Underground river

I booked the trip to the Underground River several days ago with the hostel; they managed to secure me a permit despite the high demand. And it only cost a little more than doing it independently. I was picked up at 0715 and after a couple more pickups we left the city for the 90 minute journey to Sabang. Not the Sabang off Banda Aceh on Pulau Weh where I do my diving, but another one.

We made a stop at a pharmacy to buy some motion-sickness tablets as the journey was windy in parts. We had a great guide called Dean with amazing energy and sense of humour. He’s the Pinoy host that we all love and have seen in the hospitality industry all around the world.

Also in the van were several groups of Pinoy. It was my first chance to interact with locals and they were absolutely lovely to talk to and I learnt a lot from them about their country, language, culture and laws. Yes, one of them was a lawyer and I confirmed that there is no such thing as a divorce in this country except for those married under Syariah Law.

The van was split into two groups upon arrival in Sabang with one group doing the Underground River in the morning and my group in the afternoon, with lunch in between. That left my morning free.

There were upsell options to help kill the time at reasonable prices and I ended up doing both the 800m zipline (flying fox) from a hill down to an island across the sea, then the mangrove paddle-boat tour. I learnt that there are male and female mangroves!

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And then we were shown tamilok, a worm found in rotting wood. Those in our group who sampled it said it was delicious, tasting like oyster. I don’t like oyster.

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After lunch, we lined up for the 20 minute bangka ride to the entrance to the Underground River. That involved a bit of wait. Then when we got there, there was a further wait for the actual ride into the site.

The 45 minute tour of the Underground River was like a tour of any cave but by boat on water. I think I’ve seen too many good caves in my lifetime. It was impressed by the depth and the height in parts though.  The sign on the outside said that it was 8.2 km long and easily navigable up to 4.3 km.

There were many huge stalactites and formation that resembled all sorts: the Holy Family, the Virgin Mary, snakes, corn etc.

I think all the waiting around at various points did make me lose my interest by the time I got to what was meant to be the highlight of the day. It was a lot of waiting and travel for just 40 minutes of the crux.

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The highlight was actually watching people eat the wood worms. But I shouldn’t complain as about ten years ago the journey from Puerto Princesa took about 3 hours (rather than 90 minutes). I got dropped off back at the hostel at 6pm.

Over dinner I met this Polish woman who was a great traveller and diver. It was inspiring to hear of great divespots (and places in general) from someone who has dived Sipadan four times; she has a benchmark which I can trust and relate to.