Ommmmmmmmmm.....n'stuff.......
So I am getting on another boat today. Hooray! Much diving ahead of me this week. It should be awesome. The reef is always changing here. The same dive site is really never the same twice. I have had some mediocre dives here at this point but no dives that were “bad”. I really want to work on my video skills and see if I can really get some quality footage regularly on every dive. Its a bit like photography in that you are lucky if you a few good shots per dive. I have some already but the goal is to be more consistent.
I finally went on a land tour of the island the other day. It was interesting in retrospect but it was a tad underwhelming. The land tours of Yap were more interesting because the culture is better preserved there and I like the whole concept of a “Forbidden Island”. It reminds of that Brady Bunch episode where the kids get held hostage in that cave. It also seems like “Forbidden Island” should be the title of a Martin Denny exotica record.
Anyway, the first stop on the tour was to a big waterfall. The hike was not vry far but there was definitely some up and down involved. I currently have a harsh reminder of exactly how little hiking I have been doing lately and my calves are SO sore. Its really kind of crazy actually. I need to get into better shape.
At the beginning of the hike we saw the remnants of a Japanese rail line that was used for mining iron and taking the yummy iron bits from one part of the island to another:
All aboard the failroad....
We had to walk through an aweful lot of mud to get to the waterfall but it was very refreshing I have to say:
Mmmm....waterfall.....
This creek goes to a small pond which according to local lore is a kind of fountain of youth. There is a legend of an old woman who was led there by a Kingfisher and when she bathed inthe pond, she turned into a young hotty. When she returned to her aging husband he was like “umm…you are like…too hot for me now.” Thats the part of the story that, for me, makes it fiction. Anyway, she then returned to the pond and bathed in it again and was turned back into the old woman she was. It was interestng to learn some local mythology.
Our next stop on the land tour was the stone monoliths. These monoliths are the remains of a men’s house. It must have been huge.
Mmmmmonoliths...........
To be honest, I thought the monoliths were somewhat underwhelming, especially compared to the HUGE pieces of stone money we saw and Yap. I was, however, digging some of the pieces that looked like they had faces carved on them at one point.
He looks stoned...huh...get it?
Our next stop was the capitol building. This things is huge considering how few people actually live in Palau:
Mmmm.....capitol......
Its funny. The pillars are actually made of some kind of foam-like substance. You can knock on them and they are completely hollow too. There were soom cool glyphy bits on there though:
Mmmm....bird detail thingy....
Parked in front of the President’s office, we saw the President’s car. I don’t why, but I found it funny that there was a bag of betel nut seeds in it. If you look closely, you can see the little green things near the gear shift thingy:
Mmmm....betel nut seeds....
Off in the distance we saw this really groovey looking monument thingy.
Mmmmonument........
The obelisk shape reminded me a lot of my own art. I guess its really quite a potent shape. It turned out to be a Korean monument in remembrance of all the Koreans that died at the hands of the Japanese during WW II and thereabouts:
This is some pretty heavy stuff.
Somehow I don’t think this monument is on the Japanese version of the land tour of Palau.
There were some really groovey statues here I have to say:
This is REAL lense flare...not "Sears" Lense flare.
There are some other groovey pics from this place but I am running out of time and I need to get out of here.
The next and last stop on our tour was a bit disturbing. It was a crocodile farm, but I am starting to think of it more as a Crocodile Prison. I did not realise what was in this pic when I took it but its pretty funny.
Mmmm....people feet.....
This Crocodile Prison also had a miniature Monkey Prison in it which made me really sad:
This monkey was SO cute and sad all at the same time.
Ok folks….I gotta run! Be well and I will see you in a week!
May 12, 2009 at 4:37 am |
You’ve got great pictures here. Great blog.