Our third and final day at Puerto Princesa found us waking up real early to prepare for a visit to the famous UNESCO Heritage site, Puerto Princesa’s St Paul Subterranean National park. It’s around 2 hours away from the city and since we have a flight in the afternoon, I asked PASYAR Tours to book us the earliest tour to the site. They got to our hotel in time around 7am just when we were about to finish our breakfast.
Again, the Van was comfortably filled already and we had one more resort stop to pick up a couple more before we headed to Sabang Beach. We paid Pasyar 1500/pax for this tour for the four of us. Again I think that was reasonable enough since we have transpo back and forth to the city, boat transfer from Sabang, Park Fees and lunch at Sabang Beach.
Just a detour note, if one has more time to spare; a visit to Nagtabon Beach would also be worthwhile. This palm-lined white beach cove is nice and picturesque. It’s undeveloped save for only a few cottages in the area. No clear cellular signal here as well. The beach sand is okay and the waters looks real fine for swimming. The seclusion also adds to the appeal.
The cottage caretaker can also find you a boat to take people to the Hen and Chicken Island across. I heard it’s a really good diving and snorkeling area. But sand mites infest the place so bring a bug lotion before heading there. Nagtabon is not a real easy to go to that’s why if you have a Van going to Sabang, it’s would be a nice detour since it’s along the way. Otherwise, hire a ride going there and back for P1000 from Puerto Princesa.
Going back on the Road to Sabang, I made sure my eyes were peeled less than half an hour as we approach Sabang Beach. The foggy karst terrain view along the road to Sabang is just spectacular to miss. We reached the jump-off port in Sabang where we need to register first before hopping on a boat to the underground river.
Sabang is actually a very nice place, the beach is beautiful but locals there don’t recommend swimming on certain seasons on it because of the strong undertow. From a simple sleepy town many years ago, Sabang now has a few lined resorts along the beach for people who would like to stay here for the night. It’s also a popular lunch stop before heading back to the city after or before a tour at the Underground River.
Once we took care of the park permits we boarded the boats heading to the Underground River. This is ths easiest way to visit the park. Like the Honday Bay Island Hopping tour, I liked how organized tours here are. There is a 4-5 limit person on a boat. For those who have the luxury of time, there’s the 2km Jungle or Moneky Trail heading to the Underground River Entrance. I’ll be sure to try this one out next time I’m here.
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Join our Backpack Photography Photo Tours and Workshops for early 2011. Banaue Photography 101 for beginners on February, Bewitching Siquijor Photo Tour on March 2011 and Batanes Island Hopping in April 2011
Ferdz Decena is an award-winning travel photographer, writer and blogger. His works has found print in publications such as Singapore Airlines’s Silver Kris, Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay, Cebu Pacific’s Smile and Seair InFlight. He has also lent his expertise to various organizations like the Oceana Philippines, Lopez Group Foundation, Save the Children and World Vision, contributing quality images for their marketing materials.