Palau

Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 May

It’s a big travel day for us.  We’re up early and take the quick 20 minute hop to Honolulu.  We’ve got a 5 hour wait at the airport and then a 7 hour flight down to Guam.  We have an hour to change planes in Guam for our final, 2 hour flight to Palau.  We’re pretty zonked out at this stage, but we’re treated to a gorgeous sunset in Guam just as we’re taking off.

Unfortunately it’s dark by the time we arrive in Palau, so we don’t get to see anything on the way in.   At some point during our travels we’ve crossed the date line and we’re now 19 hours ahead of Hawai’i time – we set off on Saturday morning and arrive Sunday night.  Our hotel had promised to pick us up at the airport, but there’s no one here for us.  This is a little worrying, but the helpful lady at the tourist information desk gives them a call to chase them up. 

In the meantime the airport is closing, so we find a bench and wait outside.  When our driver arrives he says that they came for us yesterday but that we didn’t show up.  I remind him that we weren’t due to arrive until today, as all our emails made clear.  His answer: yes, but we were here yesterday and you weren’t.  I can’t quite fathom the rules of this type of thinking, so I leave it at that.

We’ve avoided the expensive resorts and booked a city-centre motel on Koror.  First impressions aren’t great – the aircon is so loud we may as well be on the plane still and the rock hard mattress is shrink wrapped… odd.  We’re knackered though and crash out.

Monday 27 May

I’m up with the chickens this morning and decide to go for a run hoping that it will help to orient me and sort out my jetlag.   By some miracle I even manage to find my way back to our motel (phew).

Things are looking better this morning: our room is big, clean and has (mostly) everything we need to self-cater.  The shrink-wrapped mattress is pretty comfortable and at least I don’t need to worry about bedbugs.  Our hotel seems to back onto jungle and a small pond in the back has a small crocodile in it.  Hmmm. 

We walk into town to try to get our bearings and find some breakfast.  It’s hot and the air is heavy with moisture.  The sun comes out, but not for long.  It rains, but not for long.  It’s hot all the time.  There is one main road through the town lined with convenience stores, businesses and a few restaurants.  Cross roads either wind their way down to the water or fall away into steep, jungle-lined gorges.

We find some breakfast and pop into a few tour operators to try to sort out some activities for the week.  We also spot an excellent swimming spot and make a note to return there later.

After stocking up on groceries and a quick sandwich lunch we grab our swimmers, eager for a cool off.   What we hadn’t factored in is that the tide has gone out since this morning and as it’s full moon, the tides are rather extreme.  Our inviting swimming spot is now almost devoid in water.  We do find a small pool deep enough to submerge ourselves in, so it’s not a complete loss.

The combination of jetlag and humidity has wiped us out, so we have a quiet evening in.

Tuesday 28 May

We’re both awake by about 3.30 this morning, but manage to doze until about 6.  I go for another run – I’m enjoying the running but it seriously wipes me out in this humidity.

We’ve booked a kayak trip for today and are picked up at 8.30.  We’re packed up and driven out to Nikko Bay.  For the most part the paddling is lovely and gentle, but when we’re fighting the current it’s another story.  I’ve made the mistake of opting for 2 single kayaks, rather than a double.  That does away with the opportunity to take it easy up front while Nick slogs it out in the back.  My little muscles are struggling but I’m too proud to fall too far behind. 

Palau is famous for it’s rock islands – limestone islands that jut out of the water, covered in lush vegetation (much of it endemic to Palau).  The constant lapping of the sea erodes away the base of the islands so that they end up kind of mushroom shaped.  They’re strange looking but beautiful and usually surrounded by coral.  The water is so clear that we can see the corals and fish from our kayaks.  Most of the rock islands are out to sea, but Nikko bay is dotted with them too.  We have a lovely day paddling round them, sheltering out the odd rain-shower in caves. 

Our guide tells us about the local flora and fauna, but also fills us in on WWII history.  A major (but often forgotten in the history books) battle was fought on Peleliu – one of Palau’s southern islands.  There was no fighting on Koror, but the Japanese used Nikko Bay to stash supply boats and our guide is able to show us a sunken boat, an old Japanese bunker and one of their rainwater barrels. 

