Palau: Sorting out our new life!

Since my last post we’ve had a very busy and successful few days getting our new life sorted in Palau. The best news is that the morning following my last post we found a great unit to rent. Amanda found that the phone book (of all places) listed a bunch of places you could call for accommodation. Most had nothing going however the first place she called had a block of 4 near new units where re-modelling was just finishing up. Compared to the other 4 places we looked at this place is a palace! It’s nice and clean with new furniture to boot. Unfortunately we don’t have one of the stunning views that some other people have here but we must have close to the newest & cleanest place on the island (at least in a reasonable price range anyway). We are also a walk or very short drive away from a great swimming spot in Nikko Bay. The little area there also houses the local outdoor basketball court which had a family of local chickens training for their next league game (unfortunately we weren’t quick enough for photos). 

After sorting out our accommodation we had our first swim at our new local swimming hole which was absolutely beautiful but the water was almost too warm for my liking. I also reminded myself why I don’t play basketball!    

I’ve heard mixed a few mixed reports about the reputation of the neighbourhood we’ll be living in, with everything from it’s a great area to it’s a bit dodgy. We will have a guard onsite between 9pm and 5am which seems like serious overkill! A fellow Aussie couple live just down the road (the guy works with mine clearing) and we’ve also been introduced to another lady who lives just up the road. On a side note we are already running into people we know in the street. If you think Brisbane is small try living in Palau.  

Some observations for anyone who may potentially end up living here or is just interested in what things are like here: A fully furnished unit here is a very different concept to what it is in Australia. What is included here is typically: a bed, side tables, a couch, a fridge, stove, aircon (maybe an oven and an entertainment unit). What they don’t include are: TV, microwave, all kitchen appliances, all kitchenware, bed linen, towels and pretty much everything else. So we’ll now have to spend a bit just to buy the minimum amount of stuff we need. Oh and the laundry is generally shared between units or you have to use a local Laundromat, both you need to pay for.  

Amanda & I are much happier now we have sorted our new digs, we move in on Thursday. After securing the lodging and knowing we need a bit of kit for the place we thought we’d attend a ‘Garage Sale’ at the fancy resort here. We arrived to see that they had hardly anything and when we asked about the linen that appeared to be in bags behind a desk we were told they didn’t have any. We aren’t sure but we suspect the lady didn’t want to sell to us. Frustratingly we were $10 poorer for having to catch a taxi all the way out to the resort and back with nothing to show for it. It also apparently started at 9am despite the flyer saying 11am…

On Saturday night the local Aussie volunteers were treated to a dinner at the local Indian restaurant ‘The Taj’. It was a very good meal easily at Brisbane quality however it was quite expensive for local standards, especially on a volunteer wage. We will be back but only on special occasions or for their Friday lunchtime buffet which is more affordable.

Sunday we headed off for a trip up on the largest island called Babeldoab to see the capital building and for a jungle cruise down the river. The capital building is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, it is ridiculously big and looks completely out of place. It reminds me of the large old US buildings in the European style. The pillars are hilariously fake and apparently no one is happy about travelling from Koror up to the new capital everyday so I understand more work is being down out of Koror. The jungle trip was nice, great to see the area and a few animals like crocs, fruit bats (which they eat here), king pigeon, kingfisher and some cute kittens.

Rodger the local Croc

a 2002 FunCargo (not our Fungo though)

We’ve noticed that our grand plan of trying to not own a car here is rather unrealistic. Even if you live in the middle of town you’ll frequently be going places well out of walking distance. Everything seems to be mostly clustered around the main street that runs across the 4 attached islands. It’s not overly hilly but with everything so stretched out and our with new accommodation a good distance from downtown and the hospital we knew we’d need to buy a car. Most of the Aussie’s seem to drive a Mazda Demio which are like a little van crossed with a hatchback. Today we were very kindly taken around by another Aussie volunteer, in his two months in the country he’s made a lot of connections. We looked at a number of car yards and decided to buy a 2002 Toyota FunCargo which is very similar to a Demio. We should pick it up tomorrow and have a lot more freedom. I've nicknamed the car Fungo after the baseball training/bat.

We’ve also both got local sim cards for our mobile phones. The network seems pretty good but there is no data network. However what is interesting is that you have to pay to call AND receive calls on the mobile network here. So most people just text each other. Local land line calls are free unless you call mobiles where the person receiving the call pays.  

