Wed 1/6
Went out to the HNL airport at 8am.  We tried to get on Northwest’s flight to Tokyo at 9:30am.  It was full, and no nonrevs got on.  So we had some breakfast in the coffee shop before we tried Northwest’s flight to Tokyo at 12:30pm.  It too was full.   However, we came within one of getting on.  So we had lunch at Burger King.  We tried Continental’s flight to Guam at 3:15pm and got as far as the jetway while they looked for empty seats.  Still didn’t get on.  So we went home to try again tomorrow.  Bill had to call Ayako to tell her we would be a day late.  He also called the Palau Pacific Resort to slip our arrival date by one day.

Thurs 1/7
Went out to the airport at 10am and got our vacations passes changed to be routed through Tokyo.  We got on the 1:30pm flight to Tokyo and got 1st class seats.  It was a really pleasant change to sit in first class.  We ate, read, slept for the 9 hour flight to Tokyo.  When we got to Tokyo, we had a 3 hour wait in the airport for Continental’s flight to Guam.  This flight was full with a charter, but we managed to get two of 12 first class seats for the 4 hour flight to Guam and arrived at 3am Friday Guam time.  Came to the apartment, and fell into bed.

Sat 1/9 (time change)
Got up around 11.  Bill and I went to Wendy’s for lunch, and drove thru Agana to see the changes since I had last been here 3 years ago.    We went out to the airport with Ayako about 6pm for the 7:30 flight to Palau.  In front of us were many people going to the Philippines on a different flight.  The Filipinos always travel with enormous cardboard boxes taped together.  I bet there were at least 30 boxes the size of tv boxes in front of us.  We finally got seats and got on the plane to Palau.  The flight lasted almost 2 hours.  We arrived in Palau at 8:30pm local time.  We took a fairly old tour bus to the hotel which was a 30 minute drive.

Palau consists of 343 islands along a 125 mile chain.  Only 9 of the islands are inhabited.  The airport is on the "big island" of Babeldaob.  It is very rustic with mainly natives on it  We drove through the main island of Koror where many of the hotels, schools, stores, banks, etc are and then on to the island of Arakabesan where the Palau Pacific Resort is located.  It is a Pan Pacific Hotel.   We arrived at the hotel about 9:30pm.  They had fruit punch in the lobby which was a huge tropical looking "hut" with the A frame ceiling and was open from the road to the beach.   The hotel consists of 13 two-story clusters of rooms which also have the traditional A-frame tropical hut appearance.  Only 6 of them are ocean front, and we were put on the second story of one of them.   The room was pleasant enough with two double beds, tv, big bathroom, and lanai.

We dumped our suitcases and wandered around the hotel grounds, even though it was dark.  The hotel appeared to be almost deserted with the exception of several hotel security men and many large toads.  Of course because it was a slow time, the beachfront pool was being renovated.  We stopped at the beach front bar which was open til 11pm and had drinks.  I had a local beer called Red Rooster.  Not bad.  The bartender’s name was Aaron.  He is Palauan and was very friendly and informative.  Got to bed about 11pm.

Sun 1/10
Bill and I got up about 6:30am and drank some coffee on the lanai and watched the guys at the dive shop right in front of us load up dive boats with tanks.  Got Ayako up and went for the breakfast buffet at 8:45am.  It was a fairly decent buffet.  The hotel still appeared to be very unpopulated.  After breakfast we wandered around the grounds which are nicely planted and very tropical.  There is a large fishpond in the center of the grounds.  It is only about 3 feet deep and contains a wonderful assortment of beautiful tropical fish.  We were most impressed with the two manta rays in the pond.  One is so tame that if we splashed the water at the side of the pond, it would come over and let us "pet" him.  It also contained several blue starfish and an electric blue little fish called the Palau blue damsel.

Ayako went to the gym and Bill and I took the Resort nature hike.  It was about an hour and a half hike up about 300’.  We were given a booklet that corresponded to markers along the path telling about the different plants.   We were most intrigued with the Pitcher Plant.  It was a tube shaped plant that catches insects.  Locals sometimes chew the new shoots like tobacco.   At the top of the hike, we had a beautiful view of the resort below and the Rock Islands in the distance.

We met up with Ayako and we all went snorkeling in front of the resort.  I was surprised at the beautiful coral and fish that were only about 50 feet and beyond in front of the hotel.  We saw some giant clams, great fish, and interesting coral.