We stop at a jagged coral beach for lunch then paddle across the bay to a sheltered coral garden for some snorkeling.  Palau does micro-fish really well – everywhere we look are tiny, iridescent fish.  The sheer volume of marine life is fantastic.

An easy paddle takes us back to our launch spot.  It’s only mid-afternoon, but we’re both wiped out again.  Getting old I guess.

Wednesday 29 May

We’ve booked another tour today and get picked up at 8.45.  We’ve opted for a boat tour around the main rock island area and we’re going with a company called Impac.  They generally deal with Japanese tour groups, but they’re super accommodating and professional.  Our boat has about 15 on it – half English and half Japanese, each with their own guide.

We’re whisked off to our first stop – a beautiful, wild beach amongst the rock islands. 

Here we’re loaded onto kayaks and set off down a narrow, almost hidden, mangrove tunnel.  It’s peaceful and calm inside, with shallow, clear water and dripping plants all around. 

We wind our way through the tunnel for a while before coming out into a marine lake.  We paddle around the lake for a while looking out for stingrays on the sandy bottom, then make our way back through the tunnel to the beach for a quick swim.

Back on the boat we’re taken to a spot known as the Milky Way.  In this sheltered spot the eroded limestone has formed a rich, thick, white mud.  The water is a creamy turquoise colour.  The mud is supposed to be really good for your skin, so we waste no time in gathering up a bucketful and getting slathered up.

Once we’re more or less clean we boat along to another beach for our lunch and a snorkel.  There are lots of long sucker fish here (the kind that normally attach themselves to sharks), including one that seems to think we’re sharks and follows us around for a bit. There’s also a huge shoal of fish hanging down below like an underwater cloud. 

In the afternoon we take in another 2 snorkel spots, all the while cruising through beautiful rock islands. 

The first is known as the rose garden.  Our guides cheat a little by throwing some food in the water, so as we jump in fish surround us.  They swim right up around us and for a while I feel like one of them. 

Our last snorkel stop they’ve dubbed paradise, although it’s actual name is a bit more sinister: cemetery reef.  Again, the corals are gorgeous and the fish are abundant.  We spot barracuda and a rather grumpy looking Napoleon fish.

Our cruise back take us past a free-standing natural arch.

We’re treating ourselves to a night out tonight, so we stop at a bar for a few beers (local Red Rooster for me) before walking up the road for some pretty good Indian food at The Taj.

Thursday 30 May

We learnt our lesson the other day and head to our swimming spot earlier today.  There’s even enough water for Nick to have a go on the rope swing.

Just as we’re getting dressed and ready to go we’re lucky enough to see a spotted eagle ray ‘flying’ through the shallows.  It’s beautiful. 

It’s about lunchtime, so we get sandwiches at one of the dive shop bars just so that we can use their internet for a quick check-in.  Neither of us have phone reception out here and internet is hard to come by too.

We spend the afternoon absorbing some of Palau’s history at the National Museum.  Palau was first ‘appropriated’ by the Spanish.  They later sold it to the Germans.  After WWI it was handed over to Japan.  After WWII it was taken from Japan and, as a United Nations Trust Territory, placed under the administration of the US.  It finally gained independence in 1994.

We stroll back through town and then relax with a beer and a film on the laptop.

Friday 31 May

I’m up early and ready for a run this morning.  Unfortunately I’ve got my clumsy feet on and manage to do a complete nosedive followed by an impressive cement skid.  I manage to take a good chunk of skin off both elbow and knee and limp-run back to the hotel, bruised in body and ego.  Nick is of course oozing with sympathy, once he’s recovered from hysterical laughter.  Luckily for me I’m planning to spend the day jumping in and out of salt water – I’ve got some serious sting-age coming my way.

We’re out with Impac again today, this time taking in the southern part of the rock islands.  Our first snorkel stop is clam city. As the name suggests, this area is home to clams – giant ones.  My one enduring giant clam association is of a childhood book (Famous Five? Adventurous Four?) in which one of the characters gets a foot stuck in a giant clam as the tide is coming in.  It looks like it would be pretty easy to get a foot stuck in one of these giants, but we both manage to avoid doing that.