Tomorrow we have a lunch with the Aussie ambassador to the region which should be interesting! I’m going to wear my best (and only) polo shirt and best shorts.

 

PS As we’d say in Australia It’s absolutely pissing down right now.

Palau Early Days: The ups and the downs

QUICK CATCH UP & UPPER #1

View from the cafeteria at the hospital

It's early days in our new life in Palau but we (or at least I) have already had some ups and downs. The past two days have been very interesting. As part of our orientation we've had a good tour of the major islands and Amanda's workplace, which is situated in the offices attached to the hospital. The hospital has to have one of the best views ever for a workplace let alone a hospital. So far the people we've met are great, everyone is super nice and very excited to have Amanda and myself here. I think I'm already being scoped out for a local canoe team for the Palau games in July. 

Last night we met a bunch of other volunteers and ex pat workers. Again everyone was awesome and It'll be great to hang out with them. I think I had my first "this will be awesome" moment yesterday. On a side note i found some great quesadillas and the local beer Red Rooster is quite good, i've now tried the wheat, amber and stout but unfortunately it is a little higher priced than the imported Asahi's and generic American swill. I've never seen to many "Grab some Buds" signs in my life. 

While yesterday was a great day that highlighted the potential of living in Palau today today seems to be a bit of a different story, a number of things have happened that have really frustrated me and I've had a few of those "what the hell are we doing here moments?!".

DOWNER #1
I'm a massive (ice) hockey fan and the NHL finals start today with one of my more favoured teams (Chicago) facing one of my most hated (Boston). I was seriously looking forward to finding some fellow crazy fans to sit with in a bar at 9am to watch the finals. Unfortunately the only sports channel here (ESPN) is showing yet another early season baseball game and not the hockey. So I assume i'll not see any of the Stanley Cup Finals and probably no hockey for the whole duration of my time here. And yes the internet is so shit i won't be able to stream or download the games.

DOWNER #2
The internet it is incredibly shit here, the country is not connected to any undersea fibre cables and instead is still on satellite. Apparently the wireless in this hotel is pretty good compared to elsewhere, So i'd hate to see what a poor connection is like. It does get better at nighttime when there is less load but it can still take an amazing amount of time to do something simple like load one webpage or to download the various photos on my facebook thread. It took me 20 minutes to load the google blogger page today only to have it fail while saving and to somehow lose my half written blog post.  

DOWNER #3
While on the computer internet topic, those who've read my blog would know about how my 6 week old Dell ultrabook died the middle of last week. And how despite the efforts of the local technician, Dell were unable to get me the parts in time before i left. I had to depart without my ultrabook leaving it at home to wait for the required part to arrive from Melbourne this week. It was fixed yesterday but when my parents tried to ship it over today they were told that Australia Post would not ship the battery. Apparently it's dangerous materials! They've tried quite a few other couriers and none will touch it except one that will charge $390 and i could still be subject to Palau import duty/taxes. So excuse my language but the whole debacle is now a fucking mess. I'm really pissed off about this as Dell were unable to take any initiative outside of their rigid processes to get this fixed in time.

DOWNER #4
Also in the last two days we've had a look at 3 units and 1 house to rent. Trying to find accommodation here is not easy, there is only one real estate agent and they have little to nothing on their books and are rather expensive. Typically accommodation is found by word of mouth or by directly contacting managers of unit blocks, who often live in and own those blocks as well. Yesterday we checked out a one bedroom unit behind our hotel in the middle of town. It was very small, hardly furnished and stank! I was very unimpressed especially as the real estate agent wanted $585 per month for it.

Today we have seen two apartments (1/2 bedroom) next to each other and a 3 bedroom unit which was the top floor of a house. (Costing $600/650/820 p.m.) The one bedroom was definitely better than yesterday's one but still below the standard i had expected we'd find here. The two bedder was better again but I'm still reluctant. The three bedroom unit/house was pretty bad, very old and run down. It had a nice outdoor area but we were basically threatened by local dogs on the way back down the street. I'm seriously not impressed at the quality of accommodation here. I think this caused my first true 'what the hell are we doing here' moment. Luckily tonight through our new volunteer friends we got some more contacts and also got to see one of the better apartment blocks in Palau. It was nice and at a decent level, it also had a truly incredible view but rather expensive. We'll now spend tomorrow following up these contacts and have also discussed that we might need to blow our accommodation budget a bit so we have a decent/nice place to live. We might just have to be on a waiting list for a while. 

