Local jack-of-all-trades Gary Esplago.
THREE PERFECT DAYS: PALAU
By Jacqueline Detwiler
Photographs by Whitney Tressel
From: Hemispheres Magazine of United Airlines
THE appeal of an island paradise usually ends at a point where water meets land, but the attractions of this Pacific idyll go much deeper than that. All the way to the ocean floor, in fact.
DAY ONE
Trailing a sea turtle into a coral forest, relaxing to a soundtrack of jungle birds, swapping diving tales at the bar.
DAY TWO
Venturing among the jellyfish, taking own nature's beauty treatment, making a foodie pilgrimage to The Taj.
DAY THREE
Repairing to a private island retreat and kicking back by the sea with fresh-caught fish and good conversation.
AS THE WORLD INCREASINGLY retreats into an echo chamber of car horns and email alerts, it's nice to know that somewhere in the middle of the Pacific there's a whole nation of smiling slightly salt-frosted people deftly navigating speedboats around idyllic islands, pausing here and there to lop the tops off of coconuts or admire a well-formed brain coral.
That's not to say Palauans never have a tough day at the office, but in general this 300-island-plus archipelago feels insulated from the clamor of modern life.
This feeling stems in large part from the exceedingly low ratio of concrete buildings to half-hidden lagoons and sighing palm groves, but also from the influence of Palauans themselves.
One of the most close-knit populations on earth, they still hold traditional festivals to provide money and support for neighbors with newborns.
As Palau increasingly becomes known for more than a diving meccas that made it famous, however, one can only hope that the country's track record of ecological preservation will keep it prestine for many years to come. Paradise, after all, are notoriously fleeting.
DAY ONE
Your ceiling fan is spinning lazily as the midmorning sun slants through your windows at Palau Pacific Resort. The pool has already been taken by kids in water wings, but beyond it is a beach laced with coconut palms that remains pristine and untrampled by tiny feet.
To the sound of chirping birds, you wander down an elevated outdoor walkway to the resort's Coconut Terrace where you load up on croissants, fresh papaya, honeydew and pineapple from the breakfast buffet in preparation for a long day in the water.
And let's be clear: You will be spending much of your time here in the water. A shark sanctuary and dive destination nonpareil.
Palau offers 944 miles of coastline, plus coral reefs, lagoons and little mushroom-like islands so teeming with rare and beautiful fauna that they were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites last year.
A speedboat from Fish 'n Fins, one of the major dive operators in these parts, is waiting for you at the resort dock. It ferries you to a dive center, where you admit to being more of a pool diver than a pro. "This will be like learning to walk-- and then standing on the summit of Everest," promises the attendant helping you to fill out the paperwork. "You will be ruined forever."
Properly outfitted, you will visit some of the popular dive spots around Ngemelis, a southerly member of the Rock Islands that sits like a finial on a long banister of coral reef.
At Blue Corner, you pause in awe mere feet from a tremendous school of wahoo. Next up is New Drop Off, where you follow a majestic sea turtle about 40 feet underwater to where a half dozen divers have anchored themselves with reef hooks among the purple and red sea fans, holding as still as possible to observe the more elusive creatures. You begin to understand what the attendant meant about Everest.
Around lunch time, your boat glides to a stop at an unspoiled beach dotted with picnic tables and monitor lizards. Your guide has brought a selection of traditional Palauan foods from Yano's Market in Koror: boiled bricks of yellow tapioka, a whole roast parrot fish, the simmered meat of a giant clam, pork roasted in banana leaves, and a sweet mixture of pumpkin and coconut milk. Now that there aren't hundreds of sea creatures vying for your attention, you're shocked at how hungry you are, and devour quite a bit of the spread.
PALAU BY THE NUMBERS
POPULATION
21,032
NUMBER OF MAIN ISLANDS
8
NUMBER OF ISLETS
300+
NUMBER OF TOURIST VISITORS IN 2001
45,866
NUMBER OF TOURIST VISITORS IN 2012
118,754
NUMBER OF JELLYFISH IN JELLYFISH LAKE
5 MILLION +
NUMBER OF TIMES PALAU HAS BEEN USED AS A
LOCATION FOR "SURVIVOR"
2
NUMBER OF SPONGES, GIANT CLAMS OR HARD CORALS
THAT CAN BE EXPORTED UNDER PALAUAN LAW
0
THIS MEANS WAR
For history aficionados, there's deeper meaning to be found in Palau waters.
Among World War II buffs, Palau is famous not for its aquatic life but for its role in the Pacific battles between the Allied forces and Japan.
