Travelnsj
Contributor
Did my annual trip to Palau, been coming here since 2000. Met up with some other veteran return guests of Sams and one Julie who said she had been here 19 times!!!...Beat me!…..Did some awesome dives….Where do I start?
Stayed at the West Plaza Malakal a basic hotel, nice and a very friendly staff. As usual dove with Sams and dive guides like Neil and some I have not dove with before, Richard, Charlene, Joedyn some of the best guides I have dove with in the world.
Sams continues to evolve. Marc sales director at Sams let me do a tour of the Palau Siren when it was in. What a LOB! Very large rooms and overall a beautiful roomy boat. I am not much of a LOB person but thinking of coming back next year and maybe doing a week on the boat and a week land based. Also they have added a diving option called “UniqueDiving” more about that in a moment. Sams is now limiting the number of guests for diving. In the past Sams has always seemed a bit chaotic in the mornings. I’ve always found it to be comical but it has always worked out! This year it seemed slow in comparison to past years with the new limitations.
Diving: Wow got in some great dives. Had one of my finest dives at the Blue corner with Richard around 30-40 Sharks chasing a small school of fish for about an hour…Wow. I wished I could have had an Air line dropped down…I could of spent hours. Great dives at a new site I have not dove called Sandy Bar (reminded me a bit of the Papua area of Raja Ampat) and the usual sites, Ulong channel, Turtle cove, New Dropoff, German channel etc etc. Saw plenty of Sharks, Manta Rays, Jacks, Barracudas, Mantas, schooling fish and a lot more. One thing I noticed was the amount of Dogtooth Tuna. In the past I’ve always found it special to see one or two usually at the Bluecorner, this year saw them on many dives. The Marine life in Palau seems as healthy as I have ever seen it.
Unique Dive Expeditions: Is headed by Paul who is researching in Palau and has a passion for documenting reef fish spawning aggregations and Richard who documents the aggregations using his Nikon D800. This diving is unique; Have you ever seen thousands of Bumphead parrot fish spawning? I did! It was unbelievable unless you see it yourself. Happens for only a few select days around the New Moon phase. They have another dive around the full moon when the Red Snappers spawn and many Bullsharks show up. On the Bumphead dive I saw a Bullshark from a distance on the first day of the two days I dove with them.
Unique was a bit more expensive than the regular diving with Sams. You do three dives for the day, the boat leaves very early in the morning to do the Bumphead dive. After the 1st dive you go to other select locations. The first day we must have traveled over 120 miles doing 2 additional selected sites. The second day the wind had come up and we did the Bumphead dive but could not go to a couple of the other selected locations. Thus we did a familiar site but dove it differently and deep and sawsome cool cleaner shrimp I usually only see in Indonesia. If you are going to Palau and will be there around the New or Full moon you should at least do a day with Unique. Their on Facebook, look up Unique dive Expeditions and Sams will have a new website shortly that will have information about Unique.
Overall one of the best trips I have done….the weather was good a couple of windy and rainy days but lots of sunshine. So next year?….the Palau Siren and Land based or come for the new & full moon so I can dive with Unique and fill in with land based? Hmmmm…decisions decisions! I love Palau!
Stayed at the West Plaza Malakal a basic hotel, nice and a very friendly staff. As usual dove with Sams and dive guides like Neil and some I have not dove with before, Richard, Charlene, Joedyn some of the best guides I have dove with in the world.
Sams continues to evolve. Marc sales director at Sams let me do a tour of the Palau Siren when it was in. What a LOB! Very large rooms and overall a beautiful roomy boat. I am not much of a LOB person but thinking of coming back next year and maybe doing a week on the boat and a week land based. Also they have added a diving option called “UniqueDiving” more about that in a moment. Sams is now limiting the number of guests for diving. In the past Sams has always seemed a bit chaotic in the mornings. I’ve always found it to be comical but it has always worked out! This year it seemed slow in comparison to past years with the new limitations.
Diving: Wow got in some great dives. Had one of my finest dives at the Blue corner with Richard around 30-40 Sharks chasing a small school of fish for about an hour…Wow. I wished I could have had an Air line dropped down…I could of spent hours. Great dives at a new site I have not dove called Sandy Bar (reminded me a bit of the Papua area of Raja Ampat) and the usual sites, Ulong channel, Turtle cove, New Dropoff, German channel etc etc. Saw plenty of Sharks, Manta Rays, Jacks, Barracudas, Mantas, schooling fish and a lot more. One thing I noticed was the amount of Dogtooth Tuna. In the past I’ve always found it special to see one or two usually at the Bluecorner, this year saw them on many dives. The Marine life in Palau seems as healthy as I have ever seen it.
Unique Dive Expeditions: Is headed by Paul who is researching in Palau and has a passion for documenting reef fish spawning aggregations and Richard who documents the aggregations using his Nikon D800. This diving is unique; Have you ever seen thousands of Bumphead parrot fish spawning? I did! It was unbelievable unless you see it yourself. Happens for only a few select days around the New Moon phase. They have another dive around the full moon when the Red Snappers spawn and many Bullsharks show up. On the Bumphead dive I saw a Bullshark from a distance on the first day of the two days I dove with them.
Unique was a bit more expensive than the regular diving with Sams. You do three dives for the day, the boat leaves very early in the morning to do the Bumphead dive. After the 1st dive you go to other select locations. The first day we must have traveled over 120 miles doing 2 additional selected sites. The second day the wind had come up and we did the Bumphead dive but could not go to a couple of the other selected locations. Thus we did a familiar site but dove it differently and deep and sawsome cool cleaner shrimp I usually only see in Indonesia. If you are going to Palau and will be there around the New or Full moon you should at least do a day with Unique. Their on Facebook, look up Unique dive Expeditions and Sams will have a new website shortly that will have information about Unique.
Overall one of the best trips I have done….the weather was good a couple of windy and rainy days but lots of sunshine. So next year?….the Palau Siren and Land based or come for the new & full moon so I can dive with Unique and fill in with land based? Hmmmm…decisions decisions! I love Palau!
...would of been a lot more fun than hanging out in the Great Salt Lake!
