Scuba Forum / Scuba Locations / March 2004
Palau: above the water?
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Mick - 26 Mar 2004 00:02 GMT We are going to Palau soon, staying on a tour at the Palau Pacific Resort, was wondering if anyone has stayed there. Also, it may sound dumb to ask, but are mosquitos a problem on the islands?
Myles
Anthony - 26 Mar 2004 00:21 GMT > We are going to Palau soon, staying on a tour at the Palau Pacific > Resort, was wondering if anyone has stayed there. Also, it may sound > dumb to ask, but are mosquitos a problem on the islands? > > Myles Well, at the risk of giving you much more than you really want in the way of info, here's a report I wroye on a trip two years ago:
Palau, the westernmost area of the Caroline Archipelago, comprises some 350 islands along a 400-mile northeast to southwest stretch. The major island group is the Palau cluster made up of about 200 islands, only eight of which are inhabited. One of these, Babeldaop, is Micronesia's second largest island (after Guam). The island's capital of Koror is located just south of Babeldaop; farther south the rock islands extend some twenty miles. These spectacular islets, shaped a bit like mushrooms, are topped by lush growth and surrounded by calm clear aquamarine water and there are hundreds of isolated sandy beaches. Farther south still are the islands of Peleliu and Angaur. Peleliu was the site of one of the bloodiest and most futile battles of WW 2. The rock islands are limestone and the sea is eroding their bases; my guess is that they won't be around in a million years or so and you should go see them now while you still can. Palau Pacific Resort is a swanky resort hotel spread across 64 acres around a little bay with a white sandy beach. It's about half an hour from the airport and twenty minutes from the throbbing metropolis of Koror. With 160 rooms and suites it's big enough to have the amenities you want without being overwhelming. There is a pool, two tennis courts, a spa, a gym, a fishpond, a dive shop and boat dock and two restaurants. The rooms are on two floors and I suggest you ask for one upstairs and near the dock. One of the restaurants serves all day; there is always a buffet as well as a menu. The other is their signature restaurant, which serves dinner only and is a bit dressy; as Nick's idea of getting formally dressed is to put on shoes we didn't go there. The food was okay, but two weeks of it was more than enough; we did try some of the restaurants in town but didn't find any worth recommending. In the evening there is a bus, which runs between some of the hotels and restaurants from about 5pm to 10pm. It's free and you can pick up a timetable from the concierge. Hard to believe that the local taxis let that service get started! If you stay in Koror a lot of the dive sites are an hour or more away. The dive boats get off the dock between 7am and 8:30, do a first dive in the morning, pull in to a beach for lunch and do a second and possibly third dive in the afternoon, returning to the hotel between 4 and 6 and for this reason we did no sightseeing in Palau. The alternatives are either a liveaboard or you could stay on Peleliu, which is much closer to most of the sites. However with a non-diver in tow I was happy to be at PPR. The on site dive op is Splash which caters mainly to the Japanese who make up the majority of the guests at PPR. We used Sam's Dive Tours; they picked us up at the PPR dock each morning and whisked us off to their lair ten minutes away. There they have docks, boats, a shop, rinse tanks, gear storage, showers, loos, and the Bottom Time Bar and Grill. As well as diving they offer kayaking, fishing, land tours and so on. As in Yap, the quality of your dive guide is crucial to having good safe diving, and I urge you most strongly to try to find the right one for you. After a couple of hiccups we got Jonas, who is a star with years of experience on Palau and an excellent attitude. He really cared that we got good diversity, and he kept finding rare stuff for us. He was also meticulous about timing the dives to coincide with the best current conditions; dive Blue Corner when the current is weak or non-existent and you'll have a so-so dive, go when the current is strong and you'll see why this site is so famous. Most of the boats were open flat bottoms with a canopy for shade and a couple of four stroke outboards. They were fast, but the long rides could be quite bumpy. They were not crowded, usually around six divers and either one or two guides and a driver. It's all drift diving and a typical dive starts at around 80 feet, becomes shallower and lasts as long as you like. Almost all of our dives were an hour or more, which we could not have done in no-deco mode without using nitrox so unless you're a gas guzzler, in which case it won't really help, I suggest you use nitrox to avoid missing good stuff. I find it hard to imagine better diving than this; both the profusion of sea life and the diversity of sites was extraordinary but in a way even more so was the interaction between the different species of fish which could be seen so clearly. An example: The Moorish Idols were schooling at Blue Corner, something which only happens during a couple of months, so a cloud of them blew here and there around the shelf; around them