Sabang is Paradise

After being quite sick all day on Tuesday, Lucian and I decided to make up for lost time and catch the Underground River Tour on Wednesday, which is the pride of Palawan island.  We arranged to leave Puerto Princesa the next morning and take a van out to Sabang, a very small, beachside community where the tours depart from.  We picked up several people along the way including: two Russians, a Canadian, two Koreans, and the worst of all - a creepy older guy and his very young Filipino "friend".  Lucian and I decided to call this guy "Turquoise Pervert / Pedophile" (TP for short).

As the van bounced along at 60 MPH along the winding, narrow roads, I feared for the lives of the children and people along the side of the pavement.  They had about two seconds and a few blasts of the van's horn as a warning that we were coming.  The scenery was amazing.  Large, green mountains sprang up out of nowhere and tropical greenery surrounded us.  We stopped off at a rest area an hour out from Sabang where there was fresh fruit, Samari swords, and chained monkeys on display.  The owner of the rest stop stand tossed small bananas to the monkeys as we looked on and others took pictures.  Personally, I felt bad for the monkeys.

We arrived in Sabang and climbed aboard small ferry boats to take us to the caves.  They were motorized but fashioned in the same way as a Polynesian paddle boat.  We stepped off the boat onto the National Park ground and hiked through lush jungle to reach the caves.  On the way we saw several Monitor Lizards and more monkeys (not chained).  We were given hard hats and life vests and away we went.  We had a very small kayak-type boat and sat low to the ground in the water.  We had a high beam flashlight but nothing else.  It was somewhat reminiscent of the Planet Earth where they explore the caves - the bats, the cold mineral water, the limestone shapes.  All-in-all, a nice tour, but nothing EXTREMELY spectacular.  Living in the Gorge makes you somewhat jaded.

Our tour provided us a large lunch complete with a whole coconut with a straw to drink the milk, hot soup, pork, salmon, chicken adobo, rice, and several salads.  "TP" was grabbing the whole time and it really grossed me out.  At one point, he asked her to eat a banana out of his hand and Lucian and I promptly stood up and decided it was a good time to look at the scenery.  We explored the beachside and decided to camp out here for a few days.  At first we didn't think it was anything extraordinary. We found a cheap, beachside bungalow with running water and a toilet so we chose to put our bags down there.  When we stepped outside of the bungalow for the first time, we were truly in paradise.  This is where the pictures of tropical nirvana are taken and put onto calendars and posters.  We are on the opposite side of the beach from the small village and there are maybe 4 other people around at any given time.  White sand beach, bath water temperature ocean with waves, palm trees and coconuts.  Hawaii might be nice, but this is spectacular.

We have been eating breakfast at the only resort-type place in Sabang, mainly because they take MasterCard and we are able to get some toast and coffee.  It's nice, they have wireless, and it's cheap no matter what.  This is where my parents would stay if they were here.  We have met a lot of people staying in nearby bungalows - Germans, a Frenchman, Norwegians...there also seem to be a lot of families here.  I did laundry for the first time this trip yesterday.  It was done by hand with two buckets and a lot of soap.  We have wire around the front of our bungalow, so we are just leaving it all out to dry.  Honestly, it's better than the Downy "ocean fresh" scent you get in the stores.

I am incredibly sunburnt and blistered but I couldn't be happier!  I'm loving it here and I honestly can't imagine going home.  We leave Palawan today and leave the Philippines on Monday.  We will stay with Marvin one last time on Sunday night.  We are headed for Kuala Lumpur.  I'm excited to see something different, however, I am definitely liking this life A LOT.  Love to everyone back in the cold and damp!

P.S. I love that Lucian has acquired two new nicknames from the locals since being here: Josh Groban and G.I. Joe.  Lucian favors calling me "Crispy Crab" because it's his favorite Filipino food and honestly, I look like one with this stellar sunburn.