Blog from 12.24.2010

So, I’m spending Christmas alone in a cheap motel room—but that motel room happens to be in Palau, so don’t feel too bad for me. In fact, don’t feel sorry for me at all. I’ve been here for three days and so far, I think Palau is freaking awesome. Really, really awesome. Even my cheap motel room isn’t too bad—there’s AC, a mini-fridge, and a TV (with better cable than we get in Pohnpei). I arrived on Tuesday night, after catching the island hopper flight to Guam (via Chuuk), enduring a brief 2.5 hour layover in Guam—tried to do some duty free shopping, was aghast at the cheapness of $300 sunglasses (Dior shades are still plastic)—then flew on to Koror, Palau, where I was picked up by a DW Motel van. For $40 a night, this place really isn’t bad. Since the diving is so expensive ($125 for two tanks!!), I decided to be stingy with the sleeping arrangements. My one real complaint is the showerhead—it’s a removable head, adjacent to my shoulder. Now, I’m tall for a girl, but it would be really impossible for a man to use this shower. As it is, I have to bend over at a very uncomfortable angle to get my hair wet. And when I remove the nozzle, the hose still isn’t long enough to spray the top of my head. However, the water pressure is very good and it heats up instantly, so I’m willing to settle.

On Wednesday, I spent the morning walking around town. After stopping by the Palau Visitors Authority to grab a map and some brochures, I walked to Sam’s Tours (my chosen dive company) to register and check the place out. It’s a huge establishment—definitely the largest dive shop I’ve ever used. It seems very well organized, though. Then I walked another twenty minutes or so, until the road ended at an aquaculture center; I passed a few long concrete pools where clams were being raised, I think. I also walked by a lovely waterfront park—Icebox Public Park; unfortunately, the sewage treatment facility was built right across the street, which kind of ruined the atmosphere. Then I headed back towards town, along the main road. I was hoping to find a nice café to have a coffee and some breakfast (croissants, perhaps?), but no such luck. It’s been almost six months since I’ve sat in a café; oh man, I miss that. I would settle for a Starbucks at this point.

I ended up in Surangel & Son’s, a two-storey department store. This seems to be the main shopping location in Koror. The bottom floor is a grocery store—a glorious, well-stocked grocery store. They had everything I would ever want (yogurt! hummus! ice cream! cheese!) and none of it seemed to be expired. Palau definitely surpasses Pohnpei in the grocery domain. However, I haven’t found much in the way of restaurants so far. Sam’s has a restaurant that’s apparently quite good (although I ate a soggy grilled cheese there today) and I’ve heard several recommendations for a joint called Kramer’s. Tonight I’m eating at the Taj—my first Indian meal since leaving the US—with a few people from the DW. I’m hoping to find a good restaurant with a lovely view, though—like Cupid’s or the Village. Or even a parallel to Coco Marina. Maybe they are hiding inside the resorts? At Surangel, I ended up buying some poptarts, granola bars, a can of spicy V8, and a sudoku book.

On my way back to the DW, I struck up a conversation with a Palauan guy, named Brandon. He does maintenance at a Catholic Church here; he went to Xavier High School in Chuuk, although he’s never been to Pohnpei. We ended up talking for a while and then he took me for a drive. (Get into this van. Okay! Sometimes, I think I must be stupid.) That evening, we went to a Christmas pageant at the Ngarachamayong Cultural Center. The event featured a slew of chorus groups from different schools singing carols—lots of cute Palauan kids. It was the annual DeWill a Renguk Christmas Gala; a few years ago, a small boy named DeWill was hit and killed by a drunk driver. DeWill a Renguk translates to DeWill “to live”—clever. We stayed for the first act and free refreshments, then Brandon kindly walked me back to my motel so I could get some shut-eye.

I woke up early on Thursday, very excited for my first day of diving. I was supposed to get picked up at 8:30, but the Sam’s Tours van didn’t show up until about 9:00. Just like Pohnpei, Palau also runs on island time. Our first dive was at Ngerzaong Island—85 degree water, about 60’ visibility, lots of fish, beautiful coral. I was underweighted at the start—which is weird since I used the same weight I have always used, still not sure why I couldn’t descend without an extra two pounds—but that was easily fixed. After eating lunch (a fish bento box, provided by Sam’s) on a lovely beach, we headed out for our second dive—Blue Hole. We started above the reef, then descended through one of four large holes into a huge underwater canyon. It was so beautiful. Deep, too—I was down at 105’ at one point. I saw Christmas tree worms (fitting, for the season), a Hawksbill sea turtle, barracuda, Napoleon wrasse, leaf fish, and quite a few black and white tip sharks. I think I snapped some good photos, but I won’t be sure until I upload them (and of course, I forgot the cord for my dive camera—had to forget something).

After returning to the dock, Marine (one of the dive masters, a lovely girl from France) asked if I wanted to do a third dive. Why not? We ended up diving the Helmet Wreck, at about 90’—my first wreck!—and it was pretty sweet. It was a Japanese vessel from WWI and it still contains quite a few artifacts, such as depth chargers, helmets, and an airplane engine. After such a full day, I was completely exhausted by the time I returned to the DW. I toyed with the idea of going out for dinner, but I ended up curled up in bed, too tired to venture out.

Today, Friday, was really great. The first dive was German Channel, which has a manta ray cleaning station. And we saw mantas! I’ve seen them in Pohnpei, but this time one of the mantas (a month old baby, according to dive master JC) circled us for at least 15 minutes—he was very curious about all these human beings bobbing about in his ocean. Mama manta swam nearby, not nearly as interested. We had a videographer with us today, a gorgeous British chap from Cornwall, and he took some great footage. But a DVD costs $65, so my crappy underwater photos will have to suffice. After lunch (mine was not quite as good today, but no worries), we steered towards our second dive spot—Blue Corner!! This is one of the most famous dive sites in the world, and it truly lived up to its reputation. After descending, we hooked onto the reef at about 50’—my first time using a reef hook. Without the hooks to hold us in place, we would have been pulled along very quickly by the strong current. Once we were all attached, the show began! I saw dozens of sharks, a huge Napoleon wrasse, a massive school of barracuda, and many, many other fish. It. Was. Awesome. There were so many sharks. Gosh, I love sharks. They are just the coolest animals. Maybe my future career is in shark conservation?

Instead of a third dive today, we went to Jellyfish Lake. Once upon a time, jellyfish were frozen in ice; when the ice thawed, their spawn were dropped into this glacial lake. Now, the jellyfish have evolved to have no sting, since there are no predators in this lake (with the exception of a white sea anemone). There are twenty million jellies floating about in this lake—and I swear, I must have seen at least half of them today. After docking the boat (and flashing our $35 Jellyfish Lake permits, valid for one week), we hiked for about ten minutes to reach the lake. We swam out to the middle and were surrounded by thousands of pink gelatinous blobs, floating about in the warm salty water. If I died tomorrow, at least I could cross this off my bucket list—it was so cool! A little eerie at first—considering my unpleasant memories of many jellyfish encounters—but before long, I was scooping the jellies up in my palms and tickling their tentacles, without cringing when they slimed across my face. Very, very cool. Definitely a unique experience!