27 June 2010
We bid farewell to our dear friends in Yap, enjoyed sizzling fish and sizzling chicken at the Oasis, and headed to the airport. Security was antiquated, but somewhat thorough. There were no x-ray machines, so we had to go through several ques to check all of our different bags. They hand checked both our checked bags and our carry-ons and once we were cleared, had us sit in a secure room until it was time to board our plane. It was a pretty brief flight and before we knew it we had landed in Palau – again, arriving in a new country under cover of darkness. We cleared immigration, collected bags, cleared customs, and were soon hoping that our hotel was actually there to pick us up. We walked past the row of guys holding signs for all the different hotels, nervous when I didn’t see a sign for us or for the West Plaza…but, quickly, a guy we had walked by came to us and asked if we were Daniel and Beth. Whew. After that we were very quickly whisked out to the curb, as all of our things were stacked in the back of the van. We were joined by one individual who was also staying at one of the West Plazas and was also going to be on the Aggressor.
The shuttle pulled up to our hotel…but to the back side of it…which was on a street in which all the buildings had bars over the windows, wrought iron fencing that surrounded each property, and buildings in disrepair. Crap….maybe I had not chosen wisely. But, we climbed a set of stairs and entered the lobby and were transported to a clean, efficient, simple, hotel with a kind woman at the front desk who quickly got us squared away. Our rooms were basic, but large and clean. Just what we needed for our one night in Koror.
We crashed hard (we had changed time zones yet again), slept in a bit (we knew we’d be up diving every morning after), reconfigured luggage, and checked out. We had a fantastic lunch at the Taj of incredibly yummy Indian food. Refreshed, we went for a walk through Koror. It was very hot and humid, but we had four hours to kill before the Aggressor was scheduled to pick us up. So we walked to Malakal Island and to the harbor where we could see our ship, sat in a park, poked around in shops and got an idea of the souvenirs Palau has to offer, and ended back up at the hotel hot, sweaty, and tired. Just was we started to cool off two young guys in dressy sailor-like shirts swept in and we were off! In just minutes we found ourselves chatting with people we would be spending the next week with.
And then we were aboard the Aggressor Palau II. It is fantastic! The rooms are infinitely bigger than the rooms we had in Australia. The dive deck is awesome. To dive we board a skiff which is lowered into the water by hydraulic lift. The living room (and eating area) is spacious and comfy. The food is incredible. The service is excellent. We’re really happy campers.
We spent the first night settling in. They had us unpack into the storage in our cabins and then send all of our suitcases to a separate storage closet. We set up our dive gear, arranged our rentals, (the only thing we needed to rent was regulators and they had just gotten brand new regs!), and set everything up. After that we had a nice cocktail hour and buffet dinner, sat through the captain’s briefing, and called it an early night. We were wiped out and breakfast and the first dive comes early (6 am wakeup, 7 am dive). Here we go! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment