cycling in palau

hi there,

i'm looking at relocating to palau for a year (probably koror and peleliu) and am wondering if anyone has any advice about cycling there. is it possible to buy a bike fairly cheaply once i'm there or am i better off bringing something from home? any advice would be appreciated.

cheers,

renee

It has been a few years since I was in Palau so my information is probably outdated. I don't recall seeing many bicycles during my time there(not many scooters either) and I seem to remember that there was only one place renting bikes at the time but it was not their main business. Given the lack of people using bikes I would suggest that you might be better off bringing your own, the chances of being able to buy one there may be iffy and the choices limited.

You will definitely want to being your own bike as there are limited options once you get on island. I'm not sure what you're expecting as far as places to bike - but its pretty limited. The compact road is about 50miles around which gets a little old after a while, but is a lovely (and hilly) ride. I did a fair bit of biking while I lived there, and wished I had brought my road bike instead of my mountain bike - the roads are all well paved and certainly road bike worthy. There are few (I know of one) gnarly off road biking spots - most places are just WAY to overgrown to bike through. If you are looking for a method of commuting, biking is good, except that it rains all the time, and when its not raining you are a sweaty mess. I used to bring a change of clothes for work and deal with being sweaty all day.
If you bring your own bike from home - make sure to pimp it out with front and rear lights as that is not something you can readily get in Palau - and since it gets dark by 6:30 all year, lights are very important. I always felt safe riding in the dark around town and we had some AWESOME full moon rides on the compact road. There is nothing like flying down a hill at 60km/h in the pitch black!
Palau is a great place to relocate for some time - people will look at you funny when you bike around town - but its more that everyone just laughs at you. I recently went back for a visit and one of the customs guys mentioned that he missed seeing me biking around town - I'd never actually met him, but everyone was obviously aware of the silly blond girl on the bike.

Good luck!