March 29: Palau Day 8

This morning I got to sleep in a little bit. When I got up I went up to get Nate because he had brought a clown suit to wake Josh up with. When Nate opened the door Josh kind of looked up and then he totally freaked out and started screaming. It was a reaction that was completely and genuinely scared and it was hilarious!

Once we had finished having our fun with Josh we packed up and checked out of our rooms and headed to church. After church we had potluck and then said our goodbyes to Dr. Chang and his family and Dr. Schroeder.

Photo Credit: Josh Masillamoni

When we were done at the church we met up with Billy at the hotel and he took us on a little tour of Palau outside of Koror. First, he took us to see his pet fruit bat, which he has had for the past 5-plus years since it was a baby.  All of us who wanted to hold him got to and he was pretty tame, but whenever you tried to pet his head or back he would kind of bite your hand. Luckily, his bite never really hurt.

After showing us his bat Billy took us to the Capital building. It was definitely different than visiting the US Capital building. Granted it was a Saturday, but Billy just parked right up in the back of the building and we just got out and started looking around and taking pictures. The buildings themselves had some pretty cool decorations, mainly fish around the top of the buildings and around the bottom were what they call money birds (along with the pooping out of money). After we had walked around and took pictures for about 15-20 minutes a couple of security guards with a dog finally came by, but all they had to do was take a record of how many cars and people had come by.

Photo Credit: Josh Masillamoni

After the Capital Billy took us down to the beach (about 2 minutes away) where there was a long rock pier and at the end was one of the main surf breaks according to Billy. We went out to the pier and took several pictures and just relaxed and enjoyed the sights and sounds for about 45 minutes.

Photo Credit: Josh Masillamoni

After the beach Billy took us to a resort that was still under construction for the most part. It was called Coco Beach Resort and it had a Swiss Family Robinson at Disneyland kind of feel, except maybe a little more concrete. It looked like the main lodge, swimming pool and restaurant were still under construction, but it was still a cool place to get away from it all.

We finished at Coco Beach Resort and headed back toward Koror. On the way back we stopped off at the bridge to take some sunset pictures. Surprisingly, this was the first (and last) sunset we were able to see in Palau and it certainly did not disappoint. We spent a while taking pictures of the sunset at this ideal location.

Once the sun had gone down we headed back to Koror to meet up with a few others from our group for dinner at the Drop Off Bar & Grill. Supposedly this place was built for the crew of Survivor when they were filming in Palau. I ended up getting a grilled red snapper sandwich, which was pretty good (unfortunately no picture because there was too little light). The fish was very fresh and the sandwich was tasty. Once we had finished we headed back into downtown Koror to do some quick souvenir and gift shopping before we had to load up all of our bags and head to the airport. It was a bittersweet feeling checking in to the airport and knowing it was time to go home. As good of a mission trip as this was it is nice to go back home and see Christal again.

March 28: Palau Day 7

Today we woke up early again for another dive. This time we went out into the channel and went down to see a small wreck. Before we went into the water we caught a quick glimpse of a dugong, which is like a Palauan manatee. Unfortunately it was too quick get a picture.

Photo Credit: Jeremiah Choi

The wreck was covered with all kinds of corrals and we kind of just hung around the outside of the wreck. 

After spending a few minutes around the wreck we drifted for the second half of the dive and rose up slowly along the reef. After we had all surfaced I was waiting to get on the boat and looked under the water and saw a pretty cowrie that I picked up and showed to Jeremy.

Photo Credit: Jeremiah Choi

Once we all got back on the boat and headed in to the dock we drove back to the hotel and then headed to clinic. We had clinic all day till 5 with an hour lunch break. When we finished with clinic we packed everything up and tried to clean up the place as best we could. By the time we finished it was about 7 and we headed over to the church for dinner. This time one of the aunties made parrotfish in coconut, which was really good. The fish was firm and meaty and the coconut broth was infused with ginger and was saltier than I had expected.  It was definitely a treat to try.

Parrotfish Cooked in Coconut Milk

After we finished with dinner we went back to the hotel and a few of us played Cards Against Humanity and then went to sleep for the night.

