PALAU FEATURES NATURES MOST UNIQUE, ONE-OF-A-KIND ATTRACTIONS…SWIMMING WITH JELLYFISH

“Swimming in warm, golden Jellyfish Lake, I’m surrounded by friendly intelligent jellyfish,” writes travel journalist and photographer Sharon Spence Lieb. “At first I’m afraid I’ll be stung. But these creatures are different: They caress my body and embrace my face. These gelatinous orbs seem downright curious. If I could laugh underwater I would. Who would ever think jellyfish could be so harmless? I’ll remember this sensational wildlife encounter as one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. You’ve got to experience this for yourself.”

Lieb lives near the Atlantic Ocean and the beaches of Charleston, South Carolina. She knows that encounters with jellyfish can often end in pain. “I once got tangled in a jellyfish’s tentacles,” she recalls. “I was covered in painful welts. But Palau’s jellyfish don’t sting. They’ve evolved without predators, and they’re living peacefully in Palau. Maybe they’re official greeters. Jellyfish Lake is one of the reasons Palau is called the 8^th Natural Wonder of the World as well as one of The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World.”

WHERE IS PALAU?

Most have heard of Palau as one of Planet Earth’s legendary dive and snorkel destinations. But for those who wonder where it is, you’re not alone. Located in the westernmost corner of Micronesia, Palau is an archipelago of over 586 islands. Only 20,000 people call this area home. But those willing to travel a to this remote paradise will swim in the translucent Pacific Ocean with over 1400 species of fish, 500 species of coral living underneath the stunning Rock Islands….and incredible jellyfish in Palau’s Jellyfish Lake.

“Jellyfish Lake is a well-known tourist destination,” says Yositaka Adachi, Governor of Koror State. “To swim among millions of harmless jellyfish is an unforgettable experience. Our Government is vigilant about conserving and managing our ecological integrity. We are devoted to preserving our natural environment as part of our heritage and culture.”

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE NON-STINGING JELLYFISH

The golden jellyfish found only in Jellyfish Lake are called “Mastigias Papua Etpisoni.” Living in their tissues are zooxanthellae, which are symbiotic dinoflagellates. Theirs is a special relationship: the jellyfish rotates in a circle and swims around Jellyfish Lake, making sure the zooxanthellae get enough sunlight for photosynthesis. In exchange, the zooxanthellae provide their jellyfish with energy and nutrients.

The jellyfish capture tiny organisms for food, with stinging cells inherited from their ancestor, Mastigias Papua. But they did not evolve to eat large vertebrates like humans. They bob peacefully in the sun and are completely harmless to snorkelers exploring beautiful Jellyfish Lake.

JELLYFISH FOLLOW THE SUN

These unusual jellyfish swim in a migratory pattern seen only in Jellyfish Lake. At sunrise, they swim towards the east shoreline, stopping at the shadow line formed by overhanging trees and rocks. They hover there in the sunlit seawater. As the sun arcs overhead throughout the day, the jellies turn and swim towards the west shoreline, again stopping to bob at the shadow line. Like sunflowers, and tourists snoozing on the beach, Palau’s jellyfish are ardent sun worshippers.

A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE

“For twenty years, I’ve traveled the world, publishing articles about my intense encounters with wildlife,” says travel journalist Sharon Lieb. “I’ve kayaked with orca killer whales, snorkeled with beluga whales, swum with forty foot long whale sharks and photographed wild Canadian polar bears. But, never in my life have I been lovingly touched by a creature that is supposedly dangerous. Their curiosity and intelligence is humbling. Holding a jellyfish in your hand is a real The Twilight Zone moment. I suspended my fear, and floated into the Fourth Dimension, where all creatures share the joy of being alive. Open your heart for this life changing experience.”

(Note: for those interested in a little sneak preview, check out this video:

Dive into 2012 with Palau’s Ocean-Based Events

In Palau, the ocean sets the stage for 2012. Known as one of the “Seven Underwater Wonders of the World,” Palau hosts some of the most unique and truly exceptional ocean-based events, including Shark Week; Wrexpedition (featuring World War II dive wrecks); Kids Sea Camp; and Diversity Fiesta.

Shark enthusiasts will enjoy a shark themed week full of adrenalin-packed activities as Fish ‘n Fins together with the Micronesian Shark Foundation (MSF) holds its 10^th annual Shark Week at Palau’s Fish ‘n Fins dive shop, from March 14-21, 2012. Between February and April, hundreds of grey reef sharks migrate to the waters of Palau to mate, which generates a great opportunity for shark lovers to dive amongst them and to participate in data collection. Participants will get the opportunity to dive world famous sites like Blue Corner, Peleliu Corner and Shark City without other divers being around. Shark Week features nightly lectures, presentations and documentaries presented by some of the world’s most admired leaders in underwater exploration, conservation and discovery. Hotel/dive packages for Shark Week start at $1,250 per person and include accommodations, multiple days of diving, seminars, participation in studies and research, lunches, transportation, an exclusive T-Shirt and a Gala Dinner.

