Palawan: Southeast Asia in Miniature
If you take some of the best of Southeast Asia’s natural attractions – underground rivers in southern Laos, limestone cliff archipelagos in northern Vietnam and southern Thailand, land karst formations in northern Laos, the chance to snorkel with turtles as in Indonesia or Malaysia – and throw them all together, you have Palawan. The ‘last frontier’ of the Philippines is a stunningly beautiful place and needless to say our favourite island in the Philippines so far. The seafood is excellent, the weather has been beautiful (we have the sunburn to prove it), and we feel like we’re on holiday – rather than travelling – for the first time since leaving Rome in early September.
We arrived by plane in the provincial capital Puerto Princesa, about halfway up the east coast of the elongated island, and even from the air you could see the beauty of Palawan – the offshore reefs, the gorgeous colour of the water, the jungles on land, and so on. Puerto Princesa likes to think it is home to the ‘Puerto Princesa Subterranean River’ (for which there is a current blitzkrieg voting campaign by the local government in the New 7 Wonders contest, which includes free trips for locals who haven’t been, but only if they prove they have voted for the river before going to see it), but the river is actually in Sabang, about two hours drive and a 20-minute boat trip away on the west coast of the island. The scenery around Sabang, with karst scenery extending to the palm tree-lined coast, was probably the best we had seen in the country to that point and the first of our many boat trips in Palawan was delightful. The jungle area close to the river is home to monkeys and monitor lizards, which are some of the biggest lizards in the world and which we saw for the first time in their natural habitat.
The subterranean river itself is 8km long but tourists are only taken 1.5km in, and then return the same way. The river is quite narrow and the cave fairly small for the most part, which allowed us (with the aid of torches) to see the stalactites and stalagmites at close range. Overall, we didn’t think it was as impressive as Kong Lor Cave in Laos (which I gushed about in this space a year or so ago, and is not in the New 7 Wonders voting), but it was still an extremely worthwhile trip in its own right.
From Puerto we took a 7.5 hour bus departing for some reason at 5am to El Nido in the northern part of the Palawan mainland. Just off the coast of El Nido lies the Bacuit Archipelago, a series of mountainous, jungle- and limestone cliff-clad, islands reminiscent of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and Krabi in Thailand. We spent two days doing boat trips around the archipelago, visiting many coves, beaches and lagoons, swimming or climbing through holes in the rocks to discover further lagoons, and snorkelling with two fabulous sea turtles on the second morning, the first time we have ever done that. The turtles and the fabulous swimming locations – probably the most beautiful I have ever swum in – put Bacuit over the top of Ha Long Bay and Krabi in my own rankings (though, to continue this post’s subplot, the Bacuit Archipelago is not on the New 7 Wonders ballot but Ha Long Bay is).
Next up in Palawan? Why, some more boat trips…
Tags: Asia, Bacuit Archipelago, karsts, New 7 Wonders, Palawan, Southeast Asia, subterranean river, The Philippines
Nick