At 3:30, We cleaned up and Bill picked up a rental car and we headed back to the island of Koror.   There is a causeway that connected our island with the main island of Koror.  Bill took us by the hotel he stayed at when he came to Palau to kayak - the Marina hotel.  Not a bad hotel, but it was located next to the city landfill. I was intrigued by a sign in the parking lot that said "No spitting on the concrete".  The locals chew betelnut which gives them a mild high, but turns bright red.  Hence, they don’t want red splotches all over the place.

Ayako needed some hair conditioner, so we stopped at a rustic, large two-story grocery/hardware/souvenir store.  I went in with Ayako, and while she was looking for conditioner, I wandered the aisles of the grocery store.  When I went to find her, a lovely young local clerk was helping her.  She had on a beautiful head lei that was totally different from any I had seen in Hawaii.  I admired it.  She took it off and gave it to me.  I tried to refuse, and she wouldn’t hear of it.  She said she had just been to the airport where a friend of hers had just returned from Yap with this lei.  She insisted I take it and put it on my head.  When we went out to the car, Bill informed me that in most of these islands, if you admire something someone else has, they have to give it to you.  Of course, I felt terrible, but Bill said at least I hadn’t admired her car or her refrigerator.

From there we drove to the Hotel Niko.  Continental built this hotel many years ago, and this is where the aircrews used to stay.  We were going to have a drink in the bar there, but it was closed and the place looked almost deserted.  However, the view from the bar was incredible.  We could see the start of the Rock Islands.  These are small limestone islands that are lush with green.  The water has undercut the islands at their bases and they look like green mushrooms.  Some are very small - 50’ in diameter to very large ones.  All divided by beautiful blue ocean.

Then we drove to the bridge that connects Koror to Babeldaob.  In 1996 this large high bridge collapsed, killing two people and leaving Koror and the rest of the populated islands without water or power for several weeks.  Now there is pontoon bridge in place until a new bridge is built.  There was a $500 rental car fine if we drove across it, so we parked, looked, and took some pictures.

We drove back into Koror where I asked Bill to stop at the new Outrigger Hotel.  This hotel was opened last summer and is owned and operated by the same family that has the Outrigger hotels in Hawaii.  It is a 7 story modern hotel that looks sorely out of place in Koror, but it is beautiful.  I went in to take a picture of the Chambered Nautilus fountain and to just look around since much was made of the opening of this hotel in the Honolulu papers.  Bill had stayed here one night for 6 hours when he had a flight to Palau.   I asked the girl at the desk for a brochure.  She was most helpful.  I asked her about the storyboard behind the front desk.  Story boards are big deals in Palau.  They are pieces of wood carved to recreate a Palauan legend.  The one behind the desk was at least 15’ x 6’.  Another man behind the desk came up to answer some of my questions.  His name was Dominic and he is the PR person for the hotel.  He offered to give us a tour of the hotel.  I went out and got Ayako and Bill.  Dominic took us up to the 7th floor (top) and unlocked several balconies for viewing.  It was an incredible view.  The hotel is open but many areas are not yet finished.  He showed us a regular room and then a suite.  He had some interesting things to impart.

From there we went to dinner at Furusato’s restaurant, a local mom and pop diner that Bill had been to on a previous trip.  It had an extensive Japanese, Filipino, and American menu.  We had sashimi, lumpia, and tempura for appetizers.  Bill had pork adobo and I had the ubon combination which is a huge bowl of noodles with beef, pork, chicken, and spam.  Needless to say, we were all full.

Back to the hotel to watch some local dancers and have a drink.  When we went to find Ayako, she had purchased us matching t-shirts at the hotel store, had them wrapped, and gave them to us as an anniversary present.

During the day today, we had tried to arrange a snorkeling tour of the Rock Islands.  There is a tour desk in the lobby, but no one was ever manning it.  The desk clerks tried to help us contact MKC tours but we kept playing telephone tag with them.  So we decided to just show up in the morning and see what we could arrange.

Monday 1/11
Bill and I got up at 7, got dressed and went to the lobby at 8 to try and tack down the MKC tour operator.  One of the guys at the desk said that the MKC lady had come and gone.  The Nico tour lady was there, but not the one we wanted.  We tried calling with no luck.  So we signed up with the Nico lady for a snorkeling tour of the Rock Islands.  She took our lunch orders for sandwiches and said that she would call us when the boat arrived.  At 9:10, the boat arrived to take the 3 of us on a tour.  It was just a small speed boat.  The driver was a Filipino named Aris who had been in Palau for a year.   We loaded up and took off.  It was rather cloudy.  We rode for about 30 minutes to the first stop, an area that Aris called Devil’s Coral.  We snorkeled for about 45 minutes.  Beautiful coral, beautiful fish.  This area was about 15’ deep.  It had just about every kind of coral you could imagine - the kind that looks like old sticks, white coral, yellow coral, red coral - and beautiful fish.

