Dianne's Nook

The second day of our Palawan adventure was devoted entirely to our Underground River Tour. We know that the attraction, among the tourist spots we intend to visit, is the farthest. We need all the time for travel. We don't want to be late just because we failed to follow the itinerary.

We availed the package tour of Sis Tiara of Girltalk for our Underground River Tour. I think it was a good decision since we don’t want to worry about the permits needed for the tour. We also know that there will be a lot of people visiting the place since it’s one of the finalists to the Seven New Wonders of Nature. We want the tour to be planned out already so we can just enjoy and not worry about anything.

Getting a permit and schedule is not that easy. Days before the scheduled tour, I’ve been texting Tiara about our schedule. She told us that it still depends on the coast guards if we will be allowed to push through with the tour since it’s been raining continuously. The night before the tour, we were informed that we will be picked up at 9:00-9:30 am next day for the 2:30 pm tour.

We were picked up at 9:30 am the next day by a van. We were joined by other tourists going to the Underground River too.

The trip to Sabang Beach is quite long.  Since the Underground River is located on the northwestern part of Puerto Princesa where we stayed, we need to endure a 1.5 – 2 hour land trip. But believe me, the view is worth it. You’ll pass by a lot of beautiful sceneries you’ll definitely be amazed of. At first I thought it was a straight road to Sabang but I was wrong. The other half or three-fourths of the trip is filled by thrill because of the hilly and zigzag roads. It’s like riding a roller coaster because your stomach will really turn upside down. It’s a good thing that we have a great driver whom by the way he drives really knows the ins and outs of the road.

We passed by different beautiful attractions like the Buenavista View Deck where you can have an amazing view of the coast. Really amazing! I have a photo of how the view looks like.



We were also able to see the Sleeping Giant. The tour guide told us that this is where the Underground River is located.


After one and a half of travel time, we reached Sabang Beach. It was lunch time so we had our buffet lunch at Green Verde Resort. The buffet lunch is already included in the package. The food is great. The view of Sabang Beach even made it better.




After eating our lunch, we rest for a while, enjoy the view before we were called to go to the Registration Area. The boats bound for Underground River were all docked there. We rode Boat #50. The registration people told us to remember our boat number because this is where we’ll ride on when we get back to Sabang Beach.

The boat ride took about 30 minutes to the cove where the Underground River is just a few walks away. The view again is breathtaking. It was way better when the place is not too commercialized, I realized. I applaud the local government of Palawan for doing a great job in maintaining their natural resources.


We reached the cove where the Underground River is nearly located. There’s a registration area again where you also get to vote for the Underground River by paper. We proceeded and walked for 3-5 minutes until we reached the entrance of the Underground River. There were many people waiting for their turn there. Seeing the flock of people made us realized that it was a good decision that we availed a package tour. We don’t need to worry about dealing with the registration. All we have to do is wait for the call of our tour guide so we can ride the boat.


Entering the Underground River requires that we wear some protective gears. We wore life vest and helmet/hard hat. The former is obvious and the latter is for the falling debris and unwanted stuffs from bats.

At around 3:00 pm, we were called to ride the boat. Yey!



We were escorted by a boatman who also happens to be the tour guide. One of us was called to hold the flashlight. The tour guide sat at the back and discussed the different things found inside the cave. The tour inside the cave was full of laughter because the tour guide, Kuya Rene is so funny. He throws funny jokes about the cave in English. Though it could sometimes be carabao English, we don’t mind as long as he’s funny and we understand him. The whole tour was not boring at all. In fact, we didn’t notice that we already reached the end of the tour. He’s just so adorable.



You can also get your printed pictures taken by a photographer upon entering and exiting the cave for P150.
We went back to the beach where our boat is to take some last minute photos before going back to Sabang.
When we reached Sabang, we bought some refreshments and snacks. We ate fishballs and ice scramble. The fishballs are homemade and it taste good. The ice scramble is also good and is quite different to what we have here. It uses condensed milk instead of chocolate syrup.


At around 5:30 pm, we rode the van and went back to Puerto Princesa. We reached Puerto Princesa around 7:00 pm, just in time for our Ka Lui’s Restaurant reservation at 8:00 pm.