THE GOOD LIFE Travel


Snorkellers in Palau are rewarded with views of spectacular coral and a huge 


of Ulong’s son Prince Lee Boo, who prompt- ly died of smallpox. The episode, however, planted Palau on the colonial map. ‘People came to us from Portugal, Ger-


many, England, Spain, Japan and finally the USA,’ says ‘Fonzie’, a kinsman of Prince Lee Boo, who works as a guide. ‘Aſter the war we became Westernised, although the Spanish had already brought Catholicism.’ He adds that Palau’s original settlers came 4,000 years ago from Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia: ‘We are part of an ancient Asia Pacific civilisation.’


T


ime for another snorkel! One of Palau’s 13 species of shark swims by (it was declared a sanctuary for the animals


in 2009). Oscar rehearses me on the correct etiquette: ‘Stay still. Look the shark in the eye. If it approaches, deflect its snout. Sharks have negative buoyancy, so they must keep swimming.’ A spotted eagle ray glides past. In Pa- lauan native culture, eagle rays sit along- side the banded sea krait and the leopard shark in a pantheon of demigods. As one


Palauan put it, ‘We have demigods, but we also believe in God.’ Palau claims some of the greatest dive


sites. Blue Corner is an underwater coral peninsula where powerful currents bring in heavy traffic of ‘big stuff’: schooling sharks, Napoleon wrasse, turtles, dogtooth tuna and shoals of barracuda. Big Drop Off, one of Cousteau’s favourite cliff dives, is where, just offshore, the water plunges to ocean depth. German Channel has a pi- quant backstory. When they occupied Palau (1899 to 1914), the Germans blasted a short- cut through the reef. Divers forgave the Kai- ser when they found huge manta rays en- joying the shortcut.


The Palauan idyll was shattered by two of


the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. Aſter General MacArthur abandoned the Philippines to the Japanese in 1942, he declared: ‘I will be back!’ Two years later, the Americans did come back. Aſter taking the Marshall Islands, they approached Pa- lau, where the Japanese had dug themselves in on the islands of Angaur and Peleliu. American victory took 74 days and nearly 13,000 Japanese and 2,500 American lives. Today, crumbling bunkers and rusting


tanks litter the jungle; fish play peekaboo in wrecked ships and aeroplanes. Thousand Man Cave, the Japanese redoubt on Peleliu, is strewn with bottles, utensils, weapons


THE GERMANS BLASTED A SHORTCUT


THROUGH THE REEF. DIVERS FORGAVE THE KAISER WHEN THEY FOUND HUGE MANTA RAYS ENJOYING THE SHORTCUT


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