More than sixty-five years ago, during WWII, Palau was a major Japanese military base. On March 30th and 31st, 1944, US Navy bombers and fighter planes raided the Japanese fleet and sank more than 60 ships and seaplanes in and around the lagoon. Today, Palau is renowned for its beautiful lagoons and thrilling marine action but is also the resting place for the “Japanese Lost Fleet of the Rock Islands.”

The 10^th annual Wrexpedition is one of Fish ‘n Fins annual special events, which lasts one week and includes five days of diving; three tanks a day, seminars and tech-diving. Between the dives and during the seminars, participants have the unique opportunity to watch extraordinary documentaries about WWII. Wrexpedition 2012 will be held from June 04-11, 2012. Dive packages are available and include accommodations, multiple days of diving, lunches, transportation, seminars, movie nights, a T-Shirt and much more.

Sam’s Tours’ Kids Sea Camp makes a third appearance in Palau this year in collaboration with Sport Diver Magazine and PADI Diving Society. Scheduled for the week of June 23-30, 2012, this trip “sets the table” for an unforgettable family vacation. With great value in mind, Sam’s Tours offer a variety of packages to accommodate a full family of divers or combination of divers and non-divers.

The basic “Vacation Package” features seven days and seven nights of luxury accommodations; daily meals that consist of seven breakfasts, six lunches and six dinners, including Welcome Dinner, Taj, Beach BBQ, Kramer’s and Graduation “Survivor Day”; round trip airport transfers; transportation for all excursions; Rock Island Tour/Jellyfish Lake; full-day guided Kayak Tour; Babeldaob Island Tour; Ngardmau Waterfall Hike; City Tour; and visit to Palau International Coral Reef Center. Diver packages include all of the above as well as five days of diving at the famed Palau dive sites.

Palau’s “Diversity Fiesta” celebrates the destination’s unique combination of great diving during the day and gourmet cuisine and wine at night. Located in the western pacific and under Japanese rule for decades, combined with culinary influence from Philippines, USA, Malaysia and Indonesia, Palau’s cuisine is a truly Pacific fusion of sea food, fresh fruits and vegetables and spices.

Tova Harel, Fish ‘n Fins and Ocean Hunter owner is an accomplished and innovative chef, cookbook publisher and food and wine lover, and will be the ever gracious host at night with exotic meals. During the day, guests will dive Palau’s best sites and at night there will be a celebration of food and wines from the Pacific Rim. Diners will be served at Barracuda restaurant and on deserted islands under the stars.

The special weeklong fiesta is scheduled from September 3-10, 2012 and the diving program includes a rotation of the following: Day 1- Dancing Sharks: Dive Palau’s blue corners and sheer walls; Day 2- Forlorn WWII Wrecks: explore our 30+ historic wrecks; Day 3- Mysterious Caves: Temple of Doom and Chandelier cave; Day 4- Colorful Coral gardens: Macro heaven and Jelly Fish Lake; Day 5- Majestic Blue Holes: our famous blue holes.

 
Diary of a Press FAM

As a PR person representing the best destination in the world (bias? nah!), the perks in my job as the North America representative for the Palau Visitors Authority are not only the opportunity to work with the gracious people of this land, but to also make my pilgrimage to the North Pacific once a year with a group of travel journalists. Tough sell? Not at all…as a matter of fact, when we sent out the announcement about our new visit-palau blog, over 250 journalists responded within 24 hours expressing great enthusiasm for joining me in 2009. It’s no wonder, if you check out the posts from two of our media guests, you’ll see that this was an experience to forever remember.

So, with that, I’d like to take you on our little journey so that you might be inspired to plan your own trek and experience the wonders of Palau if not in person than at least virtually…

Day 1:

Travel, travel, travel…it all started at LAX, trying to find one another…most of us strangers who would come to know each other intimately in only one short week. The flights through Honolulu and Guam were seamless aboard our Continental Airlines carriers

Day 2:

We arrive at the first hotel of our stay, the Palau Royal Resort, tired and a bit hungry…but eager to get to bed so we can all awake refreshed for our first day on land.

Day 3 :

We’re all on time for our morning excursion and city tour, some of us having met up for the sumptuous breakfast buffet in the hotel’s Wave Restaurant ahead of time.

Our first stop is the Belau National Museum, which recently opened so that visitors and locals alike can trace the multi-culturally inspired history of Palau. (Side note: You’ll want to ask for the “guide in training” as she is a crackerjack five year old sales person who is motivated to get visitors into the gift shop!)

