palau relaxing

One thing we did on Palau was get a massage at the Mandara Spa.

The Mandara Spa is a worldwide chain and Palau has two, each located on the grounds of two different hotel properties.

Check out their website for a spa nearest you. (I also found out that Hawaii has three and Tokyo has one.)

We had the chance to visit the one at the Palau Royal Hotel, where Satoshi tried their free 5 minute massage.

This was also where we were introduced to their ginger tea. A refreshing blend of ginger, black tea and some sugar. (you can kinda see it in the first photo, they give you a small cup and a large pitcher of the tea to sip while you wait for your massage time or just to relax.)

While Satoshi got his 5 minute massage, I browsed and bought a lot of spa products (actually this photo is only a portion of what I bought)--some to give away as omiyage and some for me.

Then, while we stayed at the Palau Pacific Resort, we went to the Elilai Spa which is also run by Mandara Spa.

Their massage rooms are located on a hillside overlooking the ocean.

Satoshi had their Balinese Massage, 50 minutes, a full body massage, US$85 and I got the Fancy Foot work, 50 minutes, a foot massage, US$85.

Talk about "melting"! There were some pressure points in my feet and calves that I never knew even existed. Kind of pricey but totally worth every penny!

Before leaving, I asked one of the massage therapists if she would share the recipe for their ginger tea...here it is...

Mandara Spa's Ginger Tea : makes 1 liter
1 liter boiling water
2 black tea bags
2 tablespoons sugar
6 slices of fresh peeled ginger (each one approximately pinky finger size)

Add sugar and ginger to boiling water and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Add the tea bags and leave to brew.
To extract all the ginger flavor, you will need to steep for 30 to 45 minutes, but you can remove the tea bags as soon as it reaches your desired strength.
Remove ginger slices.
Enjoy hot or chilled.

NOTES: You could use your sweetner of choice and adjust the amount according to your tastes. I made a batch as soon as we got back and used Assam tea to brew, it tasted just like what we had at the spa--the cup I have pictured is 3/4 cup.

The brochure says that ginger "stimulates blood circulation, calms motion and digestive sickness, relieves rheumatic joint pain, staves off fatigue and increases the appetite for healthy foods". I think we will be enjoying this during the cold and warm months.　

Palau Royal Resort (ask for Mandara Spa)
Phone: 680.488.2000

Palau Pacific Resort (ask for Elilai Spa)
Phone: 680.488.2600

For most of the week, the weather was quite windy and cloudy, especially during the early evenings. Since the Palau Royal Resort faced the east we weren't able to see the sunset, and while we stayed at the Palau Pacific Resort (which faced west), only one night was the sunset visible.

This ends my posts on Palau. Hope I didn't bore you and you enjoyed our adventure as much as we did.

"Mechikung" ("Goodbye" in Palau)

p.s. Have a good weekend!

yano market, kumangai bakery & hanpa mart

Sharing more food finds....there was a major sale on beer...US$.85 a can for Asahi (regular price US$1.15 a can).

We found a tiny shop called Yano Market that had musubi...Satoshi bought these with ume (pickled apricot) US$1.25 for two and I got a l-o-n-g one with hot dog in the center US$1.50.

Red Rooster Beer...this is the local beer made by the Palau Brewing Company...it comes in light, amber and dark.

Made with 100% Palau rain water and other natural ingredients, they use no artifical preservatives or flavorings.

While we were there, Satoshi bought a six pack for US$9 (which he drank in 2 days, before lunchtime!!) and I bought 2 bottles (one of Amber and one of Dark) each for US$1.95 (I brought bubble wrap and brought these 2 bottles home and will post about it when we try them).

A tray of sashimi at Hanpa Mart, a Korean market, for US$6.95. Most sashimi in Palau is maguro (tuna/ahi), you will rarely see oilier/fattier grades of fish.

A local bakery, Kumangai Bakery had a display at a market. I picked up this banana bread for US$1.95 and it came in handy for breakfast with some fruits from a fruit platter we received from a hotel. (Thank you!)

During one of our tours, we had bento (boxed meal) by Island Yakiniku...the bento had karaage chicken, kinpira, lumpia, spam, salad and rice....yum!

At DFS (Duty Free Shoppers), there weren't many items "made in Palau", in fact most things were made in China or Hawaii. Luckily we found some locally made tapioca chips and coconut candies as omiyage for Satoshi's staff.

