sabang falls

the palawan chronicles continue...

the day we checked in at the daluyon beach resort, we spent the entire morning in search of sabang falls. the direction the tourist officer gave us was fairly easy. he pointed to his left and told us to just follow that path until we reach the falls.

such a deceiving instruction. i would have thought it was just near because he didn't use the infamous "nguso" which is the pinoy euphimism for too far.

so we walked the way he pointed to. we passed by the residential area with kids playing (it's a weekday! they're supposed to be in school!) and parents preparing their nets and boats. after the residential area, it started to have resorts again.

in one resort, we had to sign up that we were going to the falls. it's good actually, so they can keep track of their guests. they do not ask for a fee, but there is a donation box. we decided to give a small amount. to make the most of a third party presence, we asked richard (the caretaker) to take a rare photo of jan and i together.

we asked him how long until we reach the falls. no fingers, no nguso. just a plain answer of "mga thirty minutes." fair enough. we'd get there in 45.

so we walked on. we passed by a buddhist temple. but it was the thin buddha, not the fat one. we took a quick peek but did not go in out of respect. it was pretty interesting because there seems to be volunteers taking care of the place. in one of the signs it says that if the people do not help maintain the temple, support from the chinese people (or is it korean) will stop. the temple is quite clean, so the people must believe it and the chinese (or korean) people must really provide support.

the path to the falls was not an easy one. the beach side was not of sand but large stones and rocks. not pebbles. but bigger than fist rocks. it made walking quite difficult. the foliage were nettle so it hurts to hold them. i stung myself a couple of times with it.

for what seemed like thirty minutes, we were nowhere near the falls. i could not hear any body of water that sounded like a falls. at a certain point, i asked jan that we take a quick dip so we can freshen up. the heat was getting intense.

ep. the beach, though it looked calm and harmless, actually had stroung undercurrents. we had to hold on for dear life with one of the bigger protruding rocks. it wasn't even ten minutes yet when i decided to get out of the water. it was tiring struggling when i can't even swim.

after a quick drink of berocca, we moved on. it was probably ten to fifteen minutes when i finally heard the music to my ears... the gurgling of falling water. i saw a sign that brought my hopes up, only to be dashed to pieces when i finally saw it: this way to comfort room. agh! wala bang this way to falls?

i can hear it but not see it. kainis! but if the CR is there, then the falls must not be far behind! true enough, five minutes after, we saw it. the falls.

wow. i've seen bigger, more spectacular ones before. but it was the first time i saw a falls that went straight to the beach! there was an area that formed a mini-infinity-pool. at the upper portion, if you climb it, was the strongest part of the falls which can give a great natural massage. that spot, we had to fight over.

the best thing about it... we had it all to ourselves. yeah!

you know the funny thing was? it took us less than twenty minutes to get out. super bilis! it was as if we skipped a couple of corners and just got to the end. but we're not complaining! we had a great time and that was what mattered most. :)

daluyon beach resort

while i was searching for things to do in sabang, i came across the website of daluyon beach resort. it immediately caught my interest since the place looked good. however, i couldn't bring myself to book because it is beyond our usual budget for accommodation. jan and i have been so used to our value-for-money-koboy-style of rooms, that spending such an amount for lodging seemed ridiculous.

however, while we were on our first or second day at sabang, i asked jan if we can splurge for one night. it is our honeymoon, after all. he was actually game with it. yey! before we finalized our stay, we checked out the rooms first. since we were paying so much for a room, we should be able to maximize our use of it. we have done all the exciting adventure things in sabang that we can just afford to hang out in the hotel.

the staff were quite friendly when we asked to be shown around the place. the front desk also allowed us for an early check-in at 9AM and late check out of 2PM since there weren't other guests during the day we were coming. cool! that clinched the sale. we booked an overnight stay for our last night in sabang.

the day of our booking, we brought our bags over to daluyon over at 9AM, then proceeded to have breakfast then a trip to the falls (another story). we got back to daluyon by 1PM. we hung out the porch for a bit. the view was beautiful.

we spent most of the afternoon indoors, enjoying our soft bead with 440thread count sheets (we got a gift that looked exactly like those sheets that's why i know. tee-hee). of course, i wore one of the complementary bath robes which was soooo comfortable. jan loved it on me. i loved it on me.

since there was no cable installed yet, we just made use of the dvd player. we borrowed juno and knocked up (pregnancy movies. ack!). we also got our complimentary drinks of fresh and cold buco juice. mmmmm! ang sarap!

we got out into the sun by 5PM. we didn't have plans to swim anymore since we were already satisfied by our falls trip. jan and i decided to just sit down and relax by the beach. mimosa, the sabang dog (every resort knows here) and where white dog friend entertained us as they frolicked on the beach, jumping in and out of the water.

as the sun was setting, the scenery just simply called for pictures, so i went to get dixie and shot away. doing silhoutte shots was really fun.

by the time the sun was gone, it was moon rise time. sabang had the most spectacular moonrise i have ever seen! and nicer still since it was a full moon that night. talk about a romantic getaway. :) i forced my non-dancer husband to dance to the music of the waves and the moon and the stars and the night. good thing we were the only people by the shore.

