As mentioned earlier, we leave at the ungodly hour of 2am for a flight back to Guam that is itself only two hours. Why does United do this? I have no answers for you. In any event, our day was quite open. We began our day like the others with breakfast out on the lanai. Then we decided to go rent a double kayak for a few hours. A heavy downpour greeted our arrival at the boat dock, but quickly subsided.
We were given a vinyl map to take along with us and sent on our way as if we knew what we were doing. There were a few points on the map that seemed relatively interesting. We paddled through a narrow gap between the rocks to reach a place called Jellyfish Pond. This is not to be confused with Jellyfish Lake, which is/was one of Palau’s premier attractions. That is where you may have seen photos or video of thousands of small jellyfish swimming around tourists. The jellyfish there have evolved to have venom-less stingers because they have had no predators in the lake. Unfortunately, they have not evolved to handle the rising temperatures of the waters due to climate change and now they’re all pretty much dead. We were told that its lesser cousin jellyfish pond had two jellyfish that might be in the area. TWO!
It probably goes without saying, that we weren’t going to find either of these two jellyfish. The “pond” as they’re calling it was the size of a small concert venue, so finding something the size of a peanut butter cup floating in its depths wasn’t going to happen. That didn’t stop us from trying. Nicole was tethered to the kayak when she jumped off to investigate the waters, so I briefly got pulled along which was kind of fun. I did eventually join her, but neither of us had any luck seeing much more than some interesting coral.
We continued navigating around some of the other rock islands to places like a cave before deciding to turn around. We had heard that the return trip would be more challenging due to the currents, so we didn’t want to be too ambitious. We didn’t encounter any other kayaks . . .or frankly anyone else the entire time we were out. It was kind of shocking how remote it all seemed. With calloused hands and slightly sore arms, we powered back to the dock. It was now about lunch time. We have noticed that there has never been anything open for lunch, so we just had some snacks back at the Carolines.
Our bungalow is up a very steep hill and there is often a golf cart waiting to drive us up there. As it was raining fairly hard when we parked, the golf cart was very graciously waiting for us. On the way up, the driver casually mentioned that there is a Japanese bunker and gun if we continued up the road that he was driving on. I could see that the road dead ended after the next bungalow, so I was a bit skeptical. There was nothing about this Japanese gun and bunker online or on any map. But while Nicole was snacking on some pita chips, I went off on a little adventure up the hill.
And there it was. There were multiple guns — primarily anti-aircraft guns it appeared. One larger flak gun and a heavy machine gun emplacement were there, as well as a small bunker with a trench connecting the three. There were boxes of shell casings and other used munitions stacked next to trees or other locations nearby. It was a bit of a mystery frankly.
Because while nature was reclaiming this area, it wasn’t reclaiming it enough for it to be completely untouched. I theorized that perhaps they were trying to do some sort of irrigation project up in the hills, and discovered some of these things as they were digging. Every other abandoned bunker or pillbox I’ve entered (whether it be Normandy or O’ahu) smells of urine and is full of graffiti and old beer bottles. Mercifully this one was none of those things. Oddly enough, I did see some old bottles . . .but they were like really old. 1940s old and with Japanese writing engraved in them.
After my brush with history, I walked back down the hill and we headed out on a bit of a road trip. We stopped first at a gift store to buy a couple items and then continued on to a place called Airai Bai. It is the last surviving Palawan structure of its kind. These buildings were like meeting places for men back in the day. This one, although original materials, had a bit of a facelift back in the 1980s to make sure it didn’t fall into disrepair. We were the only people there and it was kind of in the middle of nowhere. We continued driving further into Babeldaob, the largest of Palau’s islands, but it is very sparsely populated. We reached a point where there really wasn’t much for scenery — just very dense jungle on both sides. We were just curious what this mysterious northern area of Palau looked like. It is green. And there is not a lot going on. We would drive for a while without seeing any other vehicles.
We made a brief stop at a fancy resort hotel on the coast near the Carolines. It was a very creepy experience. We just wanted to walk around and told the concierge that we were essentially doing just that and were looking to check out a menu for the restaurant. There was so much CCTV and radio chatter about us that made it very uncomfortable. It’s not very relaxing to know that you’re always being watched. I’m glad we didn’t stay at the “nicer” resort. Back at the Carolines, I took Nicole up the hill to see the big guns and watched the sunset near the horizon.
We had food delivered to our bungalow for a more relaxed dinner. Our laundry had been returned and delivered to us and we began the tedious process of trying to pack everything back in our suitcases in an organized manner. We were granted very late checkout (like 11pm) by the kind staff at the Carolines, so we attempted to nap before going back to the airport.
passports & pepto bismol 