Underground river & goodbye Philippines!
At the westcoast of Palawan there is a river that had considerable trouble in finding the sea. Too many mountains obscured the view, in particular a mountain shaped like an elephant. So in the end the river just dived under the mountains to the sea. Palawan is very proud of its Sabang Underground River of about 8 kms.
From the sea one can take a boat into the cave of the underground river, which looks like a hungry monster. It is a very entertaining ride, but a bit chaotically organized by the Filippinos. But perhaps it was an extra busy day because it was Philippine independence day. We had to wait for three hours, but that was not as bad as it sounds because we could take a dive into the warm waters of the South China Sea, against a beautiful pacific background of palms and cone-shaped mountains.
The cave of the river lies inside a natural park.
By now the Sabang Underground River is almost elected as one of the new 7 wonders of nature, but that is perhaps too much honor.
Well, this is the end of my stories from the Philippines. I hope they entertained you. I have certainly entertained myself in the Philippines. Before I left Holland, I was under the impression that the Philippines would be the least interesting country of Southeast Asia, but I was wrong! My own adventures and the reactions of my fellow travellers led me to believe that the Philippines is a heavily underrated country and great discoveries await the traveller!
I hope that one day I will get another chance to live in another country for a while. It was an amazing experience and left a deep impression on me!
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