when the sky was high enough, we proceeded to have a good, expensive dinner by the pool. i forgot what we ordered, but i was fully satisfied and sated by it. of course, we had candles. :)

the complimentary breakfast the next day was also delicious and quite filling. that was as good as brunch since we woke up at nine and took a quick dip before that. the rest of the morning, we did mostly nothing which is always great.

all-in-all, jan and i enjoyed our stay at the daluyon resort very much. their staff were very friendly and accommodating, their rooms were well-kept and clean and all the inclusive amenities for what we paid made it all the more worth-it.

so if you are planning to stay in sabang, puerto princesa and want to feel like kings and queens, we recommend daluyon beach resort. :)

monkey trail

after the breathtaking wonders inside the underground river, jan and i split from the rest of the group which took a boat to one of the coves of the sabang. we wanted to take the monkey trail back to the town proper. the tour guide we joined said we would also be passing a small beach on the way back. good thing i was wearing my bathing suit. :D

we followed the sign leading to the 4.2KM monkey trail which claims to provide an occasional glimpse of macaques and monitor lizards (bayawak). true, enough, at our very first turn was a large lizard. it was walking quite slowly but when it heard our approach it froze in place. after a few photos, jan and i moved on.

the trail began with wooden steps on the limestone cliffs. if it weren't for the steps, there wouldn't be any way to go through the trail given the steep inclines. we saw a large sign indicating that we were entering a karst forest. i'm not sure if i remember correctly but it basicallymeans that the vegetation need little water because the area is mostly rocks and little soil. i think.

while walking i was telling jan that i was supposed to be on vacation and not doing field work. but it was still fun doing it for pleasure and taking time. after 45 minutes though, i was getting a little tired and irritated. i have been wanting to take a dip 15 minutes back and there was still no sign of the beach. at some point, i thought we went back to the same path, but jan said we haven't passed that way yet. so i told him to trust his instinct and i will just follow. after the next bend... ta-dah! the sound of the beach. we went down another set of steps and yahooo! it was the beach.

after a few photo ops, jan and i took a dip. we had the whole cove to ourselves. it seems no other people took the trail back home. the water was crystal clear and cool to the skin. it wasn't that salty either. the gray-white limestone cliffs complemented the sky blue heavens and the aquamarine waters. the forest green trees added to the contrast.

we finally had our sandwich and watched the waves lap at the creamy sands. there were hermit crabs going about their busines (including munching on the cucumber that fell from my sandwich). jan had a blast throwing sand at the agile transluscent crabs. they were always able to duck. he had more fun with the poor hermits which hardly knew what hit them. they'd stay under cover in their shells and even after twenty minutes stayed hidden. bad jan!

after thirty minutes in the cove we continued on our trek. we passed a couple more coves but they had rocky shores and were not ideal for hanging out but good enough for photo ops. we kept straying from the trail to take a look at what the beach looked like. at one point we had trouble getting back.

so did we see monkeys? yep! not as plenty as we expected. but we had a couple of sightings. we were quite close with one batch, with one large macaque and a couple of smaller ones. our monitor incident was quite funny. we were hearing crunching leaves from agile feet moving quite fast. then i had eye contact with him, quite nervous it might jump on me as he was on a higher level then i was. after a few seconds of eye-lock, he started scooting back up with such speed. it was like, "run, run, run down. oh no! human. up, up, up!" then he was gone. funny.

there were also different birds species that we spotted. but it was halfway the trail that we had our most fun. we had to register that we were going back. it was there we spotted a bunch of mynah birds. i was trying to take a picture of one that was on the guard house when suddenly it flew at the camera. ack. jan and i were laughing. the other mynahs started flocking together cawing like crazy.

we still had a couple of spanish bread in our pack so we decided to share it with them. we were still mincing it to chewable pieces when they started lunging at it. i had to duck or they'd have pecked my eyes out or worse, i'd have dropped the cam. but jan and i were just laughing like loons. a couple lodged themselves on my shirt and jan's then flew back to the fence. jan was successfully feeding them, except when the bread piece was too big, they'd spew it out so jan would have to break it to smaller pieces again. some would still lunge at the sight of food, but jan was able to do better. i, on the other hand, kept missing their mouths because i couldn't bring myself to put the bread near their beaks. and if i do try, they'd fly at me and perch on my head or shirt. finally, i gave up and contented myself taking pictures of jan with the bird. it was fun though. hehe.

finally we went on our way and left the birds the rest of the bread. we were near sabang already. we saw a rocky outcrop in the waters... what looked liked to be hardened lava flow shaped by the waves of the water. this is based on my amateur geological-sleuthing (national geographic taught). jan and i decided to check it out. the rocks were a bit sharp and hard to cross, though possible. i think this is where we scratched our rings. we decided not to pursue the rocks all the way to its end and just go back to sabang beach and relax.

when we got there, we went on another dip. by 430, the sun was almost ready to set and the beach just had a nice tinge of orange and yellow that i couldn't resist taking photos.

that was a well-spent day for us! from the underground river to our hiking to our cooling down on the beach. i had a lot of fun!