Around Palau
After 4 days of travel and six flights we finally arrived in Palau.
My first impression of Palau as we left the air for our hotel on the
somewhat paved road was how much the island reminded me of Roatan. It
was not over developed and it was hot and humid. I knew them the diving
would be good.
As we arrived a couple days before the live-a-board was to start I made
arrangements to stay at a small resort called Caroline Resort just outside of Koror, Palau.
The resort turned out to be basically seven cottages on a hill overlooking
lush greenery and the ocean. The rooms themselves were sparse but otherwise
large and comfortable. The highlight of the room was a veranda that looked
out over the countryside. Breakfast is brought to your room and placed on
the veranda. They did have air conditioning but we hardly used it.
Only in the middle of the afternoon did it get hot enough to require it.
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Not having any specific plans for our two days on the island we decided to just
walk into town. The walk is a bit longer than we expected but still not
too bad. The capital of Koror is the only modest sized town on the islands.
Some of the larger nearby islands are so close that often just a short causeway
connects them. While in town we found an Internet cafe and checked out
the Etpison Museum. We also wanted to check out the Palau National Museum
but it was only open weekdays.
Back at home we love watching the Travel Channel and one program we happened
to catch was one about traveling in Micronesia. The hostess of that show
mentioned that the specialty food of Palau is Fruit Bat. Lily of course had
to try it! We asked the owner of the Internet Cafe about it and he said
that a nearby hotel called the Penthouse Hotel serves it in their restaurant.
We walked to the hotel about two blocks from the Internet Cafe. The menu
contained mostly Japanese foods but no sign of fruit bat so we asked for it.
Sure enough they have it but you do have to ask for it. Lily asked the
waitress if she could see the bat before they cooked it. She went to
the kitchen to ask them called us over to the door. Just as they brought
out a bowl with a frozen fruit bat in it one of the local women eating
nearby said "you're going to eat that?" Lily started to have some second
thoughts but decided to go through with it anyway.
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If you're into real gory details, the following is the video I took of
Lily eating the fruit bat. The commentary is pretty funny especially
the part about it tasting like Pigeon, not chicken! There is a special
treat at the end where Lily interviews the waitress. Warning: this video
is only for people with a strong stomach.
QuickTime Movie - Approx 22.3M
RealVideo - 56K modem or faster stream (6 minutes 4 seconds)
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On the way back our flight made a stop on the island of Yap for only about
30 minutes. I wish we had time to stop and dive here as well since Yap is
famous for Manta Ray diving.
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