This was another trip we did, this time through our hotel. It was a half a day and it was called 「半日パラオ歴史探訪ツアー」so I guess something like ‘Searching Palau’s History Half Day Tour’. It started at 9 but it went on until about 14:00, so it was longer than half a day. It cost $70pp and we were the only ones on it.
This was the only day that the weather wasn’t too great. It rained early on in the morning, but by about 11am, the sun was blazing and it was a glorious day. You can see the grey skies on this photo of the fallen radio tower from the period of the Japanese occupation of Palau. This is just lying on the side of the road and I thought it was an aeroplane at first.
The we stopped off at a shop near these boats. We were trying to find a place to buy a permit and the shop here sold them. We found this out from the random guy that our guide picked up from a group on the side of the road planting trees. It was unusual, but I loved it.
Once the permit was obtained, our original guide and our newly-found guide took us to see the tanks left by the Japanese army during World War 2.
The below photo is the view from the tank, if you are hanging out of the little house it’s encased in. The cannons could reach the sea that you can see, which is a very long way off!
After that, our new guide went back to planting trees and we went off to find a WW2 Japanese aeroplane wreck in the hills/mountains/jungle/forest. By this point it was boiling. The sun was glaring down which made for a long walk. It was so green though.
Then, after around a forty minute trek, we found it. An interesting thing to note is that we did not see a single person whilst on our walk. Amazing.
After that, we headed back from Babeldaob Island and returned to Koror Island.
We made a short stop off at Belau National Museum to see the bai (below). The artistry on the bai is incredible and they tell a story about Palau and it’s history. The museum explains it all, so I highly recommend going there to visit.
Thanks for reading and see my other posts on Palau:
- p p p palau: Part one
- p p p palau: Part two – milky way, long beach and snorkelling
- p p p palau: Part three – history
- p p p palau: part four – Ngardmau waterfall and stone monoliths
- p p p palau: part five – hotel and eats
Emily