Palau

We had such an amazing trip to Palau.  The flights took a long time to get there, but it was totally worth it. We saw some of the most amazing things in the ocean we have ever seen and didn't even know existed!

Our trip started off in Phoenix.  We took a flight to Portland, had lunch with a friend during the layover, then got on a flight to Tokyo (NRT, Narita).  We got business class on the flight to Japan which was very nice.  We had some great food and watched 3 movies, then fell asleep.  We took a flight from Narita to Palau which is in the Pacific Islands, we also got to fly in First Class on the flight to Palau which definitely made for a nicer trip after flying for almost 24 hours total.  When we arrived in Palau it was 11:30pm (9:30am Phoenix time the same day because we crossed the international dateline).  It's a weird feeling to lose an entire day just by flying across a "line" in the ocean.

 Some of the bathrooms in the Narita airport... Now what?

This trip was quite different for us in the fact that we literally had no concrete plans upon arrival.  We had emailed a couple of hotels, but hadn't heard back for sure on either of them, so we didn't have a real reservation anywhere (there aren't any Marriott hotels there unfortunately).  So we got off the plane and exited the airport in hopes to find a phone where we could call one of the hotels we had been in some email contact with.  We put our bags down to get a look at our surroundings and were approached by one of the tour guides who was waiting for another party.  He asked us where we were staying and if we had a ride.  We told him we didn't have a reservation, but we were hoping to stay at a motel called The Navigator.  He pulled out his cell phone and called them to ensure there was rooms available (there were), and offered to take us there for free (saved us $20, but we tipped him with a $2, which he thought was cool).  We had chosen this particular motel because it was right next to the church.  He took us there and we got our room (they actually discounted that as well from $50 a night to $40 a night), and we crashed for the night.  The room was small, clean, had air conditioning, cable tv, hot water, and a small fridge, it was perfect.

The church

 We woke up Saturday morning and decided to go find the church to make sure we knew where it was for Sunday morning.  It was right behind our hotel, and there were even members there cleaning the building.  It so happens the Branch President, Blu, was the first one we met and he instantly made us feel like part of his family.  He invited us to come with him, his wife, and his daughter to a local traditional ceremony called the "First Newborn Ceremony", and he said he would also take us to see a waterfall.  We were excited to have some plans for the day and took him up on his offer.

We hiked to the waterfall first and his 10 year old daughter K*** was our tour guide and took us on the 30 minute hike down to the waterfall and back.  She was very knowledgeable and so fun to hang out with.  We just loved her! It was a nice trail and the waterfall was really beautiful.  Apparently, it normally costs $10 per person to go down to the waterfall, but Blu is one of the state delegates for Palau and the Chairman of foreign affairs, so we didn't have to pay.

The First Newborn Ceremony was next and it is a local tradition that when a woman has her first baby they have this large party with both sides of the family.  The woman's side of the family supplies the food and the man's side of the family brings money and gifts for the newborn.  The new mother dresses in traditional dress and is rubbed down in Ginger.  She is escorted to a platform on leaves and then the husband's family dances around her with the money they are giving her.  This goes on for hours.  People sit and eat, while the mother stands in the blazing sun, with a few occasional breaks in the shade, while people dance and bring money.  It is viewed as an exchange between families and the mother's family brought two large ice chests (one full of fish, one full of an entire pig chopped up) to give to the father's family. So interesting!

After the ceremony, we took a drive further into the island to see T****'s house on the beach.  He is a recent convert and he lives right on a beautiful beach.  Him and his wife basically live off the land and have chickens, coconut trees, banana trees, noni fruit, guava trees, and papaya trees.  He swims out from his shore and spear fishes everyday.  His chickens eat the stockpile of coconuts they have (they break them in half and they just peck away).  He has seen salt water crocodiles on his property at times, they eat his chickens!  He also carves wood and is one of the most well known wood carvers on the island.  His storyboards go for $300 each.  He didn't have any completed ones to show us because they are made by request and given as soon as they are completed.  He just had one in progress to show us.  He does a lot of church pieces now, like the first vision, christ coming to the americas, etc...

Sunday morning we got up and went to church at 9am.  We had a short sacrament meeting and then listened to their area conference meeting that was projected from a DVD that the church sent.  The entire pacific islands listened to the conference on this particular Sunday.  It was really interesting to hear the information tailored for the islands.  They talked about local traditions/culture vs. church culture and the need to forego some of the more costly traditions and instead use that money to serve missions. Again, so interesting!  We had a spaghetti lunch at Blu's house after church with fresh picked guava and papaya from their backyard for dessert.

Since Blu works in the government we talked about politics and their government issues and projects for a couple of hours.  He attends the UN meetings for his country along with their President and had so many insights into what goes on.  Such great conversation.

