Plane Spotting At ROR...

Over the last few days here, I got this opportunity to do some Plane Spotting at the Roman Tmetuchl International Airport at Airai...

What a beautiful bird that we saw when we landed in Palau...

Spotting the beautiful bird again as we get ready to taxi for our sightseeing flight on our first day in Palau...

What a shot of the Palau Pacific Airways Boeing 737!

The Palau Mission Aviation Cessna 206 and Stefan, our captain who flew us on the sightseeing flight...

Spotting the beautiful Boeing 737 again as we head towards northern Babeldaob...

That looks like a Boeing 727!

There she is again...

Playing hide & seek!

Up, close and personal with the Asia Pacific Airlines Boeing 727 from Guam...

It almost impossible to see a Boeing 727 nowadays...

This freighter does its milk-run, hopping from island to island on the Pacific...

And she has winglets too!

The only other Boeing 727 with winglets that I had seen was Vijay Mallaya's private jet, in those amazing Kingfisher colours...

As we taxi towards the runway, there is a Delta Boeing 757 parked there waiting to head out to Tokyo's Narita airport...

The Boeing 757 is sadly the only Boeing I haven't yet flown on...

Sulang, Belau!

Sulang, Ak Morolung, Belau...

Now is the moment when I feel lucky and sad at the same time, that too with good reason.

After three incredible fun-filled days we are headed back to Incheon from thus lovely paradise called Palau. I am happy that we got a chance to visit Palau, which had been on my bucket-list for a long time now. But I was sad that I could be here only for 3 days - I wished it was a bit more - something like a week, with Peleliu also thrown in into the itinerary.

But there is always a next time.

As we cleared immigration and security, I noted that the immigration stamps told a story of Palau - the stamp was shaped like a jellyfish, the kinds we had seen at the Jellyfish Lake, the lake we had visited day before yesterday!

The staff here at the airport were amazingly friendly - the immigration officer wore colourful Hawaiian shirt, which seemed to be the immigration uniform around here! Wow! This is called living life king-size, island-style! And he wished that we visit again! That is indeed great!

There is a certain degree of simplicity and genuineness that is associated with geographical isolation. And that comes out in the friendliness and humility of not only Palauans like Leiner but also immigrants like Robert Scaria of the Taj or the Filipino hotel staff at Airai!  

It won't be long before we are back here! Till then, Sulang, Ak Morolung, Belau or Tank You and Goodbye, Palau...

Exploring Koror... Part II

With a few hours to spare and not wanting to spend the rest of the evening in the hotel, we thought it was wise to get back to Koror, and see first-hand city-life, island-style!

Koror city is bisected by the Main Street and much of city-life is centered around this spine. Along the Main Street, you would find a mall (WCTC Shopping Center), a supermarket (Surangel's), numerous restaurants, hotels and tour shops...

We walked into WCTC for some souvenir shopping and then crossed the Main Street to Surangel's...

Surangel's was teeming with people doing their post-Christmas shopping. There was a festive atmosphere around here and people looked really happy. Perhaps there is something in island life that keeps you happy!

And we were surprised to see turmeric from India on sale here!

And I almost rubbed my eyes in disbelief when I saw packaged food from ITC's Kitchens of India on sale in Surangel's! Wow, India's soft power is coming right here into the heart of the Pacific!

We stopped by at a cafe - Coffee Berry right door, simply because it offered free wifi to its patrons. Run by a friendly Taiwanese, we ordered a coffee and quickly got on to our Whatsapps!

I must say the coffee was pretty good, but the internet speed sucked all the battery life in our phones. So we spent time enjoying Coffee Berry's quotes on coffee...

Indeed yes...

I cannot disagree...

O wow! Biryani in Koror! Life can't get better than this, especially seeing India's  India's soft power in a free-flow here...

The good thing about eating out in Palau is you get to be treated like a royal. We walked into Suriyothai, a Thai restaurant on the Main Street, which is no different in this respect. The staff was extremely friendly and eager to help. Our orders came barely 10 minutes which is great by all standards. The food was very very delicious! Overall, would rate Suriyothai very highly!

And it was finally time to head back to Airai!

A Fiery Palauan Sunset...

After an exciting three days in Palau, we are on our final evening in this amazingly beautiful island state.

And there we are watching the sun set...

And the clouds turn fiery, reflecting orange glow of the sun...

There is so much in Nature that we fail to notice as we get on with our daily grind...

And it is moments like these that force you to pause for a while, soak in and appreciate the beauty of Nature and say "Wow! Thank you, God, for such a beautiful world!"

The Mysteries Of Badrulchau...

Our destination today were the stone monoliths of Badrulchau, an incredibly mysterious archaeological site at the northern tip of Babeldaob island, the slender, north facing peninsula, between two habitations of Choll and Elab...

Here we are at the 'Easter Island of Micronesia'...

The stone monoliths at Badrulchau date back nearly 2000 years - no one has really figured out their purpose...

The friendly caretaker of the site writes out our USD 5 tickets to access the site...

The large basalt monoliths stud the hillside overlooking the Pacific...

I have just no words to describe this place...

It is incredibly beautiful...

The varying hues of blue are so soothing...

We pass these thatched shelters as we walk down towards the slope towards the monoliths...

This is the ideal Pacific sunny day...

The amazing blue...

Here are the monoliths...

These structures are indeed mysterious and quite out of place in this part of the world...

What were these structures? 

Is there any link with Easter Island or the Stonehenge?

Perhaps there are mysteries that we, humanfolk, will never comprehend...

Which ancient civilization had the technology to get these heavy stones here, carve them up in specific shapes and line them up in a specific fashion? We have no clue today...

There are many theories that this was a platform for large, traditional Palauan bai! But where did the platform go? Where did that civilization vanish?

The stones overlook the ocean. Were these a part of an observatory or a signalling site? Some people may have "interesting" views like those who talk of Ancient Aliens....

As I peer into the deep blue horizons of the Pacific, my memory went back to 2012...

In a blog titled "A Timeless Cycle?", I had written:

These mysteries perhaps will never be solved. Perhaps there was a high degree of technological advancement in civilizations before us. That knowledge was lost, left for successive generations to recreate from scratch.
Perhaps this is a timeless cycle that swings between knowledge and extreme ignorance.
Who knows, we can only guess today!

Perhaps those thoughts hold true for the mysterious monoliths of Badrulchau...

As we head back, we see more tourists coming...

And we pause to view the incredible Pacific blues again, etching them in our memories, forever...