Sea Excursion

Getting started

Today, I have a day at sea on the surface, rather than underwater which was yesterday.

I was picked up by a lovely Japanese guide at 0845 and dropped at their waterside office to pay, collect our snorkel gear and check my permit for being at sea in the area (which was obtained yesterday).

Milky Way

The boat ride to our first point, Milky Way, was over 30 mins through Palau’s iconic rock islands.  This area is like Halong Bay except that the water is milky, bearing the eroded particles from the rocky islands.

We disembarked onto a pontoon where had a bucket of the mud or clay to put all over ourselves.  It’s supposedly good for the skin.  We washed it off by having a quick swim.  To my surprise, it wasn’t sticky like real clay and came off instantly in the water.

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Snorkel 1

Next up was a snorkel site where we saw a nice variety of reef fish and one Napoleon.

I had my introduction to Japanese level of service at the snorkel site where the guide and assistant prepared the snorkel masks for everyone with dishwashing liquid, rather than leaving it to the guests to do it themselves.

She also guided toddlers on the snorkel trip by having them hold on to a flotation board, and a times even had one toddler on her back.

As we left, the skies turned dark and gave us the most torrential downpour I’ve ever been in at sea.  It was dark all around without a hint of light or blue, giving me the impression that it was a large weather system rather than an isolated shower.  I thought that the day would be over.

The guide handed out raincoats to everyone individually, even though we were wet from snorkelling.  It did serve as wind protection though.

We got to an island where there was a shed available for us to take lunch in relative dryness.  The weather eased as we finished tucking into our lunchbox and I went out for swim.  The rain restarted as we continued with our excursion.

At our lunch island when the rain cleared.

 
Long Beach

We went through the German Channel to Long Beach.  Here, when the tide goes out, a pure white sandy bar approximately 800m in length emerges from the sea, making look like we were standing on water.

The weather was OK now but not the brightest for photos.  The guide lined up the party and offered to take photos for every single one in turn!

It was another example of the amazing Japanese service that cannot be matched anywhere else.  But she was warm, friendly and had a good sense of humour in addition to the permanent “always on” smile that some would say are fake.

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Snorkel 2

Our second snorkelling spot was at Paradise Corner.  Here, the number of Napoleons and Bumphead Parrotfish were more than I could count.

The guide helped taking the kids out on snorkel again, even washing their socks of sand at one point.

Rest of the day

I finished the day with a Filipino Lomi (Chinese Loh Mee, or noodles in gravy).  It was huge, nearly the size of a basin but I finished most of it as it was so delicious.