I fell in love with Palawan.
I woke up at 5:30 and had breakfast at around 5:50. It was just the usual morning: tinapa and egg, coffee, and WiFi; but the wait for the subsequent trip filled the cool morning air with a deafening tension of a silent orchestra.
I was ready by 7, but we were supposed to leave at 7:30. But apparently, the bus was to arrive at 7. Anyway, it was shameful but they waited for us. We went to their office and waited for something (I'm not sure what) and left at around 9:30. On the way we saw the sharp shadows demarcating the lush mountain peaks from the busy, colorful plains. Along the unbounded curves beside ravines and hard rocks, we passed by the elephant rock (an old tourist spot but someone died there because of sleeping in the cold), and the white rocks. Our travelmate also talked about small birds whose saliva was a powerful medicine (it's now an endangered species) and the Batac tribe and the other tribe whose name I forgot.
We arrived at a beach near the underground river. With some waiting and a sleight of hand, we shortly left by motorboat for the famous river, now one of the world's 7 wonders.
After an hour or so of waiting, we finally delved to the mouth to pierce the wonder's veil of darkness.
The teeth of stalactites hanging from the mouth of the cave, seemingly ready to munch us any time.
My phone camera is too noob to get a clear picture in the darkness. I don't have much to show but I'll try to describe things.
The cave is very spacious even through the tunnels, and more so in the larger holes. Gray, solid rocks, both rough and smooth, and dry and wet, lined with minerals some yellow, gray, and some black. Hundreds of small bats like small dots hung in some parts in the high ceiling. Rocks below these nests are filled with precious brown bat shit, locally known as /guana/. These shits serve as food for other animals such as scorpions and whatnot. Dead bats then serve as food for the aquatic life below.
We only traversed 1.5 km out of 8.2(?) km of the river (although actually only 4.3 km is accessible by boat because the river flows through a submerged orifice.
Most rock formations are given form by imagination, like constellations in the sky. No wonder most are religious shapes and/or related to local milieu, like the half-face of Christ, Mary mother of Jesus (there are actually two of them), the giant candle, the Cathedral, the /palengke/ section (papaya, bawang, jellyfish...) etc.
Either way, the rock formations are majestic and awe-strucking, especially the high ceilings in the huge halls, and tall columns. Soft breezes would blow once in a while from different granc
Since there is only one entrance/exit, we went back the same path. The rock formations look slightly different from that angle but not less awe-inspiring. It was a short hour but really memorable.
We went by motorboat again to the Zipline area. It was 800 meters long, sloping gently over the sea. It was my first Zipline, and I have a video! A bit confusing one, actually.
We were late and so were the city officials that were with us. They were obviously irritated. We went to bought lunch at a place they pointed at but the service was slow (remember people in Palawan have a more laid-back demeanor). And so we were late.
Anyway, that night we went to Baywalk to bike. I barely learned how to do so in Baguio. But in a few minutes it was almost natural, and within the hour I learned how to do a U-turn and one-hand. I was really noisy (I usually am when happy) and I don't care about what others think of me.
We had dinner at Chowking (of all places!) and I had fried chicken Lauriat. No one really wanted anything and since we talked about spicy chao fan (inside joke) we just ended up there.
Then we went to Itoy's Specialty Coffee Shop to have a coffee meeting with ma'am de Leon and sir Bemboy and sir Terence. I bought Iced Coffee which I really enjoyed even though I'm no fan of expensive drinks. I thought it wasn't so bad to spend money once in a while but ma'am actually paid for all of us!! Even brought me carrot cake. Really fun! When I have money I'd like to treat people to. But then I'd be torn whether to save it or to spend it on charity. I don't know how to spend money on charity though so that's still something I have to look into.
Tomorrow we leave early but I didn't sleep ASAP, still hung around the prof's room and got a copy of the pictures in my USB.
I woke up at 5:30 and had breakfast at around 5:50. It was just the usual morning: tinapa and egg, coffee, and WiFi; but the wait for the subsequent trip filled the cool morning air with a deafening tension of a silent orchestra.
I was ready by 7, but we were supposed to leave at 7:30. But apparently, the bus was to arrive at 7. Anyway, it was shameful but they waited for us. We went to their office and waited for something (I'm not sure what) and left at around 9:30. On the way we saw the sharp shadows demarcating the lush mountain peaks from the busy, colorful plains. Along the unbounded curves beside ravines and hard rocks, we passed by the elephant rock (an old tourist spot but someone died there because of sleeping in the cold), and the white rocks. Our travelmate also talked about small birds whose saliva was a powerful medicine (it's now an endangered species) and the Batac tribe and the other tribe whose name I forgot.
We arrived at a beach near the underground river. With some waiting and a sleight of hand, we shortly left by motorboat for the famous river, now one of the world's 7 wonders.
After an hour or so of waiting, we finally delved to the mouth to pierce the wonder's veil of darkness.
The teeth of stalactites hanging from the mouth of the cave, seemingly ready to munch us any time.
My phone camera is too noob to get a clear picture in the darkness. I don't have much to show but I'll try to describe things.
The cave is very spacious even through the tunnels, and more so in the larger holes. Gray, solid rocks, both rough and smooth, and dry and wet, lined with minerals some yellow, gray, and some black. Hundreds of small bats like small dots hung in some parts in the high ceiling. Rocks below these nests are filled with precious brown bat shit, locally known as /guana/. These shits serve as food for other animals such as scorpions and whatnot. Dead bats then serve as food for the aquatic life below.
We only traversed 1.5 km out of 8.2(?) km of the river (although actually only 4.3 km is accessible by boat because the river flows through a submerged orifice.
Most rock formations are given form by imagination, like constellations in the sky. No wonder most are religious shapes and/or related to local milieu, like the half-face of Christ, Mary mother of Jesus (there are actually two of them), the giant candle, the Cathedral, the /palengke/ section (papaya, bawang, jellyfish...) etc.
Either way, the rock formations are majestic and awe-strucking, especially the high ceilings in the huge halls, and tall columns. Soft breezes would blow once in a while from different granc
Since there is only one entrance/exit, we went back the same path. The rock formations look slightly different from that angle but not less awe-inspiring. It was a short hour but really memorable.
We went by motorboat again to the Zipline area. It was 800 meters long, sloping gently over the sea. It was my first Zipline, and I have a video! A bit confusing one, actually.
We were late and so were the city officials that were with us. They were obviously irritated. We went to bought lunch at a place they pointed at but the service was slow (remember people in Palawan have a more laid-back demeanor). And so we were late.
Anyway, that night we went to Baywalk to bike. I barely learned how to do so in Baguio. But in a few minutes it was almost natural, and within the hour I learned how to do a U-turn and one-hand. I was really noisy (I usually am when happy) and I don't care about what others think of me.
We had dinner at Chowking (of all places!) and I had fried chicken Lauriat. No one really wanted anything and since we talked about spicy chao fan (inside joke) we just ended up there.
Then we went to Itoy's Specialty Coffee Shop to have a coffee meeting with ma'am de Leon and sir Bemboy and sir Terence. I bought Iced Coffee which I really enjoyed even though I'm no fan of expensive drinks. I thought it wasn't so bad to spend money once in a while but ma'am actually paid for all of us!! Even brought me carrot cake. Really fun! When I have money I'd like to treat people to. But then I'd be torn whether to save it or to spend it on charity. I don't know how to spend money on charity though so that's still something I have to look into.
Tomorrow we leave early but I didn't sleep ASAP, still hung around the prof's room and got a copy of the pictures in my USB.
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