Also during one of our tours, our guide stopped at several roadside stands...there were many with fresh fruits, and also many with foods---like turron (a fried Filipino treat), this one had peanut butter and banana in it...US$.25.

We also found a stand selling homemade banana chips...US$1.50 a package.

One thing I noticed was that whenever they used cabbage or won bok, they served every part of it, including the hard ribbed areas. There weren't many opportunities for fresh leafy salads, only a lot of cooked veggies and not necessarily dark green veggies.

Everything we tried was delicious and portions were very generous. You definitely won't go hungry here.

Yano Market
next door to WCTC Shopping Center
Phone: 680.488.2331

Kumangai Bakery
located in back of WCTC Shopping Center, but sold in most markets
Phone: 680.488.2256

Hanpa Mart
located across from the Palau Hotel
didn't take down the phone number

Island Yakiniku
located across the street from Etpison Museum
Phone: 680.488.4690

emaimelei

Another place we tried for lunch was Emaimelei Restaurant, which was located behind the town's shopping center.

This place was packed with locals when we arrived...the menu was pretty "intense" because there were so many things that I had never seen or heard of before.

From the menu, I managed to pick out pinakbet and pancit--envisioning a dry noodle, I ordered Pancit Canton. And after asking the waitress what it was, Satoshi ordered Pancit Lomi. Both US$8.50.

The waitress taking our order was almost to the point of laughing when we ordered, probably because we were ordering two starches...

Anyway, when the orders came out they were HUGE! Pancit Lomi---a big steaming bowl of soup with udon in it and lots of seafood (mostly shrimp and squid), pork, some cabbage, won bok and carrots. The soup reminded me of egg drop soup and probably could feed a family of 4 or more...

Pancit Canton was like fried noodles except it tasted like it had been sauteed in butter or something. This had large pieces of pork and some cabbage, carrots and green onion.

Needless to say, it was way too much food for the two of us. The soup style pancit was definitely better than the fried noodle style...We ate up the soup and wrapped up the fried noodles for our dinner.

Emaimelei Restaurant
Behind WCTC (Western Caroline Trading Company) Shopping Center
Phone: 680.488.5905

elilai restaurant

Located on a hillside of Ngerkebesang Island on the 2nd floor of a condo is Elilai Restaurant.

Elilai is the Palau word for plumeria (frangipani). The walls were decorated with large photos of plumeria.

The view was fabulous. I love how there weren't many buildings, it made the sky seem that much bigger. In Japan, I hate it whenever we go up to a restaurant with "a view" and there are a ton of buildings with only a smidgen of sky.

We treated our tour guide to lunch here and enjoyed Red Rooster beers (the local beer).

I had their dark while Satoshi had their light (US$4 each). Our guide had iced tea (since he was driving) (free with lots of refills too).

I liked the dark beer, it was smoky, a little on the bitter side, some body. The light, on the other hand, tasted kinda peppery and watery to me.

I ordered their pad thai (US$12), this came with lots of shrimp in it. I don't eat this often, but seemed more tomato-y than anything.

We were all supposed to have salads with our meals but since the order of veggies from the distributor hadn't arrived, we were served papaya salad, apparently not a normal substitution.

Satoshi ordered their pescatora (US$14), pasta with lots of seafood in it.

Our guide chose hamburger steak (US$10), this came with a sunny side-up egg on a sizzling platter and some fries.

We were also given soup that seemed like cream of mushroom but was actually corn soup (minus the corn) and some ice cream as compensation for the hang up with the salads.

The salad had some chili in it and lots of fish sauce. Different from the papaya salad at Carp Restaurant, but still delicious.

(During our trip, I noticed that whenever something would be late coming out of the kitchen or there was some kind of hang up, many places compensated with either soup or something else).

It was a great lunch with gorgeous views and nice conversation...by the way, did you know that most people go home for lunch and have 2 to 3 hour lunches (or longer), starting from 11:30 in Palau? (cool, huh?)

Elilai Restaurant
2nd floor of Belvedere East, Ngerkebesang Island
Phone: 680.488.8866

palau sights

Sharing some of the sights on Palau...

One place we visited was the Palau Aquarium a.k.a. Palau International Coral Reef Center. This aquarium is tiny but houses many interesting exhibits.

It was interesting to learn about mangrove--trees that grow in salt water.
Did you know that there is a "sacrifice leaf"?

