Palau last week

[FredGarvin]

Just returned from one week in Palau. PPR - as mentioned before - beautiful setting, excellent service, good food, great beach, fabulous pool and pricey... of course. The rooms were okay, clean but a bit small and very simply furnished. I would definitely recommend the place especially if one travels with a discerning female... or male too for that matter. Dove with Sam's. What an operation. The dive center was somewhat run down. Taxis and shuttle buses would back up to park near the tank filling station, belching out black putrid exhaust into the adjoining area. The employees were helpful, polite, organized and knowledgable. Daniel our DM, was very, very professional. He did a great job. The dive boats were small and uncomfortable. With enough divers onboard, it became a chore trying to maneuver around the gear and dive bags crowded on the floor. There was no place to sit that would give any back support nor "tush" padding for the one hour ride to the sites. If there was rain, which we had several times, there was no protection and so everyone laid stretched out on the floor of the boat and protected themselves from the driving rain by wrapping their faces with towels. There was, however, O2 and safety gear on board, which was good. Finally, one always had to ask for help to stand up after mounting one's gear. The boat captain would sit there and watch while some of us struggled with mounting our BC's and gear until we asked for help. A little pro active effort would have gone a long way for customer appreciation. Again, I am not saying they did a bad job, I am simply suggesting that some investment in equipment, design and thought would be good thing. Finally, the food for lunch - as said in common parlance - sucked! The sandwiches were small, tasteless, wet, and devoid of meat. Almost all bread. The "Asian and Sushi " plates were a bit better but they all tasted the same after four days and were a real disappointment. No snacks. The bare minimum of drinks and sodas on board. We would frequently run out of drinks except for the water bottle.

Overall, Sam's was good but they have room for much improvement. I would probably dive with them again, but only after checking out other dive operations first.

Garv

 

[Shasta_man]

I was thinking "Cool, Ackroyd and Belushi fan!" but now I'm thinking that is your name...

 

[Travelnsj]

The weather in November can be a hit or miss.....I've been in some pretty bad squalls coming back and that was in March....There was only one operator that had better dive boats (I have seen) was Splash who use to go out of the PPR. I believe they sold out to Neco or Fish & Fins.

How was the diving?

 

[FredGarvin]

The weather in November can be a hit or miss.....I've been in some pretty bad squalls coming back and that was in March....There was only one operator that had better dive boats (I have seen) was Splash who use to go out of the PPR. I believe they sold out to Neco or Fish & Fins.

How was the diving?

Well as you probably gather, the weather was not great until, of course, our last day. That day we did a 1/2 day kayak trip which was a waste of money. We had overcast and occasional rain throughout the week, sometimes violent squalls too. When the dive boat was traveling through the storms, the rain hit us very hard in the face, hence the towel over the face protection. The dive boat had twin 150's so it moved very fast into the rain making for quite a pelting. The water remained calm however which was nice for my sea-sickness prone dive companions. The underwater currents were manageable, not nearly what I expected, which was good and clarity was good too. Because of the diminished sunlight, colors and visual distance was not as great as I hoped. Overall the diving was excellent yet I was a little disappointed, I never felt like I was having a "God-like" awe inspiring moment. Perhaps if the weather conditions were better or I had more time to recover from the incredibly long distance travel experience. I think I'd go back, but not before exploring other places. Finally, I was happy though not thrilled with Sams. It is easy to become complacent when one is successful and money is coming in. The key is to be constantly improving and I saw a good dive operation that could be great if a bit more thought, effort and money was spent.

By the way, the native Palau people were very polite, friendly and helpful.

Thanks again for your great advice, time and thoughts.

Garv, M.P.

As in Saturday Night Live Fame!!!

 

[FredGarvin]

I was thinking "Cool, Ackroyd and Belushi fan!" but now I'm thinking that is your name...

That's Garvin as in Fred Garvin... male prost...

Sat. P.M. Live 1977

Old School - Back in the Day

 

[robint]

Sorry the trip wasn't what you expected.....you should have done a liveaboard instead of land-based! The service is waaaaay better, trip to dive site was 5-10 minutes at most and our 4 DMs were living with us 24/7 all week and joy to be around. We ate all our meals together, dive dive dive, and hung out between dives together. We had rain a few times (last year this week) but with the short boat trips it was never an issue. Food was non-stop and lots of choices and we never went hungry. Eat dive eat dive eat dive.... I think your whole Palau experience would have been better if you didn't have all the little hassles like those crappy boat rides back and forth for only 2 dives. And I bet the price worked out to about the same when you consider we did 27 dives in a week and all meals were included.

Just my 2 cents.
robin

 

[FredGarvin]

Sorry the trip wasn't what you expected.....you should have done a liveaboard instead of land-based! The service is waaaaay better, trip to dive site was 5-10 minutes at most and our 4 DMs were living with us 24/7 all week and joy to be around. We ate all our meals together, dive dive dive, and hung out between dives together. We had rain a few times (last year this week) but with the short boat trips it was never an issue. Food was non-stop and lots of choices and we never went hungry. Eat dive eat dive eat dive.... I think your whole Palau experience would have been better if you didn't have all the little hassles like those crappy boat rides back and forth for only 2 dives. And I bet the price worked out to about the same when you consider we did 27 dives in a week and all meals were included.

Just my 2 cents.
robin

I wanted to do a live aboard but my two friends are sea sick prone, so much so that they were afraid that the trip would be ruined by their sensitivity to motion sickness. They insisted on a land based situation.

Garv

 

[Travelnsj]

I wanted to do a live aboard but my two friends are sea sick prone, so much so that they were afraid that the trip would be ruined by their sensitivity to motion sickness. They insisted on a land based situation.

Garv

I can relate to your friends....and I have never really mined that 1 hr boat ride.

Did you have a chance to go to Kramers, Taj, Dragon Tai etc?

 

[kkfok]

Dragon Tei is not really good as I thought and they have Napoleon Wrasse in their menu.

 

[robint]

I wanted to do a live aboard but my two friends are sea sick prone, so much so that they were afraid that the trip would be ruined by their sensitivity to motion sickness. They insisted on a land based situation.

Garv

I think you need to smack your friends once or twice for me and tell them next time you try a liveaboard. Honestly, they are much more stable than smaller boats and even on those that are mono-hulled and rock slightly, most people get used to them after a day or two. The Eco Explorer, the boat we did in Palau, was so stable you had no idea you were on a boat except the 2 days it moved, and those days it was like you were on a battleship. All diving done from a small boat and only 5 minute ride is waaaaay better than those long boat rides on similar small boats.
Tell your friends also that seasickness is a temporary effect of your brain and middle ear comflicting. Most people get seasick because they get dehydrated, too. Sometimes it has has little to do with the motion of the boat and more to do with the fact they are SURE they are going to get sick so the slightest motion makes the whole process start. Taking ginger tablets helps many people, or there are patches you can get from your doctor. I don't like being drugged when I dive but some people swear by it. No one on our trip on the Eco in Palau got seasick, in fact, everyone joked about the fact the boat felt like a little island. The Big Blue is the same size as the Eco. The other liveaboards, the Aggressor and the Ocean Hunter, are smaller but usually moor in areas around the islands that are calm. That is true of most liveaboards worldwide though, they don't want the guests to get seasick because people usually take it out on the crew in small tips. So they do everything they can to make everyone as happy as possible.