in a first ring were the predators, trevally, grouper, Napoleon wrasse all trying to isolate prey, then further out the shark cruised, waiting for opportunity, stacked up like planes waiting to land at O'Hare, and in the distance those with better hearing than me claimed to hear the porpoises. On another occasion we saw the same thing with a large school of scad. We saw mantas on two dives; the first we waited around a cleaning station at Devilfish City and they came, just as in Yap, swooping around us, huge and ghostly and when they had gone we, (meaning Jonas), found a couple of crocodile fish on the bottom; the second the mantas were feeding near the surface and we swam up to be near them. There is an unidentified wreck known just as Buoy 6, a 100-foot Japanese fishing vessel at 65 to 75 feet which is heavily and beautifully encrusted and there we saw a semi-circular angel, as well as a bunch of lion fish. I had my first experience of a down current; at the end of a dive we drifted off the shelf into blue water with no visual references, at about 70 feet Nick gave the signal to ascend and I kicked gently to get going while watching my computer which said 70.75.80.85. I had some moments of sheer stupidity, my first thought "This can't be happening", then, and I'm not making this up, "Perhaps I'm upside down and kicking towards the bottom" and finally my brain woke up and said "Down current" so I kicked hard up and away from the shelf and at about 90 feet we came out of it and the computer started squawking about the ascent speed. I saw my first giant clams, looking as richly upholstered as Victorian sofas, creaking shut when touched. Julie and Nick spent one day kayaking in the rock islands and were very happy with that; I was down with a cold and didn' t go. I could go on and on, list the sites and the sea life, but it's all been said so many times before. Every single dive was wonderful. Finally Air Micronesia, the original fly-by-night organization, loaded us on for their 2:30am flight out and the journey home was just as long and just as trouble free as the one going.
Random comments:
If I were planning the trip again I'd give Yap a miss; the mantas in Palau were just as good and the rest of the Palau diving was so much better. Sure the life style in Yap was interesting to see, but still. If you wanted to combine Palau with another destination, perhaps think of Truk if you're a wreck diver or maybe the GBR.
The currents in Palau can be very strong and can be unpredictable. While we were there another dive op mislaid a couple of their dive guides and everyone's boats went to search; they were found, but only after spending 18 hours in the water. If, like me, you are unsure of your ability to cope with these conditions I suggest going with people who know what they are doing. Sam's provides safety sausages and reef hooks; you should take a mirror and a noisemaker and, I suggest, a collapsible snorkel to stick in the pocket of your BC.
We got sick. I had a tummy bug in Yap; I had Imodium and Cipro with me, which got rid of it quickly, but I still lost a day's diving. All of us got colds in Palau; Julie and I each lost two days because we couldn't clear; Nick toughed it out. Other people there had the same experience, no idea why.
Make this trip: mortgage your house, sell your firstborn, do whatever it takes but go. You'll remember it forever.
Greg Mossman - 26 Mar 2004 04:19 GMT > We are going to Palau soon, staying on a tour at the Palau Pacific > Resort, was wondering if anyone has stayed there. Also, it may sound > dumb to ask, but are mosquitos a problem on the islands? The PPR is a beautiful place, but don't bother with a shore dive on their "house reef". It's dead. And don't bother with their onsite dive shop unless you're Japanese or you want to rent a tank to dive the dead house reef. I did, but even a couple pre-dive Red Roosters couldn't bring it back to life. Fortunately the shop had closed by the time I returned and they never charged me for the tank.
Food is great there, some of the best on the island, but breakfast is pricy - $14 for eggs, toast, and coffee. You might as well partake of their complete, but even pricier breakfast buffet. Dinner has a different theme buffet each night at the main restaurant, with a la carte available. I dined on the buffet with the president of Palau, so if it's good enough for him . . . The signature restaurant is incredible. The best tuna sashimi I've ever eaten. The indoor bar is fine when you want your beer to stay cold - they serve Red Rooster on tap, but get some at a store in town where you'll find a range of bottlings including an awesome Mango Wheat - the hotel actually encourages using the minibar fridge for your own brews so go ahead. The bar out by the pool is fun even with the grumpy bartender. Ask him for the local bar muchie instead of peanuts: fried chicken skin in a sweet hot sauce. Your beer will get warm in 5 minutes, so drink up fast, order another, and enjoy the music of a pair of Filipino guitarists who take requests but prefer to mangle the Beatles with their bad accents.
As for skeeters, I don't recall any and bugs usually love me wherever I go. The trades will still be blowing good in April, so you should be fine. If not, they sell bug spray in the stores and there's no malaria on the islands.