We explored on our own during the afternoon (took our scooters, but ended up getting rides both ways from various members who recognized us along the way).  We crossed over one of the causeways to another island and went out to a dock.  Some more locals waived us over and invited us to try some stingray they had caught that morning.  Brett tried it and said it was VERY fishy (not surprised since it had been sitting in a pot of water in the heat all day).  I tried a sort of tapioca roll and it was okay, not much flavor though.  Crossing back over the causeway there were some locals that were cutting up fresh clams they had just caught and Brett tried some raw clam.  If you can't tell yet, the locals are SO friendly and always welcoming.

 Saltwater Crocodiles at the aquarium,  yes they are in the water here.  Scary!

 Fresh Stingray Soup

 Fresh Raw Clams

That evening Blu's family fed us yet again and we played some card games with them and enjoyed the rest of the evening.  Their daughter K**** gave me a beautiful starfish necklace and earrings that evening that I absolutely love!    

Monday morning rolled around and Blu had arranged for his personal assistant to take us out on his boat for a private tour of the Rock islands, Jellyfish lake, Giant Clam Beach, The Cemetery, and Soft Coral.  One of the young men S* came along as well as our tour guide (We were going to book a tour, but Blu wouldn't allow it. This also saved us a ton of money since we only paid for our permits and the gas for the boat).

 Our Tour Guides

The Rock Islands are absolutely breathtaking!!! 

 Jellyfish Lake was the first stop and it is a saltwater lake with Jellyfish that have adapted because of no predators and cannot sting anymore.  We swam with hundreds of jellyfish all around us and could touch, feel, and hold them.  One of the most incredible experiences of my entire life.  Surreal really.

S* who was one of our tour guides swam below us and took this pic. Pretty cool.

We stopped for lunch on a beautiful beach where our tour guides grilled us up a unicorn fish.  They grilled the entire fish directly on the grill.  I can now add one more fish to my list of fish I will eat.  They also grilled a bunch of rice wrapped up in a banana leaf.  We dipped the fish in mayo and soy sauce and it was so good!!  We drank fresh coconut juice and ate some starfruit along with it.

 After we finished picking all the meat off...

Brett ate the fishes cheek muscle

Giant Clam Beach or Clam City was the next stop and the name is no joke! These clams are over 4 feet wide.   I didn't realize they would be alive and was shocked when I touched the edge of one and it jolted shut.  It scared me half to death and I gave a little squeal under the water.

 A dead one

 The next stop was The Cemetery which is a famous place to see bounteous coral and fish.  They feed the fish and some huge ugly fish started to come up from the depths of the sea (probably 4-5 feet long).  I tucked my feet up under me because they made me nervous with their huge mouths that could fit an arm or a leg.  I've never seen such pristine and preserved coral as we saw on this trip.  This is truly a gem of the sea.  Sadly though, the more touristy it gets, the more these things will start to disappear as they are hit with fins, touched, and disregarded by tourists (as has happened in the Carribean).

The last stop was to see soft coral.  I like to call these Dr. Suess Coral now because there were red, green, orange, pink, yellow, polka-dotted, white, etc.... All colors and shapes.  My very favorite was a soft white coral with Dark Purple polka dots.  So cool.  We didn't get any great pictures of them because our underwater camera memory card was filled and we were having to find pictures to delete one at a time as we took new pictures.  Kind of hard to do underwater.

 There is a lot of WWII history on the islands... and some leftover canons.

We returned to the dock after the best day ever and finished the night off with a family home evening at the senior missionary couple's apartment along with Blu's family and D*** (another member from the states on the island doing research for a few weeks).  We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner, lemon bars for dessert, and played a fun charades game with some new rules.  I gave Blu's daughter K*** one of the necklaces I brought with me to say thankyou for being our tour guide and giving me the beautiful starfish necklace.  I think she liked it.

We can't express how grateful we are for Blu and his family and their hospitality this entire trip.  We feel like we have to come back now, just to see them.  They arranged our whole weekend, saved us a ton of money, made us feel so welcome, and helped us increase our faith in the gospel.  We had a feeling everything would be okay this trip even though it was initially so unplanned.  It was amazing to see the faith of this small Branch.  It humbled us greatly and made us want to better ourselves.  The mix of seeing God's wonderful creations, along with spiritual fulfillment, political insight, and cultural enrichment was one we will never forget.  Palau truly is a gem in the Pacific Islands.

We took the 5 hour flight back to Tokyo in first class again (slept the entire time), then decided to take the 13 hour Tokyo to JFK flight so we could ride in a Boeing 747 in business class on the top deck (one of our dreams).  It was really cool to go up the stairs in the airplane.  We took another 5 hour flight from JFK to Las Vegas and stayed the night in a Marriott there since there weren't any flights back to PHX that night.  We got back to PHX Wednesday afternoon.  What a trip! It took over 19,000 miles, 45 hours of flying, and about an additional 20 hours in airports.

The double-decker Boeing 747