Back on the boat we cruise to our second snorkel spot: the Big Drop Off.  This is a famous dive spot and (again as the name suggests) is a shallow reef that abruptly drops away into nothingness.  It’s a drift snorkel, so we don’t have to do any work.  We get dropped in at one end, float with the current and our boat picks us up at the other end.  There are loads of fish about and we also spot two reef sharks.  I’m convinced they’ve caught a whiff of my bloody knee and are coming for me, so make sure to keep Nick between me and them the whole time.

Our lunch stop is Carp Island Resort.  We’ve got a couple of hours here to chill out and enjoy their white sand beaches.  Unfortunately the weather is not co-operating and it rains pretty much the whole time we’re there – but hey, we’re wet already, so a little rain doesn’t make much difference.

Our guides prepare us a fresh bbq lunch (with bento boxes and miso soup on the side of course) – including some fresh, grilled veggies for me.  After lunch we take a half hour walk through the ‘jungle’ behind the resort to some Yap money.  Yap money is a difficult concept to get your head around.  The Yapese have been coming to Palau for thousands of years to carve huge discs of limestone.  They then carve a hole in the middle to make them easier to ship back home and use these giant stones as money.  Apparently they’re still used today, but clearly not for everyday purchases.

I seem to be in self-destruct mode today.  Just as we’re leaving the beach I manage to step barefoot into a nest of red ants.  Owie.

We’ve got one stop in the afternoon: Long Beach.  From what we can gather this is meant to be a shallow sandbar that gets exposed during high tide, turning into a beautiful, long beach in the middle of the sea.  Unfortunately though the tide is not quite low enough, so long beach is still a couple of feet underwater.  We have a bit of a swim and a snorkel anyway and then cruise back home.  The weather hasn’t cleared all day and we’re treated to some torrential rain in the evening – here’s hoping for some sunshine tomorrow.

Janet adds: I love the Impac slogan: ‘No Journey, No Life’. 

Saturday 1 June

I wake up aching and sore today to yet more rain.  We’re going out with Sam’s Tours today for another rock island tour.  Luckily by the time we set off it’s starting to brighten up a bit.

This tour turns out to be a big of an amalgamation of the previous 2 tours we’ve done, but we don’t mind.  The spots are so beautiful we’re quite happy to go more than once.  First up is another trip to the Milky Way where the mud smearing is repeated.  Then we go to the Big Drop Off for snorkeling.  The tides are not quite with us so the visibility isn’t as great as last time, but the reef sharks are still about.  Next up is the New Drop Off where we do some more snorkeling and spot another shark.

Lunch is on a beautiful beach and the sun is properly out now, so I can recharge and dry off.  After lunch is the big one.  What we’ve been working up to all week, our very reason for being in Palau: Jellyfish Lake.  Ever since I first saw this (in a book? TV?) I’ve wanted to come.  Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake.  There is an exchange of water with the sea as water seeps in and out through channels in the limestone, but the creatures in the lake are pretty much isolated.  Golden jellyfish live in the lake in a symbiotic relationship with algae: they provide a ‘vehicle’ for the algae, which in turn convert sunshine into sugars that they share with the jellyfish.  There are roughly 13 million (I counted) jellyfish in the lake, following the sun back and forth throughout the day.  The best bit: you can swim with them – although it’s not strictly true that the jellyfish have lost their stings, the sting is so mild as to be imperceptible in all but the most sensitive of skin.

I can barely contain my excitement as we climb up and over a small ridge to get to the lake.  There’s a small pontoon to launch yourself from and there they are: the jellys. 

They’re a pale, pinky-orange colour and they’re everywhere, quietly pulsating and rotating in the water.  We slip in amongst them and they brush softly against our skin. 

It’s beautiful and weird and humbling all at once.  I’m almost hypnotized by their gentle motion. 

We have about a half hour to spend absorbing these amazing creatures and snapping as many pictures as possible.  We leave just at the right time too: just as a big, squealing, kicking tour group arrives.