Steve - 26 Mar 2004 08:09 GMT > The PPR is a beautiful place, but don't bother with a shore dive on their > "house reef". It's dead. And don't bother with their onsite dive shop > unless you're Japanese or you want to rent a tank to dive the dead house > reef. I did, but even a couple pre-dive Red Roosters couldn't bring it back > to life. Fortunately the shop had closed by the time I returned and they > never charged me for the tank. I disagree. As luck (or bad planning) had it, the night my wife felt ambitious enough for a night dive was the night that low tide was 3 minutes after we got in the water. Since there's a lot of very shallow stuff, we were only about 30 minutes into the dive when we wandered back towards shore and found ourselves right on top of the coral. Normally I think a dive with an average depth of 5 to 8 feet is much better than snorkeling, but when the tops of the coral heads are only 2 feet down even I think the tank is unnecessary. The viz that night wasn't very good either.
OTOH, I went out snorkeling about 3 nights and enjoyed it enough that I stayed out for over 2 hours each time, and spent much of that time wishing I was neutral instead of several pounds buoyant, so that I could stay at depth (even if the depth I wanted to stay at wasn't more than 3 to 8 feet. We were told tanks were $8, but when we settled up at the end of our stay we were charged $5 each, so cost isn't much of an issue. The reef may be dead, but there are still plenty of inhabitants, and whether you just go snorkeling or make it a dive, it would be foolish to stay there and not spend some time checking it out. With a maximum depth of 10 feet (plenty deeper if you want to head further out) you'll probably get cold, tired, or bored before you run out of air.
Right off the beach it will be hard to get deeper than perhaps 5 feet until you're about 100 yards out, but there's good stuff 25 feet out in 1 to 3 feet (depending on the tide). Besides damsel fish nipping you when your back is turned, there are lots of picasso triggerfish, loads of shrimp gobies, plenty of the common small reef fish, and at least one mantis shrimp that must have been 10 inches long. One night I found a free swimming Moray (species uncertain) that was about 8 inches long, and there are several dozen pipefish of about the same size. A bit further out the coral heads get numerous and you'll find more and bigger fish, as well as giant clams (some of which are only about 3 or 4" across, but some that are close to 3 feet). Just off the end of the rock jetty there was an octopus that is probably the biggest we've seen. I consistently found it in the same coral head all three nights, but it never came out to play (despite a brief moment when I was sure that either it was coming out or my friend was going in, depending on who was stronger).
Left of the jetty is the better place if you want to make it a dive, as you'll find deeper water closer to shore, without as much shallow coral. There are two more octopi that hang out between the jetty and the dock, and a lionfish that hunts next to the big concrete pier of the dock, starting at about 8 or 9 in the evening. There's also a large blue tailed shrimp that hangs out on the concrete pier; you can find him by the 6" antennae sticking out of whatever spot he's in. Other things that are there include crocodile fish, dog face puffers, at least a couple of 3 foot morays, sleeping Parrot fish, another big mantis shrimp and about 50,000 smaller shrimp.
> Food is great there, some of the best on the island, but breakfast is > pricy - Most of their offerings are pricy. The chicken ceasar salad is a good deal at $8, but the $14 lasagna is the same as what my local Italian place offers for $7.95. The ribs were excellent, but also more than at home. The hamburgers were less than outstanding, and $10. If I was in Grand Cayman where everything is expensive the prices would have been typical, but plenty of other places have similar offerings for much less. The free bus that runs into Koror every hour from 5 to 10 makes it easy to eat elsewhere. The last stop is at the Etpison Museum, which has a restaurant called The Reef. The selection isn't extensive, but the food is good and reasonably priced.
> The best tuna sashimi I've ever eaten. That's what the professional chef who was traveling with us said about his appetizer at The Reef. The Indian restaurant (The Taj?) across the road and 100 yards north of Neco Plaza (the shuttle bus' first stop) is also very good. For inexpensive offerings we went to the Rock Island Cafe (10 minute walk back toward the resort from Neco Plaza). We paid under $20 for two mexican entrees that were very good and left us too full to consider desert.
> the hotel actually encourages using the minibar fridge for > your own brews so go ahead. I don't know about "encourages", but we removed the $2.75 cans of Pepsi and stocked our own 6-pack (about $3 at Surangel's, a grocery store in Koror) and milk for our cereal (who wants to get up early enough to have breakfast at the restaurant before catching the 8:30 diveboat?). The complimentary coffee, BTW, is instant, so the rooms are supplied with a hot pot rather than a coffee maker. It's very convenient if you want boiling water for any reason.
> As for skeeters, I don't recall any and bugs usually love me wherever I go. > The trades will still be blowing good in April, so you should be fine. If > not, they sell bug spray in the stores and there's no malaria on the > islands. We weren't bothered by any kind of annoying insects. In fact, other than seeing (literally seeing; none of us got bitten by anything at all) a few at some of the beaches during our surface intervals, I could have come home believing Palau doesn't have insects.