Particularly notable is the Battle of Peleliu, one of the most devastating amphibian conflicts in U. S. military history and a key focus of the 2010 HBO miniseries "The Pacific".
Though the soldiers are long gone, Peleliu and other spots in southernmost Palau are still littered with abandoned war machines. Many of the underwater artifacts are sunken Japanese warships that are open to intermediate and advanced divers, while a few that languish in shallower water are appropriate for beginners.
Non-divers will find rusting tanks and concrete bunkers hidden amid Peleliu's greenery and they might want to visit the Peleliu World War II Memorial Museum, which opened in 2004 on the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Peleliu. Though small, it hold a treasure trove of artifacts, including helmets and weapons, plus the found personal effects of soldiers.
You're practically in meditative trance by the time you return to the resort, where you shower off the salt before wandering through progressively more jungle-like elevated walkways to the resort's Elilai Spa.
During a two-hour "frangipani body glow" treatment there, you are rubbed with lime and ginger salt and scented monoi oil while alternating between drowsing and trying to determine which bird calls and surf sounds are real and which are part of spa's own soundtrack.
Having to pry yourself off the massage table is made bearable only by the promise of dinner, which you have planned at Elilai Restaurant and Bar (elilai, Palauan for plumeria flower, is a popular name around here).
In this charming eatery perched atop a cliff of tropical greenery, you order a tangy papaya and cucumber salad with clams and scallops from the island's mangrove swamps, along with bread so fluffy it seems on the verge of floating off your plate, and follow it with a juicy bacon-wrapped tenderloin over potato cakes.
Perhaps because they can't talk to each other while submerged, divers often enjoy garrulous evening recap over a few beers.
After dinner, you join them on the turquoise deck of Kramers. The more you hear, the more you're convinced that everyone who goes diving in Palau is, in fact, ruined by it forever.
And that, no matter what else happens, you have to see a shark.
DAY TWO
The local fruit is ambrosial, but if you're going to be chasing ocean predators all day, you'll need something a little heartier for breakfast.
On your way to the dive operator Sam's Tours, you stop at Blue House Market to pick up a few tama, which are a bit like condensed, sweetened balls of funnel cake.
Nibbling at the confections to keep them from burning your mouth (they're fresh from the fryer), you board a boat filled with sightseers chattering excitedly about their piscine wish lists.
After some thought, you decide that in addition to a shark, you'll look for a giant clam of the sort you ate yesterday. Clams can't swim, you think. How hard could it be?
Your first stop underwater is a shallow, sandy reef called Fairyland, which is clamless but ethereal and serene. Light-colored corals conceal cuttlefish; oddly graceful hawksbill turtles drift around you.
A blacktip shark slides by glowering. You back away instinctively but it's too busy to be concerned with you as it surveys its domain. Scattering smaller fish with its approach, the blacktip possesses the majesty of a lion.
You emerge from the water invigorated to have seen it.
At your next stop, the coral garden at the end of German Channel, you pop your face into the water with "mwooogh" (which is what 'wow' sounds like through a snorkel).
Snorkeling here is like swimming in the aquarium of a ritzy dentist's office. Phalanxes of triggerfish, parrotfish and Moorish idols navigate a field of vibrant corals studded with teal-mouthed clams the size of a love seats.
You free-dive until you're inches away from one of the things, with its pursed lips and nacreous stripes. In spits in your face. Mwooogh, indeed.
After polishing off a quick coastal lunch of roast chicken, salad and rice, you head to the center of one of the Rock Islands to check out Jellyfish Lake, which is famous of being chockablock with golden jellyfish.
Having spent eons in an environment with no predators, the jellyfish lost their ability to sting--something that you only really believe once you swan into a horde of thousands. As you gingerly tread water, the jellyfish bouncing off you body like slippery little hacky sacks, the scene you take in through your goggles is very much like something from outer space.
Finally, you visit Milky Way Lagoon, whose bottom consists of white mud so good for the skin that it's harvested for use in Japanese beauty products. Hopping off the boat, you cover your body with the stuff. Once it dries and you start to look like a powdered doughnut, you snap a few pictures, wash it off and admire the results, feeling only slightly pampered than you did after yesterday's spa treatment.
Back at the resort, you shower, change and take a taxi to The Taj. Overseen by a Kerala, India native Robert Scaria, it's been recommended to you by several of your boatmates.
Soon you're surrounded by metal bowls aloo gobi (spiced cauliflower and potatoes), vegetable-studded rice and lamb vindaloo, plus a hefty glass of Australian chardonnay.
