Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Palau




Yep, Palau was our first stop on our short voyage around the Pacific. Unfortunately I had spent so much money on uniforms and stuff for the trip that I only had about $70 to spend. Luckily for me, the downtown area was only about half a mile along one road so there wasn't much to spend money on. With its gorgeous beaches, amazingly wooded shoreline, and clear waters, the island is a photographer's dream. With the reef nearby, steep cliffs for diving, and many resorts, it is also a tourist's dream. However, the downtown of Koror had a few souvenir shops, a few burger joints with outside seating, two grocery stores, and two malls that were two stories tall. Not much for spending a day in the downtown area, especailly on a rainy day. We rode a speed boat into the small harbor that didn't cater to anything bigger and decided to ignore the nice smelling bar to find food in town. We'd barely left the parking lot when it started to downpour. When we got off the bus it was barely misting. A minute later it was downpouring. I had brought an umbrella and we were dressed for the rain so we kept walking. Ten minutes we were walking back to try the other direction and my thin capris were soaked and my foot was slpping out of one sandal. We kept walking about a block and a half to an international cafe I'd seen on the way in to find it was closed for renovations so we headed back to the bus for the bar on the pier. We stopped quick at a souvenir shop for a few pieces then hurried to the bus. Including the wait, we spent maybe an hour downtown and were soaked through. The thing about the rain was that it didn't stop but it went from mist to downpour to pelting rain to mist to start again in anything from five to twenty minute cycles. Not good for aimless wandering, especailly when the food joints were few and had no real variety on the menu.
Finally we got to the bar and she ordered a cheeseburger and I got a seafood noodle dish and we shared a fried calamari appetizer. We were nearly finished with our food when two of the three guys we'd hung out with in Russia showed up and we invited them to pull up chairs. All night the service was really slow but they likely weren't used to such crowds on the small island, especailly ordering food. However, the four of us spent the next three hours asking each other random questions and drinking when stuff showed up. I definitely got some off the wall stories to remember (some may show up in a story some day...) and laughed most the night. All in all it wasn't a bad night and I still have twenty dollars left for my next port.
Well, that's all for now, this is Li'l B wishing you all a lovely week and signing off for now.

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