The first few days we spent at "the Carolines- a small resort", we had access to the facilities at the Palau Pacific Resort's pool and beach... at the time I thought it was more important to drink in the hillside view, because I didn't think a swimming pool was any big deal and E has been ranting about the fact that their beach is small and artificial... which leads me to detail yesterday's adventures...
during the day I thought it might be nice to find a local spot where we might slip into the water for a little snorkeling, something that we could drive to as opposed to spending $100 per person for... I'm not saying a day out on the boats isn't worth $100, only that we can do a finite number of those excursions...
so the first place we drove to was a little public area about a mile away called "ice box park" (this has something to do with one of the wealthiest families on the island who made their fortune on snow cones after world war 2) Anyway posted at the entrance of the park is a sign that says swimming is not allowed due to health reasons until further notice, and this was recently posted...
the second place we drove to was near a bridge, and a cab driver told us it was private, but we thought we'd check it out and see if we couldn't access it for a small fee... well, bottom line on second spot was no...
so we came back to our room, rested awhile and decided to see the island show which occurs Sunday evenings at the Palau Pacific Resort, during the dinner hour in the Coconut Dining Room. So we go there and here is a world class hotel with manicured grounds and a smallish but stylish pool, the water level even with the ground...and little lounge chairs and umbrellas all around. There are coconut palms and floral plants all around , not to mention that it also has quite a view out onto the ocean, which is about 100 ft away. We should have come here when we had the access privileges!!
This hotel is full of Japanese tourists and maybe a handful of people from other countries. I got a few postcards from the gift shop to send out and something to put in my hair to hold it in a bun that has an island plumeria on it... that's what's making this place smell so good every now and then when you catch a hint of floral notes in the air.
We went into the dining room. Most of guests were having the fixed price buffet-$38 pp and since it was Japanese night, it had Japanese foods. We elected to order ala carte from the menu. E had steak, and I had a piece of salmon.
The show, which lasted about 30 minutes, consisted of 3 groupings of dancers....about 10 young 7-8 year old girls, who were so cute in their island regalia and some of them definitely had the hip thing going... about 7young teens, boys and girls, who performed the most energetic dances from Samoa, and a trio of young adult girls who performed a slow hula type number in long island print sarong/wraps.
After they performed a couple numbers each, for the finale, they picked members of the audience and did the makarena with them.
After the dance show, the entertainment reverted back to a vocalist who was singing to taped songs, though they were so slow as to be barely recognizable, yet all were familiar pop tunes. By the end of the evening I felt like I'd been drinking, just listening to his slow singing.
After dinner, we strolled the grounds a bit as E wanted to show me a fish pond. On the way out, E asked at the desk if we might be able to use the facilities if we came and had lunch (and of course they said no..). I chirped in that we had stayed at the Carolines (but since we weren't still currently staying there, of course the answer was still no)
I can't even begin to tell you how disappointing this was...
so folks, there is no way to access the shoreline, without paying a price...
the night guy at the motel, Leo, told me we could swim by a bar called Riptide, which is near where all the commercial boats come and go and I wonder what the water quality is like there, we probably should check it out while we have the card, but I'm not holding out hope...
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