The way you see it, any calorific excess here is canceled out by your swimming. In fact, this may be the first vacation ever where you've actually lost weight.
For a nightcap, you join a few of your fellow divers at Drop Off Bar & Grill, an open-air jam bar that resembles nothing so much as a beachfront porch. It was built during the taping of "Survivor" in 2004, for crew members who wanted to take it a little easier than the cast.
Looking across at the island where the reality show was shot, you raised a frozen daiquiri to those silly enough to rough it in a place this perfect.
DAY THREE
Since you didn't come all the way to Palau to do the back-to-nature thing halfway, you head to the boat depot after breakfast to be transported to Ngellil Island Resort, a no-frills eco-resort built in the style of traditional Palauan bai (meetinghouse).
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An outpost of the cushier Palau Plantation Resort, it stands alone on a small limestone island, has limited running water and power and is accessible only by boat. Chickens and dogs herald your arrival, and Gary Esplago, the resort's Filipino factotum, hacks a hole in a coconut and hands it to you with a straw.
Along with Gary, the only people you see on the island are a receptionist, a cook and an older Palauan who goes by the name "Uncle".
After settling in, you take a boat back to Fish n' Fins, where you secure an all-terrain vehicle and a guide to show around Palau's biggest island, Babeldaob.
You spend the afternoon careening through red mud tracks with your heart in your throat, stopping at one point to splash around in a chilly waterfall deepp in the humid jungle. Getting to the falls involves negotiating slippery rocks, water crossings and rope.
It's a far cry from a liability -free hikes you've been on in the past. The feeling is of wandering lost in a prehistoric forest, but with better lunch.
Back on Ngellil Island, torches have been stuck into the lawn and an array steaming victuals is sizzling on a tiny grill. Gary is stalking fish for tomorrow's lunch, crouching with a spear and a net in the gloaming. "How can you find them in this light?" you ask.
He dives and emerges with a silver fish flopping on his spear.Shrugging, he then lifts a bag of smaller fish and says, "Should we fry these?"
At dinner, plates lined with coconut leaves appear one after the other at your table by the sea. There is barbecue pork, sweet corn, smoky grilled oysters and crispy grilled rice cakes shaped like hearts.
A platter of fried sardines--the same fish Gary pulled from the lagoon-- is presented along with ramekin of tartar sauce.
After dinner, Uncle and the others show up bearing a six-pack of Filipino Red Horse beer. You retire to hammocks to drink, watch fireflies and listen to the waves slipping over the rocks.
You know that your email is pringing back home, and there's undoubtedly someone you should call, but Gary is preparing to show the four of you a card trick.
The world you're on the run from hums along far away.
Much to her co-worker's annoyance, senior editor JACQUELINE DETWILER has started to say "mwooogh" in response to particularly interesting work emails.
BOARDING PASS From stunning coral reefs to lush jungles, the South Pacific island nation of Palau offers a getaway to remember. United can take you there with connecting service via nearby Guam or Manila, which are served by a number of Asian hubs, as well as Honolulu. Before you go, remember Premier Access, the fast lane through the airport. An earlier place in line and the opportunity to board and get comfortable sooner will make your trip even more relaxing.
For detailed schedule information or to book your flight, go to united.com.
DAY ONE
Palau Pacific Resort
Meyuns, Koror
Tel. 680-488-2600
Fish 'n Fins Koror Island,
Koror, Tel. 680-488-2637
Blue Corner Reef
New Drop Off Reef
Yano's Market Main Street,
Koror Island, Koror
Elilai Spa Palau Pacific Resort
Meyuns, Koror
Tel. 680-488-2600
Elilai Restaurant and Bar
Ngerkebesang Island, Koror,
Tel. 680-488-8866
Kramers Pirate's Cove
Malakal, Koror
Tel. 680-488-8448
DAY TWO
Sam's Tour Malakal, Koror
Tel. 680-488-7267
Blue House Market Koror Island, Koror
Tel. 680-488-1701
Fairyland Reef
German Channel Reef
Jellyfish Lake El Malk, Rock Islands
Milky Way Lagoon
Rock Islands
The Taj PDC Building
2nd Fl., Koror Island, Koror
Tel. 680-488-2227
Drop Off Bar & Grill
Neco Marine, Malakal, Koror
Tel. 680-488-1755
DAY THREE
Ngellil Nature Island Resort
Ngellil Island, Airai
Tel. 680-488-3631
Babeldaob Island
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