Mabinay's Crystal Caves

Do you like caves?  We do.   Very much, especially my hubby.  We planned our trip to Dumaguete for many months after we're availed ourselves of Cebu Pacific's promo flights. We planned to go to Dumaguete, Bacolod (where I visited my brother and his family)  and back to Dumaguete.  From Negros Oriental  we traveled by bus to Bacolod, Negros Occidental for 6 hours.  Yes one island, Negros Island, but each has a unique history.  Negros Occidental was  for so many years, the Sugar bowl of the Philipines, and now a tourist destination for its yearly Maskara  Festival, while Dumaguete boasts of having one of the oldest universities, also the first American university in the Philippines, the Siliman University. Dumaguete also boasts of having the  largest cave, the Odloman  Cave,  in the Philippines, among other things.  Bacolod is dubbed as  the City of Smiles while Dumaguete is dubbed as the City of Gentle People.  

Coming back from Bacolod to Dumaguete, we planned to pass by Mabinay Caves. While in Bacolod,  we started inquiring about the caves, and Bacolod Dept. of  Tourism gave us leaflets and also cell phone number of the Mabinay town Mayor. 

The Mayor's  phone number was also in the leaflets given to us.   I opted to send a text message to the other person mentioned in the leaflets, as I am too shy to disturb a VIP like the Mayor! When nobody responded after twenty minutes, I reluctantly sent a text message to the Mayor too. The Mayor, Mr. Jango Uy,  was more prompt in answering my text messages, and I sent him many inquiries.  Mayor Jango Uy even gave us instructions how to proceed from Bacolod to Mabinay Caves, two towns away from Dumaguete City via Ceres bus.   From Bacolod  we went to Ceres South Terminal, took the bus to Dumaguete.  We told the driver to let us off at Bulwang town, where the Mabinay caves are.  It was about 5 hours bus ride.   Mayor Jango Uy  also gave us the number of one of his tourist guides,  Rhen Rhen.  Rhen Rhen met us at Mabinay bus stop and together we went to Bulwang, another 15 minutes bus ride.  

Up  to Crystal Cave

I have an injured knee so I decided to go to only one cave, the Crystal cave, which is recommended for novice/amateur spelunkers.  In  case you don't know what a spelunker is (I had to ask my hubby, as I don't know myself), that  means cave explorer, Precilla.  Rhen Rhen, our tour guide,  is a young guy who will not tire in answering your gazillion questions, that I promise.  He is knowledgeable about the caves, about Mabinay, about the tourist spots in Negros and many other things.  Rhen has an engaging  call center agent voice, but he's not into hard sell at all. 

The Crystal Cave is the most beautiful of the  caves. It is 157 meters long and 12 meters deep with an entrance slopping 2 by 4 meters.  It used to be the  most difficult to explore because it is so full of karst formation, until they built a raft-like flooring suspended by ropes  to the cave's 'roof'.  It is like standing in the middle of a crystal house, where touching and feeling the karst formation is irresistible. Source: http://www.orientwind.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43:negros-oriental-the-caves-of-mabinay&catid=11:negros&Itemid=13 But please, don't touch the karstor the  stalactites, stalagmites as you'd cause them to die and it would take hundred years for them to come alive again. Can you appreciate the length of time these cave formations took so you could admire how lovely they look now? 

Aside from spelunking, there are other activities  you may enjoy in this place:  rapelling, rock climbing, swimming, underground passageways, crawling, duck walking, photographing (of course) caves, frogs (!), spiders, snakes and bats.  

Recommended gears:  hiking shoes, long pants, long sleeves, helmet - they couod provide you, change of clothing, water, candies and yes sandwiches or any food you prefer, as there is no restaurant in this place yet.  There is a restaurant about 2 kms. away, we were told. 

 

Rhen turned the cave's general light switch on

The Crystal Cave is so 'user-friendly', providing spelunkers  with wooden railings and floor

Formations at Crystal Cave

Rhen also regaled us a folklore of Mabinay:

http://www.godumaguete.com/mabinay-negros-oriental.html

The story goes this way: In an inland part of the province of Negros Oriental, there lived two powerful rival chieftains named Datu Ilog and Datu Namangyan. Datu Ilog had a very beautiful daughter named Binay whom he loved very much and Datu Namangyan has a brave and dauntless son Binto who loved to hunt wild animals.

One day while Binto was chasing a wild deer he inadvertently entered the territory of Datu Ilog accidentally and saw Binay taking a bath in the river. It was love at first sight for both of them and they started a love affair that had to be kept secret knowing that their fathers were enemies.

Secrets like smoke can't be kept from going out, especially with Binay's change in behavior, being in love. Datu Ilog, noticing the difference, decided to follow her one day and caught the lovers redhanded.

Binay pleaded with her father to spare Binto's life but an angry Datu Ilog would not be appeased knowing his daughter's lover, his hatred for Binto's father overriding all else. He struck Binto on the chest with a spear,  killing him instantly. And just as instantly, a small pool of water sprung forth in the place where Binto died, and the people called it Banintohan.

Binay, full of grief for her beloved's death and her fearing her angry father, ran away, wild and without direction, she ran like mad.

Mother Earth took pity upon the ill-fated lovers and swallowed Binay up. And from this spot came forth a body of water, known now as Mabinay Spring.

Datu Ilog, in search of his daughter met Datu Namagyan along the way. Remorsefully, he admitted what he had done and Datu Namangyan, surprised to see his proud and brave enemy meek and repentant, instead of being angry for his son's death, joined with him in his grief and they both decided to merge forces.

Where they met is now marked by the joining of the two rivers, Ilog River and Namangyan River.

Okay, time to go back to Crystal Cave for picture-taking:

Aside from Crystal Cave (157 ms), these are the other recommended caves:

Panligawan (143 ms) - for novice/amateur spelunkers
Pandalihan (282 ms) -  for novice/amateur spelunkers
Cayaso (2,222 ms) - for difficult/extreme spelunkers
Baliw (769 ms) - for difficult/extreme spelunkers
Mambajo - (670 ms) - with rapelling/medium difficult 
Odloman (8,870 ms) - for difficult/extreme spelunkers

The fee is P400 for the guided tour and P15 per person for each cave.  
And yes, Mayor Jango Uy's cell phone number is +639166792344.  another contact person is Jeffrey Dasian, cell phone number +639182427269. Happy spelunking and say hello to Rhen for us.