Day 7 - Tourist day, no diving

Day 7 - Tourist day, no diving

No diving today, instead we are taking a trip to the far north side of Palau. The Capital was moved from Koror to the city of Melekeok located on the northern part of Babeldaob Island. The main power of Palau traditionally has always been on Babeldaob. Captain Henry Wilson shipwrecked on the island of Ulong where the Chief of Koror said he would help them repair the ship as long as the Captain would help with a fight against the Chief of Babeldaob. The Captain agreed and, with the use of the ships firearms, successfully helped Koror win the fight. Now that Koror won they had the power of Palau and became the capitol.

When Palau gained its independence from the United States, the two main families of Palau decided to make plans to move the capitol back to the Island of Babeldaob. The capitol building is a good looking structure; there are three components to it. In the middle is the legislative unit. The one side is the House of Delegates and the other the Senate. To the west side of the main building, which has a beautiful dome, sits the Judicial building and to the east, the Executive building. The decorations of the buildings show carvings of Palaun history, such as the fish that adorn the Judicial Wing. The fish represent the people who gather to correct the wrongs that have been committed. The Executive wing has faces one of the gods Palauans have traditionally believed in. The strange thing about the Capitol building is that is so far away from the population. We drove about one hour to get there and during that drive we only saw a few cars and a couple of very small villages.

We then traveled further north along the eastern side of the peninsula to see the monoliths. They don’t know why they are there, but they are there. Most of them are in a smaller area and seemed to be lined up. The stones also look like they have been carved on top to be able to have some type of beam lay on top of the structures. This place has some great views of the outer reef.

Our next stop was at North Beach Cottages. We ended up having lunch here being we are a little behind schedule. The cottages here are cute. I would not think they would be for long term stays but for a nice little day getaway or for a quite romantic night away from civilization. They do have a restaurant on site that has some pretty good food. They have hammocks along the beach to relax and watch the surf along the outer reef. Now it is time to get back to the city of Koror for some shopping.

The shopping here is ok. The stores are small and most carry the same stuff. The best souvenir are the story boards, wood carvings which tell a traditional stories of the Palaun culture that have been passed down over many generations. The wood carvings and shirts seem to be the big items to get. We looked at a couple of stores to check out what they have, but are going to wait until tomorrow to buy the story board. I want to check out the jail to see what they have. The ones there are truly carved and signed by the artist, while the other in the stores around town may be machine made. Plus you can try to talk the price down a bit at the jail.

Dinner was at the Palau Pacific Resort tonight, it was a traditional Palauan dinner buffet dinner. But first we attended the cocktail hour. We were introduced to the General Manager, Sho Suzuki, who also ate dinner with us. Today we also celebrated the anniversary of Mark and Linda Hannifin from Family Scuba Center in Midland, Texas. Mark and Vikki, our tour leaders from Caradonna Dive Adventures, had the PPR staff make a cake for Mark and Linda. Enough for today, as you can see computer is working again, not sure what happened. I am not asking. Good night and happy bubbles.