Here's a tip for any dive trip, but especially for the PPR. Bring some parachute cord for making a clothesline to hang your suits. The upstairs rooms have railings on the balcony (as well as downstairs neighbors who might not like dripping water), and the ground floor rooms have 3 (that's *three*) small hooks in the trim along the bottom of the upstair balcony. All 3 of our hooks were along the outer edge, where stuff could get rained on, so I relocated two to the sides and then ran the parachute cord between them, making a triangular clotheline that was mostly sheltered from the rain. That gave us plenty of room for hanging a couple of suits, a vest and two hoods. The tub has a spring-loaded line that's good for bathing suits or other lightweight items.
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Greg Mossman - 26 Mar 2004 18:40 GMT > OTOH, I went out snorkeling about 3 nights and enjoyed it enough that I stayed out > for over 2 hours each time, and spent much of that time wishing I was neutral instead Night diving wasn't an option for me on the last trip - too many drinking companions and I succumb easily to peer pressure. Next time I'll have to give it a shot.
> > The best tuna sashimi I've ever eaten. > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Plaza). We paid under $20 for two mexican entrees that were very good and left us too > full to consider desert. Really? We had the sashimi sampler at the reef (some seared, some blackened, some just plain raw) and it was just OK. At least it wasn't frozen like the Japanese restaurant we tried where I also was served one of the most overcooked tuna steaks I've ever encountered. I've eaten plenty of tuna sashimi elsewhere in Micronesia and all over Hawaii and in some of the best sushi bars of L.A., though I don't claim to be a professional chef and I've never been to Japan. The tuna was impeccable at the PPR's "nice" restaurant. Simply impeccable. Instead of a plain ball of reconstituted wasabi, it was served with a fluffy "wasabi mousse" as well a colorful variety of pickled Japanese veggies like lotus root (that's the only one I could identify). Entree was a filet mignon stuffed with crab with a single grilled large (and very, very fresh) prawn sitting atop it in a sweet and sticky merlot demiglace. I forgot what I had for dessert. It was a few years ago.
Second best tuna sashimi IMHO: Mama's Fish House, Maui. It will set you back $18, but it's served with fresh-grated wasabi.
Third? Mark the Chef's beautiful slices from the bluefin we landed on the Horizon during the trip down to the San Benito Islands.
My steak was also just average at the Reef. I recall there was an excellent local soup made with coconut and chicken and some sort of spinach-like green.
Rock Island, however, is a great spot. It's almost a shame to eat such American food (and that includes the pizza and Mexican - especially the Mexican as that's more common than burgers in SoCal) in such an exotic locale, but the burger I had there hit the spot better than any other meal I had on the godforsaken island, including the PPR.
On the other hand, I understand that Bill Munn has returned as executive chef for the PPR after leaving the Manta Ray Bay Hotel in Yap where I enjoyed a week of his fine food and bummed plenty of cigarettes off him during his beer breaks while we discussed life in a Yapese kitchen. I can't wait to go back.
> I don't know about "encourages", but we removed the $2.75 cans of Pepsi and stocked > our own 6-pack (about $3 at Surangel's, a grocery store in Koror) and milk for our > cereal (who wants to get up early enough to have breakfast at the restaurant before > catching the 8:30 diveboat?). The complimentary coffee, BTW, is instant, so the rooms > are supplied with a hot pot rather than a coffee maker. It's very convenient if you > want boiling water for any reason. After we had already been doing it for a couple days, someone at the hotel informed us that the fridges were fine to use for our own beers. It was a fam trip, so we were generally treated like royalty, but we were told it was OK to pass this info onto potential customers. IMO, the selling point of an in-room fridge is more valuable to the hotel than whatever they might make off the minibar.
> of the upstair balcony. All 3 of our hooks were along the outer edge, where stuff > could get rained on, so I relocated two to the sides and then ran the parachute cord > between them, making a triangular clotheline that was mostly sheltered from the rain. > That gave us plenty of room for hanging a couple of suits, a vest and two hoods. > The tub has a spring-loaded line that's good for bathing suits or other lightweight > items. Thanks for the late advice. We used our hooks, where stuff could get rained on, to dry our gear before flying home since it was a very sunny cloudless day. Or at least it started out that way. Weather changes fast in Micronesia. Oh well, at least our gear was thoroughly rinsed.
Matthew Endo - 26 Mar 2004 22:12 GMT > Really? We had the sashimi sampler at the reef (some seared, some > blackened, some just plain raw) and it was just OK. At least it wasn't [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > best sushi bars of L.A., though I don't claim to be a professional chef and > I've never been to Japan. Greg, I'll be waiting for you here in Tokyo. We can go down to the fish market at 5 am and eat real sashimi.
I don't think that Steve Kramer ate any fish while he was living in Japan, he just looked at them.