Photo Credit: Josh Masillamoni

March 27: Palau Day 6

Today we woke up early and met Billy at the dock to do an early morning dive at Crystal Cave. Luckily, most of the people who said they were going to go decided to sleep in and there ended up being only four of us plus Billy. This time we only had one beginner and none of us stirred up the sand/silt so the visibility was good. The Crystal Cave consisted of four chambers and in all of the chambers you could go to the top and hang out in a fairly large air pocket. The fourth chamber was the smallest and Billy said most tours don’t go to the fourth chamber because their groups are usually too large. Once you surface in all of the chambers you see quite a few mineral deposits and small crystals clinging to the ceiling and a few stalactites hanging as well.  It was a pretty cool dive and when we headed out all we had to do was follow the light back through each chamber and then out to daylight.

Crystal Cave

After the dive we quickly unloaded the equipment at the dive shop and then headed back to the hotel to pick everyone up and headed over to the convention center where we were having the clinic. We worked till about 12:30 and then we broke for lunch at Taj Indian Restaurant where the former Vice President of Palau and her husband hosted the whole group for an Indian buffet. The lunch was really good food. We had butter chicken, mixed tandoori grill, aloo gobi, chana masala, saag paneer, baingan bharta and of course naan and rice.

After lunch we headed back to clinic and worked till about 5:30 or 6 and then went to the church where the Aunties had made us dinner again. Then we came back to the hotel and I went to bed early, because we had set up another early morning dive for tomorrow and I was beat from the long day we had just had.

The grounds where our clinic was set up.

March 26: Palau Day 5

Today we ended up just having clinic for half the day. We finished clinic at noon and packed up and headed out to go for a boat ride to Jellyfish Lake. Once we got to the island there was a really short hike uphill and then back down to get to the lake.

We spent about 45 minutes swimming around in the lake and going through all the jellyfish. It was a pretty surreal experience just floating through all the jellyfish and not getting stung at all, although, when Josh and I sucked some of the small ones up they did make our mouths tingle a little bit.

It was really fun just to dive down and float up through the jellyfish back to the surface and to gently grab them by their bell and feel how soft they were.

After Jellyfish Lake we snorkeled around the dock for the island where the lake was located for a few minutes and saw a few giant clams.

Then we headed out for another snorkel spot called Rainbow Reef. We jumped out quickly because we only had about 20 minutes to snorkel around and so Josh Kim, Josh Masillamoni, Jeremy, Jin and I swam over to a nearby island. Once we got there the rest of the boat yelled at us to come back, or so we thought. Apparently there is a $250 fine for going onto an island without a permit.

Anyway, while snorkeling at Rainbow Reef I saw a medium sized rock that was housing about 20 juvenile giant clams, with several of them having really vibrant lips.

It was also a really amazing place because the whole floor of the ocean was blanketed in a thick layer of elkhorn coral with small, brightly colored fish swimming in and out of it.

After Rainbow Reef we headed to a place called the Milky Way. The boat ride in was really cool, because it looked like we were going right at a rock island and then we shot through a 15 foot wide gap and wound around some hairpin turns and finally stopped in a little opening where the water was a bright turquoise green color and it was surrounded by steep rock cliffs covered in jungle foliage. 

We got out and swam around for about 15 minutes and people were diving down and grabbing some of the sulfur sand at the bottom and rubbing on their faces like a facial.

After the Milky Way we headed to another spot that I think was called Soft Corral Channel. It was a little arch in a really small rock island that was only about 20 feet deep and about 25-30 feet long, but it was covered in soft corral. There were all different colors of soft corral and quite a few fish swimming around them.

After the Soft Corral Channel we went back to the dock and unloaded the people who weren’t going to try and night dive and then met up with Billy, our dive guide. Our plan was to do a dive that was close to the dock called Crystal Cave so that it wouldn’t take us long to get there. We kind of got a late start because we had a large group and by the time we got in the water it was already past sundown. We had several beginner divers with us and when we tried to go into the cave a couple of them kicked up a lot of sand and silt from the bottom, which basically made visibility impossible. Luckily Billy decided to get us out of the cave and took us back to the surface since it was too dangerous to try the dive with the low visibility and no light shining through the entrance. After we got out of the water and back to the dock we arranged to meet him early tomorrow morning for the same dive. Then we went to the church and had dinner and then came back to the hotel and went to bed.