Since the water it grows in is salty, there is a leaf that takes all the salt from the water to let the rest of the plant grow. You can tell which leaf it is, it is the one that is yellow.

Also, when the plant is ready to die, it erodes until it can "melt" into the sea, you'll never see chunks of this tree floating in the sea.

I was also impressed at how the tanks look out into the harbor.

There are a tiny group of islands called Palau Matsushima...Apparently, a Japanese in Palau saw these islands and it reminded him of the group of islands covered with pine in Miyagi prefecture and called the area "Matsushima".

On one of our walks, I found this house with a tree full of mountain apple (syzygium samarangense).

This was my first time to see them on the tree, usually I have only seen them after they were picked....these need a couple more days...mmm!

There were remains of a pineapple packing factory, the building has long since disintergrated, but the machinery were still left.

Up in the hills, near the Northern tip of Babeldaob, were these stone monoliths, there is no explanation of why they were there or what they were used for...it was kind of creepy walking around them.

Teeny tiny pitcher plants...this one was only about 2 inches in length.

And this finch...it stayed pretty still while I photographed it...the beak looks a little blue.

One thing I didn't realize was that chickens can fly!....there were several at one of the hotels we stayed at.

There was an episode when Satoshi had a piece of banana chip in his hand and before he could break off a piece to throw down to the chickens (he was on the 2nd floor), the chicken "jumped" up and made Satoshi scream...instead of being scared that Satoshi would be attacked, I was more afraid the chickens would jump up to our balcony and demand more banana chips.

We also visited the Etpison Museum, this houses many artifacts collected from Etpison family, a wealthy and influencial family on Palau. One interesting display was of the money made from stone.

Our guide said that many people from Yap would travel by canoe to use the advanced carving equipment and carve their stone money on Palau, then load their canoes and sail back to Yap...one "coin" was 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter! We wondered how the heck they put that thing on their canoe to travel back to Yap...

Palau Aquarium
near M-Dock
Phone: 680.488.6950

Etpison Museum
Phone: 680.488.6730

carp restaurant

Our first full day (8/30) was spent touring Babeldaob (the largest island in Palau), we came back to the hotel in the afternoon and talked about where we should go for dinner.

Satoshi had talked to someone at a Japanese tour desk and found several options for dinner.

At about the time we were ready to leave for dinner, it began to pour! cats and dogs! (Luckily we had brought our foldable umbrellas, but the wind was quite strong too.)

Not wanting to eat at the only restaurant in the hotel, we decided to check out the closest restaurant to the hotel...Carp Restaurant.

Luckily we asked the front desk and a bell boy offered to walk with us in the rain, and it was a good thing too, we probably wouldn't have found it on our own.

This restaurant is a "hole in the wall" and we found out that only locals eat here.

Run by a Japanese lady (who I think grew up in Palau (we didn't get to speak with her directly)), she only spoke Japanese, even to the local ladies that were there--they were actually having a conversation, she in Japanese, they in Palau (or maybe Tagalog (a widely popular language)). She also runs the Carp Island Resort, which is on Carp Island (an outer island of Palau).

The menu at Carp restaurant was quite extensive mostly Japanese items but there were also some local items, like fruit bat soup (no we didn't try this)...

Instead we ordered shakogai (giant clam) sashimi, tapioca croquettes, fried shrimp and green papaya salad....total US$24 (US$6 a piece).

Satoshi also ordered Asahi beer...US$2 a can. (We found out from our guide later that they have a special import agreement, so beer is super cheap in Palau! no import taxes.)

The giant clam sashimi was delicious, chewy and some parts had a gelatinous crunch to them.

The tapioca croquettes were like deep fried mochi (rice cakes), they were also served with deep fried cooking banana. Each tapioca croquette was topped with some Kewpie mayonnaise (a Japanese brand) and some tonkatsu sauce.

The fried shrimp had a light crunchy coating and were served with some fried long beans.

The papaya salad was good, nice and crunchy served with a little pepper and vinegar, some palau lemon and some ripened watermelon papaya on the side. The sweet counter balanced the semi-tart salad.

One thing you will see a lot are slices of palau lemon placed along side of many dishes. They look like tiny limes but taste like a mix of orange and lemon. Most times all you need is a squeeze of this lemon and you are good to go, no other condiments needed.