> Second best tuna sashimi IMHO: Mama's Fish House, Maui. It will set you > back $18, but it's served with fresh-grated wasabi. Did you grate it yourself in a clockwise rotation on a shark skin grater?
Oh yeah, while in Japan we can go for a dive, too. Do you like horse mackerel (aji)?
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Greg Mossman - 26 Mar 2004 22:34 GMT > Greg, I'll be waiting for you here in Tokyo. We can go down to the fish > market at 5 am and eat real sashimi. Is it a crime to eat it at a decent hour? That's too early for me to start drinking sake.
> I don't think that Steve Kramer ate any fish while he was living in > Japan, he just looked at them.
> Did you grate it yourself in a clockwise rotation on a shark skin > grater? They must have been out of sharkskin that day. It was still a treat for a "westerner". In L.A. there's a few places where you can get the real stuff (also probably sans sharkskin) but I don't get out enough.
> Oh yeah, while in Japan we can go for a dive, too. Do you like horse > mackerel (aji)? I love Spanish mackerel (aji) but detest plain old mackerel that tastes like a horse, one that's been sitting dead in the sun a few days. Forget Tokyo. Out here in the lovely Channel Islands they school at arm's reach. One can simply pluck them out of the water and swallow them whole. I just choose not to.
Matthew Endo - 26 Mar 2004 23:02 GMT > > Greg, I'll be waiting for you here in Tokyo. We can go down to the fish > > market at 5 am and eat real sashimi. > > Is it a crime to eat it at a decent hour? That's too early for me to start > drinking sake. When it's cold, that's the perfect time to get a warm cup of sake...
> I love Spanish mackerel (aji) but detest plain old mackerel that tastes like > a horse, one that's been sitting dead in the sun a few days. Forget Tokyo. > Out here in the lovely Channel Islands they school at arm's reach. One can > simply pluck them out of the water and swallow them whole. I just choose > not to. OK, I guess you haven't eaten horse sashimi yet, then?
Where in the Channel Islands? I remember the last trip I took there, two divers were collecting sea urchin (uni)...
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chilly - 27 Mar 2004 00:21 GMT (snip)>
> Where in the Channel Islands? I remember the last trip I took there, > two divers were collecting sea urchin (uni)... I love most sushi and sashimi but uni tastes like licking the bottom of an acquarium to me.
I gather it is an acquired taste.
Steve - 27 Mar 2004 05:04 GMT > I love most sushi and sashimi but uni tastes like licking the bottom of an > acquarium to me. > > I gather it is an acquired taste. What is it that posesses some people to go to the trouble of acquiring a taste for something they don't like the first time or two?
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Matthew Endo - 27 Mar 2004 05:08 GMT > > I love most sushi and sashimi but uni tastes like licking the bottom of > > an acquarium to me. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > What is it that posesses some people to go to the trouble of acquiring a > taste for something they don't like the first time or two? Methinks that is how I recall my first taste of beer...
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Dillon Pyron - 27 Mar 2004 06:18 GMT >> I love most sushi and sashimi but uni tastes like licking the bottom of an >> acquarium to me. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >What is it that posesses some people to go to the trouble of acquiring a taste for >something they don't like the first time or two? Many years ago on Kaui (it was our 10th anniversary, we celebrate 24 this year) we had dinner at a great little sushi bar. The chef offered me uni for free. Had one taste and decided I paid too much.
The rest of the meal was great. They had butter smooth unagi and the ahi had just come off the boat.
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chilly - 27 Mar 2004 10:16 GMT > > I love most sushi and sashimi but uni tastes like licking the bottom of an > > acquarium to me. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > What is it that posesses some people to go to the trouble of acquiring a taste for > something they don't like the first time or two? No idea.
Greg Mossman - 27 Mar 2004 00:51 GMT > OK, I guess you haven't eaten horse sashimi yet, then? I've had horseburgers in Mexico. Does that count?
> Where in the Channel Islands? I remember the last trip I took there, > two divers were collecting sea urchin (uni)... Take all the sea urchins you want. They're a pain in the butt. We also have rock scallops here that are pretty tasty raw.
As for the mackerels, I don't know that Trachurus symmetricus is a true Spanish mackerel. It is called that, as well as being called Jack (mackerel aka California horse mackerel), but I see no reason to call a fish Jack anymore than one would want to call a man Dick. We also have schools of the more-common chub mackerel or Pacific mackerel (Scomber japonicus) which, from the scientific name, one might assume could be found in Japan.
Steve Kramer - 27 Mar 2004 01:31 GMT > I don't think that Steve Kramer ate any fish while he was living in > Japan, he just looked at them. Do you have any specific reason for a statement like this? Why did you even bring my name into this thread?