From there Aris took us to an island that had a small beach with picnic tables, shaded area, etc.  Ayako spent most of her time looking for small shells to make a necklace.  Aris slept off a hangover.  Bill and I snorkeled.  The water was only about 5’ deep, but we saw all kinds of clams, blue starfish, incredibly colored fish.  It was beautiful.  We ate our sandwiches and spent about 2 hours there.  Bill said when we arrived that this beach was much cleaner than the ones he had been to on previous trips.  It was newly raked, no trash.  There were some locals at one of the shelters setting up a barbecue.  After we had been there about an hour, a boat arrived bringing Senator Salas of Guam. Bill recognized him and realized that was why the beach was so clean and the locals were making the barbecue.

A storm started to head towards us, so Aris hustled us on to the boat and took off.   We stopped at an area called Cemetery which must have been at least 50’ deep.  Bill and I snorkeled for about 45 minutes.  It was incredible.  Ayako who was fighting some sea sickness slept.  While we were there, another boat arrived with a load of Taiwanese.

From there we went to "Sapporo", a small opening in a rock island that one could swim through.  We kept asking Aris how we would swim back through, but he was non-committal.  So we all hoped in, got swept through the opening.  In a couple of minutes, the current changed and we were swept back through.  That was fun.  We did it a couple of times until the Taiwanese caught up with us.

On the way back to the resort, we stopped at a sunken ship.  Aris tried to tell us it was Japanese, but we later found out it was just a small little freighter that had sunk.  Anyway, it was neat to snorkel around a sunken ship.

We got back to the resort about 3pm.  I had not worn a T-shirt today because it was cloudy and sometimes raining while we were snorkeling.  STUPID.  I know better.  Anyway, I had truly fried my back.

We all showered and cleaned up.  Bill and I hiked up to a small hill at one end of the resort.  The Japanese used to have a sea plane base there and at the top of the hill was the control tower.  Now there is a small shelter with a lovely view of the resort.  We all went to the resort restaurant for the prime rib buffet.  At first the prime rib carver was down to the end of the meat which was incredibly rare and not edible.  We went back when he got a new piece of meat and were satisfied with that.

We went back to the room about 9:45.  Ayako went to the gym.  I went to bed.  And Bill sat on the lanai smoking a cigar.  Ayako came in about 11pm and said she was going with Aaron and another waitress to go out.  She got in about 3am, but seemed to have had a good time.  We aren’t really sure what they did, but it all worked out.

Tuesday 1/12
This morning Bill and I got up at 7:30, got dressed, got coffee and sat on the beach to watch the arrival of a Japanese cruise ship.  It was due in at 8.  The passengers were going to disembark and use the beach facilities, go on tours.  The ship anchored way out in front of the beach and we watched them transport passengers back and forth.  At 10am, the 3 of us rented kayaks and took off for a 3 hour paddle.  Bill and Ayako had a double and I had a single.  This was really fun for me as I have always wanted to ocean kayak.  We brought some snack foods and paddled around our island. The whole island chain is surrounded by a coral reef which is fairly far out from shore.  However, this keeps the wave action down and the sharks out.  We stopped at a sandy, shaded area along the coast, ate, sat for about 45 minutes.  Then we paddled back around to the resort, getting back about 1pm.  Bill and Ayako went to the beach, and I went to shower.

After Bill came back and showered, we walked to the resort green house which is where they grow all the orchids for their grounds and flower arrangements.  Throughout the hotel and in the rooms, they have various sized clam shells with flower arrangements in them.  Quite a lovely way to display some lovely flowers.

Bill and I went to the bar to have drinks and chat with Aaron.  There were 3 guys at the bar - 2 white, one local.  Joe, the local guy, runs the Bank of Guam in Palau.  Jerry is married to Joe’s sister, and has been on the island for 10 years.  He runs a coral farm which sells coral to the mainland for aquariums.  He also has a local bar called Storyboards.  The third guy is the regional sales rep for Budwiser, based in Guam, but who travels the whole area extensively.  We all sat and chatted for three hours.  Ayako joined us, and we had a light supper there at the bar:  hamburger, chicken quisadilla.  Ayako had a banana split for dinner.

About 9, we went back to the room to nap and pack.  At midnight, we went down to the lobby, checked out and rode the bus out to the airport.  We weren’t sure if we would get on because the flight the night before had been canceled, but we made it on.  Slept most of the two hours back to Guam, arriving at the apartment at 6am.  Bill called in and found he had to show up for a noon flight.