Palau Pacific Resort (PPR), Palau—February, 2012

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We checked out of the Aggressor and were driven to the Palau Pacific Resort (PPR). Our room wasn't going to be ready until 3 so we hung out by the pool with Ron, Bobby, Wendy, and Gary. Even though we were in the shade, we got sunburnt from the reflection in the pool. To cool off, I swam in the ocean.

Even though it looks cloudy, we still got burned this day!	Lori cools off in the pool
Note the iPod on Bobby's bicep and his ear phones	The infinity pool

The entrance to our room (1114)	An Ocean View room	Nice bathroom
The toilet! The controls!
Very comfortable

On the way to dinner, we watched the filming of a Travel Channel show called Sand Masters, which involved building a large and intricate sand structure that honored the Palau Shark Sanctuary. Attending were the President of Palau and the American ambassador, and Rene, the owner of a local restaurant we frequented called Kramer's, who had baked a shark cake for the ceremony.

Behind the scenes at a Travel Channel shoot

The Palau Shark Sanctuary sand sculpture

Detail of the sharks, fishes, and bar

We had dinner with the gang at the Coconut Terrace (PPR's restaurant) complete with a floor show of younger and older girls dancing what looks similar to a hula.

Wendy survives the Shark Attack!	Bobby and Wendy	Wendy and Gary
Ron and Bobby Photo by Wendy Wood	Lori and Bill Photo by Wendy Wood	The girls start the show Photo by Wendy Wood
Photo by Wendy Wood	The next fleet of gals Photo by Wendy Wood	The girls and the gourds Photo by Wendy Wood
Photo by Wendy Wood	Hat dance Photo by Wendy Wood	Photo by Wendy Wood
Wendy is pulled in	Wendy rocks	Oy, macarena!

Plaque describing the seaplane base here	Lori in front of the cove behind the hotel and trees with interesting roots	The Palau Pacific Resort (PPR) from the Sunset Hut
Our hotel room is just behind the building at front center	The Sunset Hut provides a view of a couple of small islands near the resort	As well as the resort itself
Lori hides out in an old Japanese communications building	The PPR and interesting roots

View PPR Nature Trail, Palau, 2012 in a larger map	The Nature Trail map	Lori counts the ficus roots
Crazy ficus roots	The bamboo tunnel	Coconut palms
Pickle plant	Frogs of the jungle	Land hermit crab
Yes, it's very hot and humid here (listen)	An interesting tuft of moss	Epiphytes grow rampant here
What do you suppose this guy is thinking?	One of many nice (unidentified) flowers on the hike	Flower
Flower	Flower	Lori identifies our breakfast of papaya
The Japanese probably didn't have these signs back in the day which would have given away their position	Can you imagine hanging out in here all day waiting for something to happen?	Here's another
Can you imagine having to dig these out of the hard rock?	And a third; these are actually everywhere	Yet more flowers
Another beautiful flower; similar to one seen previously	Lori hides in the orchid garden	Lori enjoys the orchids
This lizard was extremely camera-shy	There is a sting ray in the fish pond?!	In front of our room, facing the Sunset Hut
Geckos play music at night (listen)	The PPR at night

Snorkeled in the afternoon. Pretty decent house reef. Lots of hard corals, some fantastic staghorn corals. Some large clams (almost 1 meter across) and lots of smaller clams. Lots of fish. Also saw a crown of thorns star fish. Are they invasive here?

Worked on photos all day while Lori read on the patio to stay out of the frequent and heavy rain showers. I got the Palaun buffet. I chatted with one of the chefs who said that if they served real Palauan food, the guests would go running.

Lori took advantage of the sunny weather today to read on the beach while I continued to work on the dive photos. Then we snorkeled and attended a wedding on the beach. It was the first and probably the last time that Lori attended a wedding in a bathing suit. We had dinner at the nice Meduu Ribtal restaurant at the PPR for a change.

Lori reads behind the middle spider lily The PPR pool The PPR beach
Lori has joined a wedding party	Lori throws flowers on the happy couple from the US and Philippines	The happy couple
Lori waves	Lori in front of the sand sculpture	Bill and Lori in front of the sand sculpture

We rented a car today from ARJ for $35 (plus $10 insurance), cash. First time I ever paid cash for a rental car. First time the rental car was delivered to our door too. Great deal. Our mission for our last day was to drive around the island and take in a few of the attractions including the Ngardmau Waterfall and the capitol building.

Although the cars drive on the right, and traffic signs are still in MPH, standard Japanese cars are imported to Palau, which means that the steering wheel is on the right and the speedometers show km/h. Stranger still is that there are a few American cars on the island as well to produce a dissonant collection of steering wheel styles.

The hike to the waterfalls involves a treacherously slippery stretch down the riverbed. Those prone to clutziness should take the monorail. It was very hot and humid. Each of us had drank nearly a liter of water on the so-called "20-minute hike." The waterfalls cascaded over an impossibly large, balanced, bulbous rock.

View Babeldaob Driving Tour, Palau, 2012 in a larger map (as well as the rest of the segments of the track)	The Ngardmau railroad on the way to the Ngardmau waterfall	The description of the Ngardmau railroad
Lori with the Ngardmau falls in the background	Lori on the trail to the Ngardmau falls	Part of the trail goes down a riverbed
The Ngardmau falls	Bill in front of the falls	The boardwalk through the jungle (listen)
Lori at the Okemii Deli & Internet Cafe with our rental car in the background	Great spot for lunch!	Bill on the Okemii Deli patio with the reef in the background
Lori on the pier that reaches out to the Ngerdiluches Reef, the only spot in Palau where you can surf from the shore	The Ngerdiluches Reef from the public pier	The largest stone face in Palau

The capitol building looked huge from afar. Strangely, it didn't look so large close up. Impressive building. It seemed a bit out of scale for the island though. Palau has the same population as Menlo Park, yet we don't have such a large government building. Then again, Menlo Park isn't a country. Oh, and we just walked right in to view the rotunda from the inside. No security. That was in stark contrast to the American embassy down the road that was surrounded by an iron gate, a guarded entrance with double iron gates, and No Photographs and Positive Photo ID signs all over the place. It was the only such building on the island displaying such theater. Sad.

The capitol of Palau	The rotunda (outside)	The rotunda (inside)
Inside the capitol (sans security)	The executive building	The executive building
The judiciary building
Can you imagine if the government building for Menlo Park, which has as many people as Palau, was this massive?
Lori poses in the rear of the capitol

We visited the Airai Bai, Palau's oldest standing meeting house, where rival tribes would meet to settle their differences.

The Airai Bai history	Airai Bai story	Lori in front of the Airai Bai
The Airai Bai	Airai Bai detail

Earlier in the morning, we noticed that a German cruise ship had anchored in front of the hotel. By the time we got back to the hotel, the hotel, which had been surprisingly quiet all week, was completely mobbed. The regular restaurant and patio tables were all reserved by the Germans so we had dinner at the Meduu Ribtal restaurant again.

Then we settled up with the hotel, packed, and set our alarms for 00:10. Sigh. It had been another great vacation!

We drove to the airport (at 12:30 in the morning!) without incident, but our plane arrived late, which put our flight into Guam too late to catch the transfer to Honolulu. After much confusion, the United ticket agent put us on a Delta plane in business class to Narita, and gave us a voucher to the first class lounge. From Tokyo, we flew directly to San Francisco and arrived home just three hours later than our original scheduled called for.

Copyright © 2012 Bill Wohler Last modified: Mon Mar 5 19:29:35 PST 2012 About photos

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