UPPER #2
Despite the average day something positive did happen today. I got word from home that someone has signed a lease to rent our unit out. That is a load off my mind as it should hopefully look after itself financially now. We just have to make ends meet here so we don't go backwards at home.

UPPER #3
While catching up with our new friends tonight one of them has very kindly agreed to bring my laptop back over after she heads home to Australia next week. This is absolutely awesome of her and going to solve a massive issue to me. I'm definitely going to owe her one and i'm not sure how i'll be able to pay her back. Maybe it's more of a case of paying it forward at some point.

So I'll go to bed tonight hopeful that tomorrow we'll find a decent place to live or at least something reasonable for us to bide our time in until we can get into the nicer place we saw tonight.

Palau: First Contact

Last night we arrived in Palau under the cover of darkness, while the rain fell down we we're quickly whisked away to our secure compound. Well that is what it felt like anyway.

We are staying at the Penthouse Palau in Koror, It's hardly a penthouse but is clean, comfortable and has aircon. Speaking of which the temperature and humidity haven't been that bad. Not even at the level of Brisbane summer... Yet! It was a mostly overcast day so we'll see what a bright sunny day brings.

The flight over was interesting to watch the islanders sort themselves out. There seemed to be a lot if swapping of seats and milling around. It was rather comical and even puzzling at times. Also it was a first for me to hear the no smoking announcement include a mention of betel nut.

Last night we were told that the whole country's Internet service was down. Quite a laugh if you think about what would happen if the whole of Australia went offline.

This morning we went for a walk around the main street. It's pretty much what I expected, lots of random buildings. It reminds me a lot of Northern Thailand. We also scoped out the two main supermarkets/grocery stores. Most things are available with similar prices to Australia. Some higher, some lower. Fruit and veg might be a little hit and miss though. They stock plenty of hot sauce, Asahi and Sam Adams beer but for some reason have Fosters! At least there was no Yellow Tail wine.

After seeing the food prices I am a bit worried about making ends meet with the volunteer salary we are on. It's kind if hard to know how it'll all work out until we properly get settled in. I'm sure we'll be right.

We started our orientation at midday today, going through various country specific information and standard safety & security protocols/processes. We then had a drive around the three main islands which was great to get a feel for the place. I think we are both excited and nervous about our time here. I'm very keen to kick off searching for a house but it appears most happens by word of mouth. We have the feelers out though.

The wifi in the hotel has been so bad today I couldn't post this blog with a photo. I understand the load on the country's Internet is less at night and hopefully I have better luck.

Update: no luck with photos, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Updated update: still struggling to post even a text based entry.

Guam'ing it up

Hello from the land of Guam (USA). I don't believe there is another Guam so I'm not sure why they keep reminding us of it being part of the USA.

We arrived here around 7am this morning. Which was about 2 hrs late. We were due to fly out of Cairns at 12:25am but we're delayed due to some repairs. So Amanda and I spent from 8pm until 2am slowly going insane sitting in a deserted Cairns international airport terminal.

The flight was shit. For some reason they decided to run a small meal service, to occasionally and loudly remind everyone to wear your seat belt and the bloke on the other side of the Isle to me needed some help once or twice as he was a paraplegic. So sleep was infrequent, uncomfortable (on old plane) and regularly interrupted.

But Amanda and I arrived in good spirits and had to laugh at how the local customs and immigration guys were very friendly and relaxed. "an orange from Australia? Nah just keep it".

Everyone seems to ask us about diving, they all seem very happy we are moving to Palau though. And on the diving topic, the paraplegic bloke.. Yep he's headed to Truk to dive. I had a reasonable chat to him and he dives all the time and travels all over the place. We had a good laugh about how him and his dive buddy hope no security cameras are ever recording when she shoves him in the chest and knocks him off a boat or jetty and into the water. It was a good little reminder about how you can make the most of certain situations.

