Jellyfish lake

One thing that any visitor has to experience is Jellyfish lake. The name says it all, it is a lake full of jellyfish. As there are hardly any other species that can live in this lake the jellyfish does not have any enemies and therefore they thrive. There are two different species of jellyfish in the lake and as none of them sting it is not a problem for humans to swim there.

To protect the jellyfish it is not possible to scuba dive in the lake but you are allowed to go snorkeling. At first it feels a bit spooky with all of the jellyfish and you really try to avoid touching them. After a while you realize that there are just too many not to touch them.

For more information about this lake please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish_Lake.

Kayaking

While Erika spent time in the classroom for her scuba diving course, Pär took two days to explore the rock islands with the help of a kayak. It was a great experience to paddle around these beautiful islands.

The shape of the islands also comes in handy when kayaking in Palau. Almost everyday there is a bit of rainfall here. When it rains you just paddle in under the edge of an island and sit there until the rain passes.

Open Water

After a day of snorkeling and some hesitation Erika decided to sign up for the open water scuba diving course. Having to stay at the surface when everyone else got to dive down among the coral and colorful fish was enough to make Erika want to join in on the excitement.

There were still some doubts after the first dive, but after the second dive those doubts were soon gone.

After four days the course was completed and we were able to dive together. The second dive on this day was at a dive site Ulong channel, which is know as a shark hangout. This time was no exception, for the first 20 minutes of the dive we sat on the sandy bottom and watched 20 or so sharks swim around us.

Our diving in Palau has now come to an end but we hope that there will be more diving trips along the way.

Tourist information

The official tourist information center in Palau is open Monday to Friday between 8 am and 5 pm. Why be open on the weekends, probably not when most tourists come anyway......:)

Conversation in the tourist information center:

Pär: "Are there any companies that provide helicopter tours over the rock islands?"
TIC: "Yes, there is one. But they are having some technical problems with the helicopters so they are currently not operating."
Pär: "Oh, for how long have they not been operating?"
TIC: "About one year." (!!)
Pär: "That is strange. I have a friend who was here about 6 months ago and took a helicopter tour."
TIC: "Oh, but then he must have gone with the other company. The one that is currently not operating is the one that we have decided to promote."

It then turned out that the other helicopter operator company had left Palau, you wonder why... Time for a privately run tourist information center in Palau?

Next conversation:
Pär: "Are there any hiking trails in Palau that you could recommend?"
TIC: "You know, hiking has not really taken off yet in Palau."

Electricity in Palau

In the evenings we sit here with candle light. Not because it is romantic but because there are constant power outages. Four days ago there was a fire in a power plant in Palau so now they randomly switch off the power.

Therefore our first well invested purchase in Palau was a flash light. Walking through town in the pitch black could otherwise be dangerous due to the darkness and the numerous potholes.

Internet in Palau

As the signs at the internet cafes in Koror say, "Internet in Palau is not as fast as in other countries". Rumor has it though that they will get a proper cable here in 2020 (not a joke).

We therefore don't know if we will be able to upload any pictures while we are here. We might have to wait with that until we reach our next destination.

Palau

After we left Japan we headed to the Republic of Palau. We have now been here for three days and it is time for some reflections.

To be quite honest, there is not that much to do in Palau. That is, if you don't like being in, on or under water. There is little to do above the water but a whole world to explore under the water.

Palau is a small island nation in the pacific ocean. It is located in the western part of Micronesia, 800 km east of the Philippines. It has a total population of just over 20'000 people.

On our first day we walked around the center of Koror (Palau's largest city, sorry largest town, no sorry largest village). It honestly took us about 15 minutes to walk the main street, including the inside of the grocery stores and gift shops. The tourist information center was closed as it was Sunday.

On our second day in Palau things got more interesting We boarded a dive boat early in the morning for some scuba diving and snorkeling. After seeing lots of sharks at the first dive site, we enjoyed lunch at a picture perfect white sand beach. The TV show survivor was on this same island in 2005:)

Today, the third day, Erika started her scuba diving course and spent the day in the class room.  Pär rented a kayak and set out to explore the rock islands.