Liquid Desire

Another post I’ve been meaning to get around to is about the boat Liquid Desire. Last year another Aussie hit the island, Anthony has built his own state of the art twin hull catamaran and sailed it here to Palau. The boat is incredible and he’s done a wonderful job in designing and building it. It doesn’t look particularly big but trust me there is plenty of space. 

Amanda and I have been lucky enough to spend two amazing days on the boat. Late last year we had a big party to celebrate our friend’s 42^nd wedding anniversary (and their leaving Palau party). We also spend a very memorable Christmas day on the boat. 

Both days consisted of around 20 of us sailing and/or cruising around the rock islands with various activities like snorkelling reefs & shallow wrecks, stand up paddle-boarding, drinking, eating, lazing on the deck etc.

Anthony’s aim in Palau is to set up Liquid Desire as a surfing live aboard but is also set up for diving and fishing. If you want a trip of a lifetime get a small group together and hire Anthony’s boat and go surfing on the reefs in Palau. You won’t regret it. 

You can contact Anthony at http://liquiddesire.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/liquiddesiresailing

Here are some mostly average photos I've taken. Plenty of better ones on the websites though.

Moored in Malakal Bay

one of the many bedrooms

it's a tough life sometimes

the famous arch

inside the cabin

Captain & owner Anthony

one of Palau's many wrecks, this one you can snorkel

paddle-boarding in the rock islands

Anthony pulling up a Giant Trevally that my Dad reeled in

Sunset from the back of Liquid Desire at it's mooring

 

Swiss Family Robinson in Palau

So it’s suddenly February and despite not working much in January I somehow ended up only putting up one blog post. Time to catch up a little:

Back in late December while my parents were here we took the opportunity for the 4 of us to stay at the ‘Treehouses’ in Palau. I think the official title is the Coconut resort or similar however. The Treehouses is located right on the beach at Ngiwal, about halfway up the east coast of island of Babledaob.

First impressions of the treehouses were that of reading Swiss Family Robinson as a child, they looks pretty damn awesome. (Note you don’t actually stay in the trees but a house next door). There were two large multi platform ‘treehouses’ going up into a couple of large trees. If the multiple levels of the two treehouses didn’t give you enough choice as to where to have an afternoon beer the various spots around the garden would make it almost impossible. My first thought was how awesome this place would be for a bar. I estimated you could fit 200-300 people between the treehouses and garden spots. Not to forget the nearly completed Flintstone style design Galleon for the little (or big kids).

We had a nice chilled out afternoon and evening drinks & dinner on various levels of the two treehouses. Unfortunately this is where the couple of days seemed to sour.

Whilst the treehouses and gardens seemed well maintained it’s unfortunate that they haven’t kept up this level inside the house. From the outside it looks ok but inside it’s in a serious need of a clean. Overnight the kitchen was absolutely crawling with cockroaches and both tiny bathrooms were rather disgusting desperately in need of a full bleach from the ceiling down. We were previously told that we didn’t need to take anything up and it was all supplied. The kitchen contained one small electric hot plate and one pot. Yep, just one pot, no fry pan or anything else. A toaster was provided but it looked as if it had been left on a shelf through the apocalypse. Of the three bedrooms one had a wall banger aircon and some thin curtains. The others only had fans and no blinds. The beds were small doubles with very thin mattresses. The rather basic beds & bedrooms probably could have been overlooked without the other issues.

Overnight I somehow came down with food poisoning or a stomach bug. Between that and the rather bad state of our accommodation we cut our stay in half and came back home a day early.

In addition to the new Galleon being built a new long building is under construction on the far side to the house. It’s going to be quite a large dwelling which could house quite a few people possibly in a barracks style. The next property up the road appears to have an almost finished restaurant and covered outdoor bar with a pool table. Is anyone else thinking this is going to be Palau’s new hostel accommodation?

I think it’s a real shame that the same level of maintenance hasn’t been spent on the actual house as it has on the treehouses & gardens. I’d love to have a big party there at some point (maybe for my 36^th Birthday) but the new building will have to be significantly better maintained than the existing house. 

The galleon & new barracks

The toaster that survived the apocalypse

The actual house, looks alright from the outside doesn't it

Palau: An Aerial Pictorial

Over the past few weeks my parents have been in Palau visiting us and checking out where we live now. Last week my Dad celebrated his 70th Birthday. For such a big birthday we had to do something special. So we decided to take him up for a helicopter flight over Palau. It was one of best things we could have done. The flight was incredible, Palau truly is a stunningly beautiful place.

I think the following results speak for themselves:

The Arch

Seventy Islands

Seventy Islands

Blue Holes (top centre) and Blue Corner dive sites. Check out all the bubbles from divers on the top side of the corner.

Blue Holes & Blue Corner dive sites

Jellyfish lake, the orange tinge at the bottom of the lake is indeed jellyfish

German Channel dive site

During our flight we also saw piles of turtles, sting rays and even about 7 or 8 dugongs. We flew with Aussie pilot Matt Harris and his company Rock Island Helicopters. I would highly recommend them for anyone who now has a helicopter flight over Palau on their bucket list.