Steve Kramer Chiang Mai, Thailand http://www.photoenvisions.com Five years, seven months, six days, 1 hour, 29 minutes and 49 seconds. 61351 cigarettes not smoked, saving $15,337.96. Time used for a better purpose: 30 weeks, 3 days, 35 minutes.
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Matthew Endo - 27 Mar 2004 03:57 GMT > Do you have any specific reason for a statement like this? > Why did you even bring my name into this thread? Whoops, sorry, wrong Steve. After rechecking the post, I realized that it was a different Steve!
I figured you would have eaten a lot of sushi in Japan!
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Steve Kramer - 27 Mar 2004 09:44 GMT > > Do you have any specific reason for a statement like this? > > Why did you even bring my name into this thread? [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > I figured you would have eaten a lot of sushi in Japan! Enough to grow gills. I save a lot on tank refills now. :o)
Steve Kramer Chiang Mai, Thailand http://www.photoenvisions.com Five years, seven months, six days, 9 hours, 43 minutes and 48 seconds. 61362 cigarettes not smoked, saving $15,340.54. Time used for a better purpose: 30 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 30 minutes.
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Steve - 27 Mar 2004 05:35 GMT > Night diving wasn't an option for me on the last trip - too many drinking > companions and I succumb easily to peer pressure. Next time I'll have to > give it a shot. Just drink twice as much on alternate nights, and none on the nights you go diving.
> On the other hand, I understand that Bill Munn has returned as executive > chef for the PPR after leaving the Manta Ray Bay Hotel in Yap where I > enjoyed a week of his fine food and bummed plenty of cigarettes off him > during his beer breaks while we discussed life in a Yapese kitchen. I can't > wait to go back. As of early March (we flew back on the 6th), Bill Munn was cooking apparently inconsistent tuna sashimi at The Reef. Our friends had eaten there a few nights earlier than the night we all went, and Bill had come out and talked with them for a while, as he did the night we went. I guess he's never eaten a hamburger at the Rock Island cafe, since he mentioned that it was essentially impossible to get a good hamburger in Micronesia (something about big chunks of frozen ground beef being shipped in and needing resuscitation in the form of something that would render the cooked product less leathery). Oddly enough, the chef at PPR, James Lin (I think) looks oriental and has an oriental sounding last name, but apparently comes from Delaware. We talked with him during the Wednesday cocktail hour but didn't here anything about any future changes in who would be cooking.
> After we had already been doing it for a couple days, someone at the hotel > informed us that the fridges were fine to use for our own beers. It was a > fam trip, so we were generally treated like royalty, Then I know you weren't in the room we were in. With vacation lodging, like real estate, the three most important criteria are location, location, location, and PPR has a very good location. As for claims that it is a first class resort, I'd have to say some people are delusional. The grounds are very nice, but I've had better rooms and better bath towels for $60 a night at Super 8's. The service was mostly on island time, and we're lucky not to have died of thirst sitting in the (casual) restaurant with empty water glasses dessicating in front of us. One thing they didn't cut any corners on, though, was putting the Pan Pacific logo on everything. I think I remember a mention that you smoke occcasionally, so perhaps you noticed that they even stamp the logo on the sand in the big ashtrays.
but we were told it was
> OK to pass this info onto potential customers. IMO, the selling point of an > in-room fridge is more valuable to the hotel than whatever they might make > off the minibar. We never heard anything either way. After two weeks of finding their stuff piled on top and ours in the fridge they were still checking the stock dutifully each day. For $200 a night a microwave would be a nice selling point, too, but perhaps they know it would offer too much competition to their overpriced fare.
> Thanks for the late advice. We used our hooks, where stuff could get rained > on, to dry our gear before flying home since it was a very sunny cloudless > day. Or at least it started out that way. Weather changes fast in > Micronesia. Oh well, at least our gear was thoroughly rinsed. It rained many mornings during our stay, but seemed to always stop in time for the walk down to the dock, though it resumed during the boat ride and/or dives on a few days. After doing a night dive on our last diving day I came back and spent about 3 hours rinsing and drying gear in preparation for packing. While the amenities at PPR mostly gave no indication that they were aware that many of their guests would have lots of wet diving and snorkeling gear to deal with, they were thoughtful enough to install a very nice rinse tank in the bathroom. I used about 15 beach towels (while the towel desk was unattended at 9PM it wasn't unstocked) to remove most of the water left after I wrung stuff out, and even my polartec suit was almost completely dry by noon. In case you didn't find out, BTW, the rinse shower behind the towel desk has hot water, which is apparently inexhaustable at 10PM.
