Notes from Palau trip

I just got back from a 3-week Micronesia trip (one week in Yap, two weeks in Palau) and thought I would post some info.

1. KAYANGEL. I highly recommend a trip to Kayangel if you have a spare weekend. There are beautiful white sand beaches and a calm lagoon to swim and snorkel in. You can see several groups of giant clams that are being cultivated by the islanders, and there are a few coral reefs (not as impressive as what you see off a dive boat in Palau, but decent). The island is small enough to walk around, and the locals are very friendly. Everywhere we walked, we were offered bananas and drinking coconuts. Given the absence of beaches in Koror, this is a lovely place to spend a few days.

The Kayangel speedboat departs Koror Thursday at 9am and arrives around 11am, then departs Kayangel at 1pm arriving around 3pm, and makes the same trip on Sunday for every "pay weekend". Call up the state office to figure out which weekend is a pay weekend. Because seating on the speedboat is very limited, you need to buy the tickets in advance from the Kayangel state office, which is next to the hospital (follow the unmarked road that is next to the hospital up the hill, past a number of temporary buildings--Kayangel office will be on your right). Tickets are $40 RT for tourists. Note that most of the boat trip is in the protective reef, and that the boat makes a stop in Northern Babeldaob where you can buy a drink and use the restroom. Although the water was calm, I was glad I had my transderm patch.

We stayed at the one air-conditioned room in Kayangel, owned by Howard for $55/night (low season) plus meals. The room is nothing special, but it is air conditioned and has one of the island's few flush toilets. There were many bugs living in our room, which was to be expected. The meals at Howard's were very good, but very expensive. The room has a fridge, so it would be worth bringing some food on the boat and just having one meal a day. If you want to book the room, call the Kayangel state office and ask for Jeffrey (Howard's cousin). There are no restaurants on Kayangel, and the few stores have very few groceries.

Note that there is no longer any air service within Palau, so boats are your only option for getting around. Another transportation option is to contact Thomas Obak on Kayangel (680-876-1939) for charter service from Northern Babeldaob on his boat.

As far as I can tell, there is no internet access on Kayangel.

1. PELELIU. The Peleliu boat has been out of service for quite some time, but Anguar's (slow) state boat has taken up the slack and makes a stop in Peleliu for $5 each way. The state office told us that a boat would leave at noon on Monday, but it actually left (without us) at 11:15 after they substituted a smaller speedboat. Moral of this story: get to the dock extra early. We arranged passage with another boat. Note that there are two docks on Peleliu and that the dock you arrived at is not necessarily the one that you will depart from. There seemed to be many alternative boat options for Peleliu. The state boat took close to 3 hours for the ride back; a motorboat would take only one hour. The entire trip is inside the reef (if you continue to Anguar, the water can be very rough).

Once on the island, you must persuade local historian Tangie to take you on the WWII tour, including a trip to the museum where he is a curator. Tangie is busy these days with his own research and generally only takes large groups and VIPs around, so it is worth getting a local to contact him on your behalf to plea your case. The two of us paid $90 for the 5-hour tour, which was fantastic. Tangie really knows his stuff. My only regret is forgetting my flashlight and not being able to properly explore the caves. Seeing the WWII ruins was one of the highlights of our trip.

We stayed at Mayumi's, which for $55 (low season) got us a very comfortable AC room with toilet/shower. Her $15 dinners are fantastic--be sure to ask in advance for some of the local crab--we had delicious mud crab and land crab.

Evening entertainment on Peleliu is in the form of evening sports events at the Elementry School's new basketball court. It's a great way to meet the locals.

Bicycle rentals are available for $10/day from Alex. Note that there are no rental car options on Peleliu. We were unable to get any internet access on Peleliu.

1. KOROR. If you are a vegetarian, head to Taj, which has indian dinner entrees that are $10-13. Close to Taj (and next to the White Crocodile gift shop) is a very good Thai restaurant that I am forgetting the name of, which has great vegetarian options for less than $10 and wonderful lemonade made from the local citrus fruit.

If you are looking for a good local bar, I highly recommend the Manta Bar on Malakal. Adora and her cousin came up with the fantastic recipes for the food that they serve. There is karaoke and a pool table. Unlike other local bars we visited, I did not have problems with unwanted attention from drunks.

