August Pacific Brain-teaser

Hello, all- nu-b here with a poser for you if anybody's game...

I am living in Dongguan in S. China (near HK) and am looking for a week's getaway in August.
The brain-teaser: two main considerations as follows...
-- My gf is Chinese, so visa-friendly destinations are a plus (includes Philippines, Vanuatu, Palau. )
-- Weather: as I understand, heading to the tropics in August promises much rain.

With the Philippines, Panay and Bohol are possible destinations; Palau is a hop away from Manila, and so convenient. Vanuatu is farther afield, but if the weather's good...

Everything I have checked so far weather-wise is a bit ambiguous. It's hard to get a fix on things with an as-yet un-defined destination, so there's the rub.

If anyone has any first-hand knowledge or reliable go-to weather resources on these places, it would be greatly appreciated!

I use wunderground.com to check for weather probabilities. They will have historical data going back quite a few years. Just type in the date you are interested in (ex. Aug 10,2010) and it will give you the weather as it happened on that day - usually an hour by hour account with the conditions for each hour. Checking back 4-5 years will you a fairly good idea of the weather at that time of year. In March in Palau it would rain for short periods 2 out of 3 days with only one morning of heavy rain in the 12 days we were there - otherwise we had no problems with doing what we wanted. If you are intested in Palau have a look at getting there from Taiwan as I believe there are flights going to Koror from there - they may be only chartered flights though - but worth a look see.

Thanks for the helpful post and info- I am most grateful!

According to the Palauans I know, weather patterns have changed so much recently that anything is possible. I will tell you what I tell everyone who asks- the temperature will be 85 F, the water temp 85 F, the humidity 85%, and there is an 85% chance of rain at some point during the day. We lived there for 3 years and there really was nothing terribly consistent about the weather except that the tradewinds usually were around in January.

And yes- there usually are flights from Taiwan and it is most likely cheaper than flying from Manila. I think it is Asean, although I could be wrong. Forget Vanuatu- it would take you a couple of days to get there. You could easily spend a week in Palau happily.