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Greg Mossman - 27 Mar 2004 07:48 GMT > > Night diving wasn't an option for me on the last trip - too many drinking > > companions and I succumb easily to peer pressure. Next time I'll have to > > give it a shot. > > Just drink twice as much on alternate nights, and none on the nights you go diving. On that trip I drank twice as much every night.
> As of early March (we flew back on the 6th), Bill Munn was cooking apparently > inconsistent tuna sashimi at The Reef. Our friends had eaten there a few nights [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Delaware. We talked with him during the Wednesday cocktail hour but didn't here > anything about any future changes in who would be cooking. Bill Munn certainly wasn't at the Reef when I was there. His presence would explain the improvement in the food. As for the burgers, I thought I ate a pretty decent one in Yap except that they substituted cabbage for lettuce as it doesn't wilt as fast.
> Then I know you weren't in the room we were in. With vacation lodging, like real > estate, the three most important criteria are location, location, location, and PPR > has a very good location. As for claims that it is a first class resort, I'd have to > say some people are delusional. The grounds are very nice, but I've had better rooms > and better bath towels for $60 a night at Super 8's. That's a real shame. Our rooms were quite decent, about the equivalent of a $250-350 a night room in Hawaii. I can't say I remember the towels (two years ago) but I don't remember complaining. And I'm fond of complaining.
> The service was mostly on island > time, and we're lucky not to have died of thirst sitting in the (casual) restaurant > with empty water glasses dessicating in front of us. Palauan service is remarkably quick compared to Truk Lagoon, so it could be worse. We had a large group so our meals took forever. Some people would be served dessert before others even got their appetizers. So we made a game of it. Everyone throws a couple bucks into the pot and the last one to be served wins.
Steve - 27 Mar 2004 18:31 GMT > On that trip I drank twice as much every night. You've got your priorities screwed up. When you have a couple of hundred nights to drink at home and ten nights to dive in Palau, it seems clear that the drinking should be weighted heavily towards the nights that you're at home. On the upside, at least the drinks at PPR weren't overly expensive.
> Bill Munn certainly wasn't at the Reef when I was there. His presence would > explain the improvement in the food. As for the burgers, I thought I ate a > pretty decent one in Yap except that they substituted cabbage for lettuce as > it doesn't wilt as fast. Wasn't he at Manta Ray Bay until fairly recently? I thoink we probably mentioned that we had just come from Yap, but I don't recall any mention of how long he'd been in Palau. Our burgers in Yap at least had a hamburger-like consistency, whereas the one at PPR was more like meatloaf on a bun. Out of three hamburgers during the whole trip, though, I wasn't asked once how I wanted it cooked, and even at home a burger cooked that thoroughly is going to be a bit durable.
>> As for claims that it is a first class resort, > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > $250-350 a night room in Hawaii. I can't say I remember the towels (two > years ago) but I don't remember complaining. And I'm fond of complaining. Perhaps you had one of the suites? We had a mere garden view room, but for $200/night (of course I'm basing this on a guess from their website since we had a package and never got a specific breakdown from Trip 'n Tour) I expected more, but it was just aconvenient place to stay and we didn't spend a lot of time trying to enjoy the room instead of enjoying what wasnt in the room. Other than the value for the money, that the room was far smaller than the (very nice) room at Manta Ray Bay wasn't much of a concern. OTOH, there were numerous cracked tiles, and one fo the chairs on the patio had a 6" tear, and that's inexcuable in a resort that bills itself as a "luxury resort". When Super 8 buys inexpensive towels, I expect it, since they work on a small margin. Bathrobes, slippers and chocolates on the pillow are fine, but don't do squat to add real value. They're spending a few bucks on the wrong things and scrimping where it matters.
That said, on a future trip to Palau it's likely we'd be back at PPR due to the location, though I'd make it clear ahead of time that I expected our room to be in good shape. OTOH, while your companions wanted to drink, mine wanted to relax and go to sleep early, and getting them to go snorkeling or diving in the evening was like pulling teeth. For the amount of time we actually took advantage of the property it woulds probably have been a better financial decision to stay at the Palasia or even one of the West Plaza hotels and be close to the restaurant options.
> Palauan service is remarkably quick compared to Truk Lagoon, so it could be > worse. We had a large group so our meals took forever. Some people would > be served dessert before others even got their appetizers. So we made a > game of it. Everyone throws a couple bucks into the pot and the last one to > be served wins. Good game. We figured out early on that feeding everyone at the same time isn't much of a piority in that part of the world. As for Truk, we've known for years that's a destination where a liveaboard is the way to go. Of course I'm only assuming that the service would be better on a liveaboard. If it isn't, that 10% tip they recommend is at least optional, unlike the one added to meals at PPR.
