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Palau:
A Pacific Paradise at Story
and photos by George Medovoy, Editor (To find out about Palau's wonderful spas, click here) PALAU
-- On a visit this idyllic Pacific archipelago, there's every Rainbows
are very common here -- so common, in fact, that "Rainbow's
A common sight on Palau: a rainbow crossing the blue sky over 'Rainbow's End' It's all very fitting for a storybook setting, but none of it is fantasy. It's all very real, and I still remember the excitement I felt when I caught those two rainbows after one of Palau's quite typical, warm rains under a bright island sun. Yes, it's all very real, from rainbows to the protected waters of Jelly Fish Lake and orange coconuts by thatched huts. These are some of the joys of visiting the Palau archipelago, where TV's "Survivor" was filmed. Palau is also filled with some very interesting history, too: it's the under-water repository of World War II Japanese warships and seaplanes and was the site, on Peleliu Island, of one of the fiercest battles of the Pacific war. Do you scuba dive? In that department, Palau is simply heaven! And for fishermen, there's big time sport fishing as well as reef casting and bottom fishing. But if it's plain relaxing you seek, there's sandy, white beaches like the kind you see on postcards.
A couple relaxes in the warm water of Palau. I flew here from Los Angeles, via Honolulu and Guam, and then on to Koror, Palau's main town, where things go at a much slower pace and kids wave to you with big smiles from the side of the road. On the final leg of my journey, from Guam to Koror, it was night, so all I could see through the aircraft's window was total darkness. Then,
as if magically, a handful of small lights appeared in the black of night: it
was Palau International Airport, which was so refreshing in a way, I mean the
smallness of it all, after all those long airport lines and hurried, last-minute
departures leading up to
Koror's main street During
the short bus ride into the town of Koror itself, I tried to make out things in
the night. It felt good to finally get to the 5-star Palau Pacific Resort, set on a quiet sandy beach and acres of lush tropical gardens with 160 bungalow-style guestrooms. I
slept well most of the night, but around 4 in the morning, I was awakened by what
sounded like someone taking a shower in an adjoining room. At 4 in the morning? I opened the balcony door, stepped into the warm night -- and discovered a huge downpour, one of those island storms so common in this part of the world. I stood in my shorts, taking it all in as a lone hotel employee carrying an umbrella placed chairs under an awning at the outside bar, about 20 yards away. "Welcome to Palau," I whispered to myself in sheer delight.
Sailboats on the beach at Palau Pacific Resort By daybreak, breakfast awaited me in the resort's Coconut Terrace Restaurant, where an invisible "fourth wall" opens up to island breezes and the lovely beach. A chef was preparing eggs to order with a friendly "Good morning," and there were delicious pastries, too. We
had a big day ahead of us: some of us were going scuba diving, and others (like
me) would snorkel. Our destination, Blue Corner reef, about 25 miles from Koror
at the We left in a tarpaulin-covered speedboat, zipping along bumpety-bump around Palau's Rock Islands -- some of which were spread out over the calm waters like a giant string of pearls, while others stood alone like giant mushrooms…and all were covered with a canopy of mangroves. Sometimes our guide would slow down to thread his way through a group of islands, allowing us a better look at small strips of sandy beach, perfect for dropping anchor and having lunch. This is just what we did on one of the islands in the archipelago, a kind of park with picnic benches under trees, basic toilet facilities…and a resident community of wild chickens to keep us company!
Palau's Rock Islands sometimes have small strips of beach, perfect for picnics. Later,
at Blue Corner, a chorus of "Wows" went up in reaction to all the reef
life. I saw enormous sea fans with giant cork screw twists of every conceivable shape and size, and I swam with fish that looked like some mysterious artist had colored them with wild abandon. When the divers came up, they told of being attached to a thin rope wound up on anchoring loops hooked to the edge of the reef cliff. Their 10-minute "drift dive" required very little kicking, as the current did most of the work for them. They saw thousands of fish, including barracuda and mackerel, and white- and black-tipped sharks, some no more than 20 feet away. By late afternoon, we headed back to Koror, and my hosts dropped me off at Fish 'n Fins, the dive center run by Navot and Tova Harel Bornovski, an Israeli couple who fell in love with Palau and have made it their home since 1993.
Tova and Navot Bornovski in front of their live-aboard boat, Ocean Hunter III. The place was humming with activity, as a group of divers watched a video of their dives on a monitor. Nearby was one of Fish 'n Fins' live-aboards, the 95-foot "Ocean Hunter III," which takes divers out for up to a week or more of diving in a comfortable setting of nine spacious cabins that can hold 16 people. The boat also has a lounge, a sun deck with two Jacuzzis, a camera room for underwater photos, and a dining room with "gourmet cuisine," Tova noted, adding that divers "come from all over." Besides
diving and snorkeling, Fish 'n Fins also offers kayaking, bird "In
2000," said Navot, "we found the USS Perry, the only U.S. ship that I
sat down at Barracuda, Tova's informal, dockside restaurant, which had a first-class Her cookbook, Taste of Rainbows End, is a reflection of Palauan cooking, which focuses on true tastes and few spices. "You don't disguise anything," she said. "You really eat the 'real thing.'" Besides food, Tova is also involved in shark preservation as the president of the Micronesian Shark Foundation. In 2009, Palau declared itself a shark sanctuary, the first nation to do so.
Kayaking to the shark nursery, while keeping close to the edge (and shade) of the Rock Islands.
I was able to kayak to Palau's shark "nursery," protected from the open sea by rock islands, and spotted two baby sharks, gray in color and maybe 15 inches long, darting by us in shallow water. My guide explained that shark parents go out to open sea after depositing their young here, with the young eventually following into open waters. "Sharks
are in a losing battle," Tova said. "They're the kings of the Palau's
respect for the environment is reflected in the island's natural beauty.
The Milky Way... Another Palau wonder was the Milky Way, a lagoon sheltered between rock islands, where everyone had fun smearing its milky-white deposits -- said to act like beauty cream -- over their bodies.
The white deposits in the Milky Way are said to be good for the skin. What I'd call 'getting away from it all' was Ngellil Nature Island Resort, a new, 8-room eco-resort about a 10-minute boat ride from the main island of Airai on one of Palau's remote islands. This was just my kind of place: no phones, no Wi Fi, no television -- just plenty of R and R, like napping in a hammock under a thatched hut. But if more strenuous activity is preferred, there are options like hiking through jungle terrain and kayaking.
Orange coconuts at Ngellil Nature Island Resort Arriving
at the resort, we walked up to shore in the warmest of waters, where I was reminded
of the "Gilligan's Island" TV series, expecting its characters to greet
us! On
one of my nights in Palau I stayed at Carp Island Resort, sharing a Looking back on my entire Palau experience, I think of Navot's comment, that living here is "paradise."
Colorful fish, attracted by food thrown from the boat, circle around this snorkeler intent on photographing them with a small camera.
"It's
a good place," he said, "very quiet, people are very polite, very For
more information about Palau, see www.visit-palau.com. Other
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