For cheap cab service, call up Parker Mad at 779-6174. He was able to take us around Koror for $3 a ride--which was cheaper than the other cabs we rode in. He also does tours and airport pick-up and can be reached at islandtouragency@gmail.com.

All internet access is extremely slow, because there is no fiberoptic cable to Palau (all traffic is routed via satellite). The slow access is at least cheap--around $2 an hour.

Random note: I don't recommend the Jungle River Boat Tour. The tour is expensive ($50--although we had a friend get us the $35 local rate) and the time on the boat is short. What is worse is that they feed the crocodiles--fully admitting that the locals hate it because it leads to crocodiles approaching their children when they swim.

1. Diving: I went diving with Fish 'n Fins. My main complaint was as a beginner diver, it was difficult to get them to not put us on a boat going to advance dive sites. 2-tank dive ran $120, plus $20 to rent my BCD and regulator and another $40 to add on Jellyfish lake. Don't forget you also have to purchase Koror and Jellyfish lake permits, which added on another $35. The cost of diving includes lunch on one of the Rock Islands. Note that they have groups as large as 8 going with only one divemaster--if you are a beginner, it is worth negotiating to get a second divemaster added to your trip without having to pay the extra $100 that they are asking for.

Of course, do not miss Jellyfish lake! Make sure you are wearing sturdy shoes, because you will have to climb up and down the limestone rocks to get to the lake (and back). Fins are helpful so you can maintain buoyancy with minimal kicking. Don't wear sunblock or bug repellent, because it is bad for the jellies! Also, note that the jellyfish do have a very mild sting that you can feel if they happen to get you on the lip.

Edited by: tilos

Suriyothai--that's the one! I couldn't find my travel notebook where I wrote down the name. I agree that it didn't have much atmosphere, but I convinced 8 divers to meet up there and we had a great dinner. Plus it was nice to get some veg food after eating so much meat in Yap and Palau.

Manta bar is the only place I found atmosphere, and that was well after midnight :). Still, I chose Palau for the cultural experience and beauty and was not disappointed!

ETA: Rereading my first post, it doesn't convey just how truly awesome Palau is. This is the kind of place where locals will go out of their way to give you advice and where people will greet you by name after a week. On Peleliu in particular, I had lengthy conversions with locals who told me about their lives. It sounds hokey, but this place is really special. I met divers at the airport who spent their whole time on Palau on a liveaboard and had no idea what they missed out on.

ETA: Also forgot to mention--U.S. traveler's checks are widely accepted, and we were able to cash them w/o commission at the Bank of Hawaii. Another bank charged us 1% (I think it was BankPacific).

Edited by: tilos

Edited by: tilos

Great report! The Thai restaurant recommended to us was the Suriyothai(sp?) - I don't remember if it was near a gift shop - short on atmosphere, but the food was good and cheap!

Sigh.....I really need to go back. But question- there is no air service around Palau? What happened? Has there been another crash?

5Waldos: According to my friend, the Belau Air flights were very successful. But then the original owner sold the airline to someone else for a tidy profit, and the new owner didn't do a good job with the business. It's too bad, because the state boat service seems really hit-or-miss. Even if a state boat is running, it might not be the speedboat. But it's understandable, I doubt any of the locals want to pay $40 to fly when the non-tourist rate for boats is just a few dollars.

Another problem worth mentioning is that Kayangel no longer has a nurse on the island to staff the dispensary, so there is no local medical care. There also appears to be no medical care in the remote Sonsorol State Islands. While I was there, there was a reported medical evacuation where it took more than 24 hours for a very sick Sonsoral resident to get to the hospital on Koror. She at least received treatment from a nurse on the medical boat after it made the 12-hour journey to the island.

tilos: Great info! Thanks so much for taking the time to post this. This forum (and people such as yourself) provide a needed service that can't be found elsewhere. Keep it up folks!

But the air flights have been going on for ever- something seems odd here. And locals flew all the time- particularly government folks who came in for meetings, etc. There is an amazing amount of money floating around the islands- think about the cost of the speedboats that are common- not cheap. And the amount of travel, even outside of the government- many islanders are really well traveled, although certainly it is the government workers who do the majority of it.