Everything at Carp Restaurant was delicious, one thing that surprised us were the portions---they were huge! we ate up the papaya salad and giant clam since they were "raw" foods and took the leftover tapioca croquettes, fried banana and a couple of shrimp back to our room. The leftovers made for a great breakfast the next morning.

The next day, we found out from our guide that the giant clams are illegal to harvest from the ocean for fear of extinction and are now cultivated.

Despite the downpour before dinner, we were happy we got a taste of some local eats.

Carp Restaurant
near the Malakal Harbor
Phone: 680.488.3341

p.s. there are no addresses in Palau, just descriptions of areas.

palau culture

"Alii!", this is the greeting for "Welcome", "Hello" in Palau, kind of like "Aloha" in Hawaiian.

Palau, also known as Belau (in Palau language) is located near the Philippines. The Spanish, German and then the Japanese occupied this area at various times during Palau's history. Most of the history before these occupations is unknown.

Many people can speak Japanese and there are some remnants of Japanese life as well as remnants of war in Palau.

There was a baseball field in the middle of town called Asahi Field. Loved it, it has lots of grass in the outfield too.

Some entrances still have Japanese mon (gates). Many people have Japanese sounding last names, like someone's name was Kimurasan (-san is the polite way to address someone, Japanese-y but not really Japanese), even our taxi driver's last name was Japanese, though he was 100% Palauan.

The taxi driver said his parents spoke Japanese when he was growing up and they also attended a Japanese school in the mountains (run by Japanese temples), so he could converse pretty fluently.

I think our guide said that there are about 600 Japanese words that the people of Palau use in their everyday language!

The taxi driver also mentioned with the introduction of Western foods (a.k.a. American fast foods) into their diets, they have more diabetes/diseases nowadays, though he said his grandma lived to 107 and his grandpa 115!

Luckily there was no McDonald's there, but there was a cafe serving Starbucks coffee.

One item which is popularly bought as omiyage (souvenirs) are storyboards. Apparently this craft was brought to Palau by a Japanese art teacher, Hisakatsu Hijikata. He taught several students carving and the rest is history. These intricately carved boards tell different stories about everyday life and fables of Palau.

A popular picture is of the moneybird, you can see this decorating buildings as well as on advertisements, especially bai (meeting houses).

According to our guide, it is thought that these birds eat stones and produce money beads (or wealth, now that is one bird I think we all would like to have).

The bai is a remarkable building because they use no nails to hold it together. These meeting houses are raised up off the ground and have areas inside to burn fires.

The roof is put together with lauahala (pandanus) leaves.

Apparently these meeting houses were only for men to meet (no women were allowed), though some bai were used for a young man's "first time". The boards used to make the bai are painted with different stories.

The capitol of Palau used to be located on Koror, but moved to Melekeok, in 2006 the new capitol building is said to be a replica of the US Capitol building.

There are 16 states within Palau, each has their own governor and license plate. It was neat checking out all the different types. (can you see us in the bumper??)

The main town is located on the island of Koror and the capitol is located on the big island called Babeldaob.

There is no mail delivery, everyone has a post office box and has to come to the post office to pick up their mail.

They have only recently switched to digital television and only have dial-up internet service.

Cell phone service is available in parts of the island and they have only recently started texting.

According to our guide many countries want to develop Palau, but Palau has a strict law in which foreigners cannot own land in Palau. This has ended some development plans and some projects end up unfinished in Palau due to misunderstandings and lack of funding.

Around the island you will see some farms, mostly taro, tapioca and some veggies. Only women do the farming. The men fish. If you happen to see a guy in the fields, chances he is a foreigner from the Philippines or Bangladesh.

There is no public transportation in Palau, locals travel in their own cars or car pool (riding in back of pick up trucks). I also saw several people bicycling.

Almost any car will pose as a taxi, but be sure to look for the yellow sign near the driver's side. Also, there are no meters in the taxis, so be sure to ask the fare to your destination before getting in.

At about 4:00 pm when the government workers end work, you can see a l-o-n-g line of traffic trudging along on the main road (in both directions).

The roads are awful in most areas. Only in recent years have there been nicely paved areas. According to our guide, a big typhoon hit (maybe a year or two ago) and washed out part of the road, they are only beginning to try to fix it.

There is no sales tax, so the price you see is the price you pay. Also, there is no tipping system.

But don't spend all your money, you'll need US$20 cash (I think they accept travelers checks too, but better to have cash) to leave Palau, they have a departure tax.