Palau ....Peleliu

It's been a while and I haven't been able to write lately, partly because of bad internet, mainly in Palau, later in Peleliu... and no time....yes, yes we're getting quite busy with traveling, booking, organizing, these are ways, kilometers,,,

Contrary to popular belief, we don't just lay around all day, if we were paid per kilometer, we could extend our trip for another two months... but well,

In Palau, we also booked a tour, as the underwater world is supposed to be fantastic, I think it is if you dive, but with snorkeling it's more difficult, it was made even more challenging by the weather not being so good. In Palau, you're constantly wet, either you're in the water, or you're outside and it's raining, or you're sweating....

Ok, all in all, there were some highlights, but it's also quite expensive, and in dollars, not like a few pesos here, since the island is relatively small, we were able to explore two smaller islands by bike and then explore the larger one by car... the landscape was very beautiful in Palau, although there is no access to the jungle as everything is densely overgrown... and there are also wild crocodiles on Palau that can be found in freshwater and saltwater, there are also a lot of mangrove forests...

During our second dive, we were also able to swim with sharks, so when I was on the boat and they lured the sharks with food... suddenly there were ten of them, I was a bit hesitant about going into the water, but after our guide jumped in, we did too... it was fascinating to see them all swimming around us... and that's when I finally managed to take some good pictures...

Since we had explored Palau and seen everything, we decided to go to a smaller island called Peleliu, hoping that we could discover more in the water there, so we booked a small beach house via Airbnb, which was quite expensive but we liked it, then we looked for a ferry that departed a day later than expected, had to book the room for another night, luckily that was possible.

Palawan was very crowded around Christmas and New Year's. But luck was on our side and we always made good progress with our plans...

The boat ride was very nice as well, because just outside Palau, there are the Rock Islands, many large and small limestone islands covered with trees...

When we arrived in Peleliu, we were picked up and taken to our accommodation. At first, we thought, oh great, right by the sea, but then... tide... at low tide, you couldn't go in because you sank half a meter immediately, at high tide, you couldn't go in either because you had to walk out about a kilometer in knee-deep water... and then there was an outer reef with strong waves... then the shower didn't work and we had to move the next day, our host cooked a meal for us on the first day that tasted 🤮, we had to buy internet that mostly didn't work... and the weather was also lousy,

Well, we went on a tour anyway, the sea was relatively rough, the sun rarely shone, and when we came out of the water and were a bit cold, it started raining... but ok, we saw a bit, did two snorkeling trips, came home, wanted to take a hot shower and there was no hot water, and it was the last day of the year... and we wanted to start the next day clean, it's obvious....

So we contacted the host to come up with something, she said she would take care of it... an hour later, nothing had happened yet, we asked again, and then got the answer that it couldn't be done today, a new part had to be bought, so we heated the water, put it in a pot, and tipped it over... so we started the new year clean... the biggest highlight on this island was the only restaurant and it was really good and reasonably priced.

Here too, we borrowed a bicycle and explored the entire island, I estimate it was about 40 km in total, up and down and across... they also charge something like an environmental tax everywhere in Palau and also on this small island, and it stinks of rip-off... then we drove around on this island and came across a museum where old relics from World War II can be found, when we wanted to leave the museum, the lady said we had to pay a $15 environmental fee, we then said that we had already paid our fee on the boat tour, no no, she said, that had nothing to do with it, we then said that we wouldn't pay anything and would sort it out with the lady who sold us the boat tour

So we continued driving, apart from what happened with the environmental fee, I must also say that I'm not interested in all the stuff from World War II, we were only there more or less because it was on the way... and on this island, the Japanese and the Americans shot each other's heads off... so for me, it's rather uninteresting...

Ok, we continued and decided to take the return route through the middle of the island, our bicycles were not the best, so it was to be expected that the chain would come off, in the middle of nowhere, luckily I had my knife with me and after some back and forth, it was back on...

And then... we arrived at the island's landfill... on the main road, there were bins for waste separation... and we thought, how exemplary, only to realize that everything was just dumped together... I've never seen so many cars grown into nature... car broken, into the rainforest, nature takes care of it...

That's how it is here, but on the Maldives, they also have a separate island just for trash... where else should it go...

Well, despite everything, the island was very beautiful in terms of nature, and we were still able to go on a tour, even though the weather was not inviting, but you have to expect that in Micronesia...

The tour took place the next day, as mentioned above, I still have to tell you that our highlight was a whole group of dolphins swimming and jumping in front of and next to the boat, fascinating animals, I'd love to jump in and swim with them.

The underwater world is great in Micronesia, but I think it's more for divers, partly because there wasn't much sun that day, so we saw less while snorkeling 🤿, but it was still nice and fun,

Our unpaid $15 environmental fee kept haunting us until Mona said a few times that we were journalists and were writing for a newspaper (she even had a press ID, if anyone had asked) and then it was quiet...

It's quite common here to have constant discussions about prices for services that are then not provided... you really have to assert yourself to get what was promised or a discount... but it works...

We overslept the new year and were ready for our bike tour, which I already mentioned... we arrived on the night of December 17 and then left on January 3 by ferry to Koror, spent the remaining hours in front of a restaurant where we had a good meal before... and dawdled on the internet until it was time to take our return flight.

Since there was a typhoon hitting the Philippines around Christmas, we thought about changing our plans and going back to Thailand, as we received very little and poor information about the typhoon, I came across a Philippines page on Facebook, where we got information... until the end, we weren't sure whether to go to the Philippines or Thailand, we had read and researched more about Thailand in recent times than about the Philippines...

We just wanted to change the tickets... but then we decided to stay in the Philippines...

So now there are a few more pictures and then we'll continue later...