 Signature Steve
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Greg Mossman - 31 Mar 2004 03:28 GMT > You've got your priorities screwed up. When you have a couple of hundred nights to > drink at home and ten nights to dive in Palau, it seems clear that the drinking > should be weighted heavily towards the nights that you're at home. On the upside, at > least the drinks at PPR weren't overly expensive. I have a couple hundred nights to dive at home and I only had six nights to drink in Palau. It was a quick trip and we needed lots of liquid fortification to survive it.
> Wasn't he at Manta Ray Bay until fairly recently? I thoink we probably mentioned that > we had just come from Yap, but I don't recall any mention of how long he'd been in > Palau. Our burgers in Yap at least had a hamburger-like consistency, whereas the one > at PPR was more like meatloaf on a bun. Out of three hamburgers during the whole > trip, though, I wasn't asked once how I wanted it cooked, and even at home a burger > cooked that thoroughly is going to be a bit durable. I didn't even know he left until I checked the MRB website and found a new chef on the restaurant page. Surprised, I asked Bill Acker about it at the Scuba Show (Long Beach, CA) last June and he informed me that Munn was back at the PPR where he had worked prior to his extended MRB stint, this time as executive chef. Apparently that didn't last very long.
Not having sampled a PPR burger, I can't compare. But the burger at Rock Island was definitely better than that at MRB. I had the wahoo fish & chips most lunches at MRB and in Palau we did 3-tank dive trips that included box lunches.
> Perhaps you had one of the suites? We had a mere garden view room, but for $200/night > (of course I'm basing this on a guess from their website since we had a package and [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > squat to add real value. They're spending a few bucks on the wrong things and > scrimping where it matters. According to the PPR website ours must have been a "ocean view" room since the "ocean front" rooms are on the second floor. But I wouldn't put it past the hotel to book Trip N' Tour fam group in the nicest, perhaps most newly renovated, rooms. After all, they're trying to make a good impression and they did. I don't recall the towels, though I do remember that the room was a bit small since I tripped over my dive bag several times on half-asleep late night runs to the bathroom. I had brought a Pelican and the open buckle gashed up my leg pretty good. Honestly, we spent so little time in the rooms on our rush-rush trip that I can't recall too many details. I just don't remember anything much to complain about other than the fact that the pool was too small, the breakfast too expensive, and the bar not open late enough. When I return, hopefully next year, I'll probably just stay at the PPR a night or two after a week on the Aggressor where I can really do a lot of diving.
> That said, on a future trip to Palau it's likely we'd be back at PPR due to the > location, though I'd make it clear ahead of time that I expected our room to be in [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > woulds probably have been a better financial decision to stay at the Palasia or even > one of the West Plaza hotels and be close to the restaurant options. Maybe. Since I don't get out to Palau all too often, I'd spend the extra dough to stay at the PPR in an ocean-view room. But I don't always make the best financial decisions when it comes to traveling.
> Good game. We figured out early on that feeding everyone at the same time isn't much > of a piority in that part of the world. As for Truk, we've known for years that's a > destination where a liveaboard is the way to go. Of course I'm only assuming that the > service would be better on a liveaboard. If it isn't, that 10% tip they recommend is > at least optional, unlike the one added to meals at PPR. The service was great on the Truk Odyssey. We ate at the Blue Lagoon restaurant the last night when they kicked us off the boat for dinner in town and then at the Japanese restaurant just outside the Blue Lagoon the next night before our 3 a.m. flight out. The Blue Lagoon had good food, but horrible service. The Japanese restaurant was even worse. They only had four cold beers for our group of seven and then they started pouring warm ones over ice, this over a half-hour after we ordered them. I stuck with cold sake. Then they declared they had no fish. What kind of Japanese restaurant on an island in the middle of a lagoon teeming with fish could be out of fish? They were hardly busy that night, with only one other occupied table IIRC. We ordered beef instead, their house-special garlic steak. That was tasty, but they somehow charged us for one more than we had ordered and the language barrier prevented us from explaining the situation. Three of our party had already throw down cash and left. The three besides me were another guy in his thirties, and two [much] older gentlemen. I eyed the other thirty-something and we reached an unspoken agreement, estimated the distance to the safety of the Blue Lagoon's guarded chain link gate, and made a run for it after leaving the correct amount on the table. The two poor old guys didn't catch on quickly enough and ended up paying for the mystery steak.
Daniel Kessler - 26 Mar 2004 15:49 GMT > We are going to Palau soon, staying on a tour at the Palau Pacific > Resort, was wondering if anyone has stayed there. Also, it may sound > dumb to ask, but are mosquitos a problem on the islands? No, but the salt water crocks might think of you as an hors d'oeuvre if you wade into the mangroves for a nice little swim before/after diving.
Just kidding -- of course, mostly they run away.
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