You are correct about there being no medical care on the outer islands- but there are also very very few people on them. And keeping dispensaries stocked would be next to impossible. I did one medevac in the FSM- took us about 4 days to get the patient back. The outer islands are pretty remote and primitive. But for that matter, medical care in Koror was pretty limited until not that long ago- anything major meant a transfer either to Manila or to Trippler in Honolulu. I suspect that there are still a fair number of referrals.

I wish I knew why the flights stopped. The local I was staying with said after the ownership changed, there were some crashes, and it went downhill from there. I get really seasick so I asked everyone about them, but they just don't exist anymore.

I agree that there are few people on the islands, but on Kayangel the residents were rather upset about losing their nurse. Though I can see how outer island medical care would be one of the first things to go in a bad economy.

Itdm: You're welcome! I figure its places like this that don't get up-to-date guidebooks and the like where posting is most important. Not to mention that it's a great way to remember the trip!
Edited by: tilos

Edited by: tilos

Some crashes is not good- I know that the floatplane crashed and then one of the main planes crashed, killing all aboard.Haven't heard about others but it is certainly possible. Last time I flew there was an Aussie pilot. Very strange- there is a story here for sure. I many try and ferret it out.

And it is sad to see the medical care dropping back- the hospital had been improving significantly with what they were able to offer. There is (was?) a great new clinic in Peliliu run by a fine guy from.....uh....one of the islands, not Samoa and now I don't remember. I wonder how the economy is holding up there- so much of it depends on the US. But I have long believed that there are a lot of underground agreements and deals that have been struck- especially after the closing of the base in the PI. Fasinating place, Palau. Have you read "The Edge of Paradise"? Really helps to put the politics into some perspective.

Edited by: 5Waldos

Hi tilos/all,

Thanks for your informative notes! We're leaving for Palau soon and are looking into places to stay in Koror. Although you covered accommodation in Kayangel and Peleliu you didn't mention anything about Koror. Can you recommend/warn against any places? We don't normally book ahead of time but since we land in Koror at 3 am it seems a reasonable thing to do this time.

Possible options we've found so far include Lehn's, Guest Lodge Motel, and West Plaza Malakal. They all seem comparable and are close enough to both sam's and fish'n'fins (still undecided about who we'll dive with). We're looking for something cheapish, comfy, ideally with some kind of facility to make our own food if need be. We'll probably be diving in koror for just over a week to start with then re-assess.

Thanks again for the helpful post and any further clarifications. Have fun!
nan

I can recommend Lehn's Motel - they have a variety of rooms - we had a studio with kitchenette on the first floor. The kitchen is lightly furnished but they provided us with a basic set of equipment so we could do meals; although we found that eating out was so cheap(for us) that we had ate most evening meals at the great restaurants. It is very basic but with A/C was very reasonably priced and e-mails were answered in a timely manner - they also provided free pick up at the airport in the early am. You can check out reviews at tripadvisor.

nan00k: Sorry, I stayed with a local for most of my time in Koror, and the one hotel I stayed at (Waterfront) was so far from all the fun stuff that it isn't worth recommending unless you have a rental car (they were extremely friendly and cheap--$40/night with free fresh-cooked breakfast & cable tv; we made the best of the situation by taking taxis and doing a lot of walking).

Note that there is a new guidebook to Palau and FSM that just came out: http://www.amazon.com/Micronesia-Palau-Other-Places-Travel/dp/0982261934/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3QBH8QLEW8BEA&colid=2TQU2Z7B5A1X2

Thanks newfie43/tilos

Sorry for the late acknowledgement, I assumed i'd get notified by mail when someone answered a post and finally thought i should probably check myself, and here we are. ahem..

We ended up making an initial booking at the guest lodge motel as it looked nice and friendly and similarly priced to the other options. We'll figure the rest out once we're there. I'l do my best to post some trip notes when we get back, I keep diaries of all our travels but things tend to go south when it comes to typing them up. If anyone sees this and no follow up by the end of november, they have my permission to poke me :)