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.