Now if you've gotten this far you probably want to hear about Guam. The little I've seen reminds me of what Hawaii was probably like 30 odd years ago, with a big chunk of Japanese influence. The majority of the restaurants seem to be Japanese, ramen, shabu shabu, yakiniku, sushi etc.

The one thing that does stick out for me as odd is the flash Galleria shopping strip. Complete with store like Louis Vitton and Prada. I didn't expect to see the height of 'fashion' to have such an influence here. Again, like the multitude of Japanese restaurants and tv channels I guess it's catering to the Japanese tourists.

I'd like to have checked the place out a little more but we are back to the airport in a few hours to head on to our new home of Palau.

Ready or not, here we come!

Incredibly, the day that Amanda and I shift our lives to Palau is finally here. I think we are fairly well prepared but that doesn't stop the feeling that we've forgotten something or haven't completed something. Bit too late now anyway :)


A spanner was chucked in the works for me this week though when my brand new 6 week old Dell ultrabook died in the arse. And unfortunately despite the best efforts of the local technician they couldn't get the right parts to me in time. It's now going to have to stay behind in Brisbane and be shipped over once fixed. I'm pretty annoyed with this as I think Dell could have got the part here in time but "offshore" Dell seemed to have NFI what was going on and were too stuck in their own processes to do something slightly out of the box to get it sorted in time.

So to kick off a period of my life where I'm going to have to get used to being less reliant on the internet (Palau's internet is stupid-slow) I'm also going to have to start it without my computer. Maybe this is a good thing to be thrown straight in the deep end. 
 
Back on topic though, tonight we fly domestic to Cairns then overnight to Guam. We have a full day Guam tomorrow, then onto Palau, arriving tomorrow night.

And for those interested in the state of my foot/ankle after my stack on Monday, here is a pic I took on Friday:

So until we are back on familiar shores, Farewell Australia!

Annual Nathan Eights Live Performance Music Awards

Welcome to the annual Nathan Eights (Live Performance) Music Awards!

This year they are being held unusually early in June instead of December. Seeing the best music I'm going to find in Palau is a cover band who plays every song to the exact same Ska beat, the awards have been moved forward.

And now without further ado the winners of this years Eightys:

• 60daysofstatic & Sleepmakeswaves 3/1 Hi Fi Bar. Winners of the award for '2nd most inappropriate support band', (recipient: some guy who played electronic dance music overlayed with early 90's Nintendo sounds).

• Weezer 13/1 BEC. Winners of the 'best intermission slide show' and 'best 90's flashback moment' awards.
  

• Devil's Kitchen 19/1 Beetle Bar. Winners of the 'best line up of awesome local bands' and 'best gig lighting with an extremely limited rig' awards (recipient: yours truly).

Off!

• Off! 21/1 The Zoo. Winners of 'performance of the year' award and 'best performance by a singer after almost going into a diabetic coma through lack of food and too much coffee' award  (recipient: Keith Morris)

• Gay Paris  26/1 The Joynt. Winners of 'best exhibition of gold underpants combined with fishnet stockings' and 'best collective facial (and body) hair' awards.
  

• Descendents & Bodyjar 8/2 Eatons Hill Hotel. Winn'ers of the 'best vocals by an instrumental band' (recipient: Descendents - attendees at the 'No Sleep Til' festival will get this reference).  Also '2nd Best 90's flashback moment' award (Recipient: Bodyjar).

• Puscifer 22/2 Tivoli. 'Best theatrical and unique performance', 'best product placement' (Recipient: caduceus wines) and 'best use of gopro's & LCD TVs' awards. 

• Soundwave festival 23/2 RNA showground. Best opening band ever (Recipient: Red Fang)

Red Fang

Orange Goblin

• Kyuss Lives!, Orange Goblin, Red Fang 26/2 The Palace Melbourne. Best line up as suggested by me' and best performance by support bands who could easily have been headlining their own shows.

• Tomahawk 27/2 Bilboard, Melbourne. 'Best delay before a quirky encore song' (more than half the venue had emptied out)

• Spencer P Jones 1/3 cherry Bar Melbourne. 'Best performance that was worthy of a larger audience' and 'Best hat'.

• Jon Spencer Blues Explosion 7/3 The Zoo. 'Best performance attended by overweight rockabilly chicks who were happy to bump and grind their rather large girth against people so they'd get uncomfortable and move to let them in'. 'Most disappointing lack of a real instrument replaced by an iphone' (theremin)

Bloc Party... ?

