Check out the little people on the rocks in the river below for some perspective.)

(Check out the bigger guy on the rocks for some more perspective. That's me, in case you didn't know. The few people already at the falls left soon after, leaving me to enjoy this wonderful spot all to myself for a while.)

(The entire area is surrounded by massive green mountains with the imaginatively named Cordillera all around. Cordillera means mountain range in Spanish.)

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