Balobok Natural Arc Entrance
Another day started when we found ourselves on the top of Bongao Capitol enjoying the breath taking views. After, we sampled local delicacies at one of their coffeeshops at the town center for breakfast. Fast forward, we checked out Hotel Juanita and made another attempt as Simunul but Kit wasn’t really comfortable of letting us go along with strangers so we just accepted an invite to witness a Muslim pre-wedding ceremony of Pamutong. After which we were told, the tourism people would take us to one important site not only in Tawi-tawi but in the whole South East Asia, the Balobok Rock Shelter.
Balobok Rock Shelter boardwalk
I won’t go into details or photos of the wedding since it’s a private family affair. But it was real interesting to witness a pamutong, where the groom would ask the hand of the bride and set a date for their wedding after giving the dowry to the bride’s family. What’s interesting is the groom (Ma’am Salve’s Son) is a Christian and the bride is a Muslim. The ceremony was just short so after which we had the afternoon to visit Barangay Lakit-Lakit for the Balobok Rock Shelter, one of the most important archaeological site in the Philippines.
Balobok Natural Arc Entrance
We were accompanied by the friendly folks at tourism, Sheva, our Bud Bongao guide, Ben, Kit and a couple of young teens where we borrowed the 4×4 we’re using to go there. It took around an hour driving by rough road passing by the currently expanding Bongao Airport at Sanga-sanga and small villages until we arrived at Barangay Lakit-Lakit where a welcome “Palanjal Kam” sign awaits. The site has already been developed as a major preservation and conservation area. Boardwalks were already constructed towards the shelter and a viewing deck for the excavation site. The Balobok Rock Shelter Cave is actually a part of a larger karst formation extending up to the nearby coastline of Barangay Nangulan.
Balobok Rock Cave Shelter
Looking at the place, it looks just like an ordinary cave shelter, but a closer inspection of the shelter walls, one would find layer of shells and other minerals, evidenced that the early inhabitants were already strengthening the cave walls. More excavation led to discovery of ancient artifacts like flake tools, polished stones, earthenware shards, bone tools among others and some animal remains. These remains and artifacts were dated by C-14 to be around 8,810 to 5,190 years ago.
A small cove at the Balobok Rock Shelter
The Balobok Rock Shelter (whose name “Balobok” came from both the sound of waves hitting the rocks and the name of a native fish from Sanga-sanga) is not only important to our country but also to the whole of Southeast Asia. The site sheds some light into the movement of people from Southwest Pacific to the Pacific World.
Essentials:
Those interested to visit the site should coordinate with the Local tourism of Bongao as no public vehicle ply those routes. Roads are rough and can be slippery so a 4×4 is advised: Salvacion Pescadera, prov. tourism officer at 0910.6716367 or Sirikit Arip, supervising tourism operation officer at 0919.4325553.
what breathtaking views. are you ever going to show us some of your travels where the views are NOT actually AWESOME, parang so-so lang sa palagay mo? not that i’m complaining, i love all your travelogue entries, the views are magnificent. Nagtataka lang.
ello ferdz! hanep pati tawi-tawi nagalugad mo na
ayus!! hehehe
It’s beautiful, but sounds really out of the way!
Where is the Philippines is this place?
wow, was that like 3 months ago? nice to take a more than cursory glance at the images and look back. natawa naman ako sa comment ni photo cache. but i’d like to think you always show the beautiful side of places and things kasi
No offense… i kinda agree with photocache. Been wondering what’s a normal day like for ironwulf and how’d it look behind the lens? But again, thank you for sharing this set of photos.
Hahaha! Hmmm… let’s see about that Photo Cache. Most of the time when I don’t like the place I don’t take a picture or try to look for a different angle or scenery.
Onga Jhennypie! Ei nice to see you here again.
Hi Soshana! This is in Tawi-tawi, Philippines down under
Haha, Onga Og, sobrang delayed ko na nga, but I’ve got this regular weekly thing going and hopefully catches up.
Hehehe. Let’s see about that Jaki. I used to have a project 365 blog but wasn’t able to continue with it. Probably with this new blog I have on my main site
amigo, naku, i didn’t mean it that way. it just got me thinking na parang kelan lang ‘tong biyahe na’to.
the beach down that pathway looks really nice. are you allowed to swim there?
ang ganda naman talaga dito. =) parang vietnam. =)
Thanks for sharing your info about these places!
I´m considering visiting Tawi-Tawi this June. Is feasible/secure (as a foreigner) to rent a motorbike and visit all these places around Bongao? Traveling alone, renting a 4×4 seems to much
Do you have any email for contacting the tourism office there?
Thanks in advance.
BEAUTIFUL!!! I’m oh so excited now that I’ve found pictures of Balobok Cave, me along with my friends and 160+ schoolmates are ACTUALLY going there around next week, this December,2009!!! You gotta love it!! I’ve also found out that the artifacts found were around 6450 B.P, whoah!