Next up, is the ever-talented Tebang Woodcarvers, who truly inspire and capture the local culture and artistic heritage. It is here that you find the best quality of the craft, but not necessarily the most variety…visit jail with us later in the day for more on that. 

The highly anticipated Etpison Museum was our subsequent stop, which is a private collection culled from the collections of Mandy T. Etpison and her husband, Shallum Etpison, as well as friends and family. This is where one comes to glean the pristine artifacts of Palau. In addition to the amazing displays, the gift shop is my personal favorite shopping destination in Palau.

A break for lunch led us to the Palm Bay Restaurant before our unanimously favorite activity of the day…the Dolphins Pacific tour. We suited up and headed out to the small bay that houses seven friendly dolphins and their trainer Billy. It was here that we learned valuable lessons in preserving the species and rewarding our newfound friends with fish for kisses.

Although destined for the Desomel Restaurant at Palasia Hotel, we had a little bypass at the local jail. Why?! We were led to believe that the prisoners were some of the most prolific story board crafters on the island, what with all that free time on their hands. Indeed, there was a huge inventory of story boards, and landing in jail was quite the experience (albeit very safe as the laws are very strict against deadly weapons). Anyway, as we examined the story boards, we discovered that the recurring favorite story amongst the prisoners must be that of what we later nicknamed “Long Dong”…the verile man of Peleliu whose claim to fame is that he could “spread his wealth” as far south as Koror. This is where your imagination can take over.

Day 4:

Waking up to “Waves” again for breakfast was a welcome start to the day, where we early birds had already figured out each other’s peculiarities and rituals. Before our journey out of Koror, we headed to the Palau International Coral Reef Center, which is linked to the Common Agenda for the Cooperation in Global Perspective between Japan and the United States. In 1995, the Common Agenda created the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) that developed regional strategies to support the establishment of a coral reef conservation and research center in the Asia-Pacific region. Palau was selected among several other candidate countries to be the location of the center due to its rich marine biodiversity and accessible reefs. Armed and educated, we’d have much greater awareness for our snorkeling day.

Next, we crossed the bridge to Babeldaob for a tour of Ngchesar Jungle River Boat Cruise, time out for our introduction to “Betel Nut”(see sidebar), viewing of the traditional Malekeok Bai, drive by of the Melekeok Capital buildings, trek down to the Ngarchelong Stone Monoliths (where some of our group felt genuinely moved by the spiritual undertones and finally the unexpected viewing of the Stone Coffin for the “mud-slinging” (please see championship mud wrestling team reference in Monica’s notes in the sidebar to the right).

With more than a full day behind, several of us missed our treatments at the Mandara Spa at Palau Royal Resort, which was beautifully enticing. However, the spa had their beautiful Bali therapists greeting us in the lobby each morning, when many of us did partake in the free, five-minute demo massages.

With little time to clean up and remove the mud from our beings, we hustled into the hotel, showered and met back for our journey to one of Palau’s best restaurants for dinner at Elilai. With our charming host (and restaurant owner) Takuya Tetsuzo, we enjoyed a bounty of locally caught fish and seafood, along with organic vegetables…all prepared “Asian grill” style by an amazing chef from Bangkok. Mmmmmm…yummy!

Day 5:

Our first day divided…divers go off with Fish n’ Fins or Sams Tours while five of us ladies head off to Peleliu for a day of World War II history lessons with our beguiling guide and historical genius Des.

It’s now that we check into the beachfront Palau Pacific Resort (or “PPR” as the locals call it...) before heading off to an amazing private dinner at Sam’s Bottom Time Bar & Grill, where the culinary treasures ranged from such local favorites as fresh yellowfin tuna Pokè sashimi; local grown steamed tapioca; boiled purple taro; fresh mangrove crab chowder, Palauan style with lots of local herbs and spices; fresh lobster steamed and served with garlic, butter and lemon sauce; and to top it off, of course, Red Rooster Beer, Palau’s only micro-brewed beer.

Day 6:

Waking up in a new venue, we were once again running into each other at breakfast, this time at PPR’s Coconut Terrace, featuring a bountiful buffet as well as panoramic ocean views.

Although every day was an incredible treat, this by far would be my favorite…we started out gearing up for snorkeling at Fish ‘n Fins, before departing to the “Cemetary Reef” a reef filled with so many fish and coral, you couldn’t even begin to count. The funny iridescent “marble-like” creatures caught my eye…one of our colleagues indicating it was a type of algae, but nothing like the algae I’ve ever seen before…this was remarkably beautiful, as everything in Palau seems to be.

Off to our next snorkel site, Big Drop-off we were treated to yet another shark encounter…but this time, we got to witness a giant moray eel be consumed by a hungry shark. The encounter unfolded right below us, nature taking its course…amazing! Although I found this experience intoxicating, I can’t help but wonder if perhaps this is why I am indeed a vegetarian.