We’re meant to be snorkeling Cemetery Reef on the way back, but our boat breaks down on the way there.  Oops.  Luckily it’s more funny than a real crisis.  Help is called and after a short wait our rescue boat turns up.  We have time for a very quick snorkel before blasting back at high speed.

 

Janet adds: Jellyfish Lake.  It was even better than I ever imagined.

Sunday 2 June

It’s a rest day again today, so we take it easy in the morning getting some laundry done and buying some internet time.  We go out for some sandwiches at lunchtime and then walk over to Sam’s Tours again.  We’ve been itching to do some more kayaking while we’re here, but most people come here to dive and as there are only 2 of us we don’t make the minimum numbers to get a kayak tour out.  Sam’s Tours hire kayaks though and there are some rock islands just across from them begging to be explored.

We paddle across, slip through a gap between two islands and suddenly we’re in another world.  It’s a quiet inlet surrounded by high rock walls lush with vegetation.  We could be the only two people in the world here. 

We spend some time paddling through bays, marine lakes and around little islands.  It’s beautiful and there’s so much to explore – we spot caves and Japanese bunkers.  We escape a rain shower by slipping into the water for snorkel.  The weather is so changeable here it goes from blue skies to pelting rain and back to blue skies in about 10 minutes. 

We still can’t get over the sheer abundance of coral in Palau. 

In the end the afternoon turns into a quick reccie for tomorrow.   We’ve been at a bit of a loss as to what to do with our last day.  There is plenty on offer, but we’ve done the things we really want to do.  There’s so much to see out here though and we’re enjoying exploring it by ourselves.  We decide we’ll come back tomorrow when we can take the whole day to explore.

It’s a long paddle back to Sam’s where we relax with a few beers to catch the sunset before walking back to our room.

Monday 3 June

I decide it’s time I get back on the horse and drag myself out for a run this morning.  I’ve been limping around for 2 days now – how can a grazed knee be so painful?   Luckily I manage to stay upright for this one.

Once we’re fairly sure all of the dive boats will be out of the way for today we take a walk down to Sam’s to pick up our kayaks again.  It’s a good day for paddling: just sunny enough to want to be out, but just cloudy enough to keep the worst of the sun off us.  It doesn’t take long for the opportunity to explore to come up.  I spot a narrow, dark entrance to a cave.  It doesn’t look promising, but once inside the cave ceiling is vaulted, letting in a gentle, green-tinted light.  It’s a beautiful spot and feels all the more special as we’ve ‘found’ it ourselves. 

Next we pass a fern-lined grotto.  We tie up our kayaks, intending to climb up to explore.  The first thing we see as we clamber on to land is this fellow:

Suddenly poking around in cracks and crevices doesn’t seem that inviting and we don’t waste too much time hopping back on our boats.  Just round the corner is an old Japanese canon, which looks pretty out of place jutting out of the rock in this peaceful place. 

A little further up we spot some Japanese pillboxes and again decide to clamber on land to explore.  As before, we find our way blocked by a curled up sleeping snake.  Every time we spot a buoy in the water we tie up and slip in, figuring it’s probably there because there’s something to see nearby.  The coral everywhere is amazing, although there aren’t quite as many fish about as there are further out.  It’s nearing lunchtime and we’d planned to find a little spot to picnic off our boats.  However, since all the land we’ve encountered has been full of snakes and mosquitoes we figure we’re better off eating on the water.  We find a calm, turquoise bay, raft up our kayaks and whip out the lunchbox.

From here it’s a fairly gentle paddle through some more calm bays to get back to Sam’s.  Back at our room we start getting packed up.  We’re flying out at 2.15 tomorrow morning, so we’ve arranged to keep our room for the evening.  We’re completely out of ideas of things to cook so we treat ourselves to a meal out – wandering up the street to Little Italy for pizzas.

Back at the room there’s just enough time for a little snooze and to throw the last of our things in a bag, then it’s bye bye Palau.

Janet adds: so after avoiding land because of the snakes, we googled it and found out it was a banded sea snake – highly venomous (though not aggressive) – so there was just as much (if not more) chance of bumping into one snorkeling.