Blogs from Koror, Palau, Oceania

In these times of environmental, climatic and health catastrophes, it was heart-warming to discover that paradise still exists. The Pacific – excluding Australia and New Zealand – is pretty much one of the only big expanses of the Earth that I have never visited. Along with Antarctica. I’ve always had in my head how special the Pacific Islands must be so I’ve been saving them for a special occasion. However, with sea-levels rising, typhoons and droughts strengthening, ocean temperatures increasing and global biodiversity plummeting, it is perhaps silly to delay visiting such places. It was my birthday in February and it was a significant one. Consequently, I could justify spending more than usual on a trip to go somewhere I’ve always wanted to. Also, living in Japan I would probably never be closer so, as expensive ... read more

DIVING IN PALAU I slept soundly and was grateful I had no schedule so I didn’t have to rush off somewhere on my first day in Palau. At around 2 o’clock in the afternoon I set off to walk to the local café for breakfast. I mistook the hardware store for the café so I chatted with the owner and picked up a few things. (I really like hardware stores, especially small ones; you never know what you may find.) He told me the café, right next door could give me information about diving. After lunch I asked the waitress about a dive store and two young people at another booth gave me a brochure and said they would send a car at nine the next morning. On the way back to the motel I found ... read more

17:30 we are at the Palm Bay Bistro – a worried waitress – there had been an earth quake in Japan. We order our dinner. Next time she passes by: there is a tsunami coming at 18:30. They turn their TV to a local channel. There is a Tsunami warning – all Palauan on coastal areas are to go to higher grounds. And it is a bit later - at 19:25 that it is coming. We had arrived back an hour ago from Carp island – an isolated island 1 hour away by speed boat. Thinking if we would have had the information if we had strayed there today. The staff are obviously nervous. The restaurant is right at the harbor with the serving area over the water. We quickly finish our dinner and halfway run ... read more

Every once in a while something comes along so good it just completely blows your socks off. As a youngster, full of the joys of spring, this sort of thing happens all the time: Sparklers, Scalextrix, Star-Wars, and Special Brew spring to mind, hopefully roughly in that order. As time slides by, though the spacing of these superlatives starts to stretch, and it becomes significantly harder to find the next Best Thing since Sliced Bread, new attractions plowing a steady downward path from the perfect to the paltry to the downright pathetic: Pop Tarts, Pay TV, Paris Hilton and Pension Plans, until ultimately your biggest thrill is a poke up the posterior at your annual prostate check. So it was with a certain sense of skepticism that I booked a trip to the paradise of Palau. ... read more

Dear all, Back on land now so here are the Palau photos! Wendy xxx... read more