• Bloc Party 14/3 Melb Festival Hall. Award for 'most painful light show', and 'most amount of douchebag hipsters at a gig'.

• The Mark of Cain & Blacklevel Embassy 15/3 Hifi Bar Melb. 'Best pre-gig feed' (Stalactites), 'Best effort at drumming along with a band on top of a bar table causing a drink to tip over and spill into your girl's handbag' (yes the recipient was yours truly again).

• The Mark of Cain & Blacklevel Embassy 21/3 Hifi bar. 'Best mosh', 'Best post-gig mini spew' (Recipient: my mate Alex) & 'Best elbow to the head' (as received by yours truly).

Jimmy Carter




• The Blind Boys of Alabama 28/3 Tivoli. 'Best perfomance/walkabout in the middle of the crowd' (Recipient: Jimmy Carter)

• The Drones 12/4 Tivoli. 'Best keyboard playing by Stephen King's IT'.

• Black Sabbath 25/4 BEC 'Best performance by geriatrics who can still bring it' & Award for 'longest merch line ever'.

• Gay Paris & The Steady as She Goes, 26/5 The Joynt. 'Best one man band' & 'Best named 7 inch' (Recipient: The Steady as She Goes).

The Steady As She Goes

• Tool 6/5 BEC 'Best lighting, lasers and visuals'. 'Best mid-gig fainting by some kid standing in front of me'.

• Truckfighters, Giants of Science, BMX-Ray 9/5 Beetle Bar. 'Best performance by an over-hyped OS band' (Recipient: Truckfighters). 'Best no pedals guitar playing' (Recipient: Ben Salter)

Undia

• Unida & Shellfin 11/5 The Zoo. 'Best understated performance of the year', 'best individual beard' (Recipient: Arthur Seay).

• Deftones 14/5 Tivoli. 'Most energetic performance', 'Best singing from a crowded balcony despite being almost mauled'. 'Most inappropriate support band' (some American rapper with extremely dumb, sexist and generally offensive lyrics).

• Killing Joke 6/6 Hifi bar. 'Equal best performance by geriatrics who can still bring it' and 'best performance by a band that pissed me off by cancelling a gig i was supposed to see in Tokyo last year with no explanation nor apology' 

• Special Award to: Tym Guitars - for being the 'best damn record store/guitar shop in the world!'

Deftones

My second most uncoordinated moment ever

Last night I had what I'm dubbing my second most uncoordinated moment ever. But let me give you a little background first: For those who don't know me in person, I'm a fairly sporty person who can pick up most sports to a decent level reasonably quickly. But every so often I have the odd moment where I feel I've momentarily inherited the body of 16 year old geek who regularly trips over his own two feet. The first of these moments was when I was 24 when I managed to break my fibula and badly dislocate my right ankle while sliding into second base at baseball. I now have a plate and 8 screws in my ankle. This event rather surprised me as I didn't think I was capable of being so unco!

So last night I momentarily inherited the body of the aforementioned 16 year old geek again, and I decided it would be a good idea to try and break an ankle again, but this time the left ankle just to even things out (what can I say, I like things to be symmetrical!).

Anyway I was walking in the front gate of my friends place carrying an esky with 3/4 of a carton of beer in one hand and the rest of the beers in a soft bag in the other hand. Somehow I've missed a small drop from the grass onto the pathway putting my foot partially down on the small concrete edge. I've completely rolled my left ankle about 90 degrees back underneath myself. I've gone straight down and slammed face first straight into the garden with some considerable speed, unable to even get an arm up to stop my fall due carrying the eskys. 

I'm pretty used to taking the odd spill at hockey and being able to jump straight up again but this one probably took me near a minute to extract myself back out of the garden. What's funny is that right before I stacked it, I was telling Amanda to not trip over the tree stump I'd just successfully navigated past.

Luckily my ankle doesn't appear to be broken and has been slowly getting better since last night. I can now put weight on it fairly well but of course it hurts to turn or twist the ankle. Thankfully it doesn't appear that It'll affect the rest of our preparation and move to Palau on Sunday.

...and yes, in case you were wondering, all the beer miraculously survived! But the garden didn't really appreciate my 93 kilo body slam.