After lunch (seems we were always eating), we swam with sharks in the tides next to our picnic grounds. I know, I know…mom always said don’t swim right after eating…but, did she know there were sharks in the water? Anyway, it was fabulously exciting hovering above the school of teeth that circled beneath us. We were mesmerized, no fear. They are beautiful creatures that attract “suckers,” and people alike.

Next stop, Clam City (not one of my favorites) before heading to the very best place on earth…Jellyfish Lake . To say this is my “temple,” is an understatement…with the spiritual setting of a lake that nurtures natures most therapeutic creatures, I found my “God” in these very special spineless jellyfish. As I lay back and feel the hundreds of tentacles pass under me, through me, over me, I am transfixed by their beauty, their simplicity and their slightly erotic touch. We were all there together, yet all somehow in our own little worlds…revived and inspired.

How can anything possibly come next?! We’ve hit the crescendo! I’ve been to Palau once before, but there is no experience in the world that can compare to my encounter with life’s most curious creatures, the jellyfish. Well, I have to get over that experience because in nature’s playground there is yet another truly unique encounter for the day…the Milky Way. Trying to convince our tiring media guests that one more stop would be worth relinquishing more time relaxing at the resort was a tough call…but they had learned to trust that there is always, always another incredible experience just around another Rock Island. As we wended our way through the signature islands that make up the PVA’s signature photo, we find ourselves at the base of several mushroom shaped morsels of land. Immediately, our guides dive off the boat and start collecting the white “beauty cream” for which millionaires around the globe pay hundreds of dollars. Instead, our bodies are being lathered with this smelly substance and the result is a group of American media adorned in body masks. Mode of removal…diving into the ocean and cleansing our pores of the very substance that immediately subdued our sunburns and plumped our skin.

And now, we head home…on our commuter train, once again…the sefaring boat. We remind ourselves that this is our “job.” Ha…this is the pay off for all the tireless hours we spend hovering over the keyboard and enduring those “bad” press trips. Palau could never be host to anything bad.

So they say, all good things must come to an end…not yet!

Although thoroughly exhausted…from a tough day “at the office,” we are headed to yet another feast of local fare, prepared by none other than our Fish ‘n Fins hostess Tova Har-El. Her menu consisted of such delicacies as the Palauan spinach “kangkum” sauté, fish cakes, tuna Carpaccio, and her company was truly gracious.Totally satiated, we all resigned to the comforts of our room…looking forward to our last day on “Heaven on Earth.”

Day 7:

Blinded by the light…let this be a warning to all…as beautiful as these Palauan islands are, being on the water all day needs preparation and precaution. This blissful day was a bit wasted on me as I was ill-prepared for being out on the kayaks with the sun’s bright rays reverberating into my delicate blue eyes. So, you’ve been forewarned…powerful U/V eyewear protection and a hat are both very necessary at this equator destination…I spent most of the day “sunblind” and was unable to enjoy all the virtues of islands and waters so intimate that kayak is the only means of transportation. No matter, I spent our lunch hour resting my eyes while one of our colleagues slept beside me, recovering from a hangover. If you’re going to suffer, there is absolutely no better place to do so! 

With only the first half of the day out at sea, we had the rest of the afternoon to relax and pamper…some of us choosing spa treatments at PPR’s Mandara Spa, nestled in little three walled cottages with lagoon views, while others simply enjoyed the expansive white sand beach at PPR. For those who hadn’t quite had enough of the water and sea life observation, the snorkeling right off the PPR beach sported another rush of fish and coral species! I chose to pack and chill…taking in my expansive view of the ocean with what seemed like a photo-shopped island rounding out the vista.

And, so, as they say…all good things must come to an end. But, in Palau, not until one is properly and most graciously tended to…and there is nowhere else I’d enjoy being more than the PPR, with our gracious hosts Sho and Lucy hosting us to our final meal. It happened to be Italian night at the buffet…and since most of us were aching for food reminiscent of home, we dove in. Although Palau is not known for any worldly cuisine, there is the fruit bat soup that is indigenous to this destination. As our “appetizer” for the evening, Sho’s culinary team, head by Executive Chef, presented the first course…fangs, fur, ears and all. Most of our “gang” braved the smelly soup concoction…and of course responded with, “It kind of tastes like chicken.” As a vegetarian, you could never pay me any kind of money to even sample this local delicacy…but the journalists sincerely seemed to take to it. That’s taste for ya!

In addition to an incredible banquet of food, PPR treated us to a show of local entertainment. I find that typically, in almost any culture, we are generally greeted by the persuasion of female performers. However, with our group of mostly women, we were very pleased to see that the entertainment was of the male persuasion and what an adorable send off…

Until next time, my friends… Mesulang for sharing the journey…may you find yourself on an equally wonderful journey some time soon.