Palau
Links to Palau Embassies and Consulates
Fast Facts
Coutntry Full name: |
Weights & Measures: Imperial |
| Population: 18,400 |
Country Dialing Code: +680 |
| Languages Spoken: Official - English |
Time Zones: GMT/UTC +9 |
Electric Plugs: 115/230V 60Hz |
Currency: Name: US Dollar Code: USD Symbol: US$ |
Exchange rate: Palau uses the US Dollar Currency
Weather
Springtime is full of festivals in Palau and can make it an interesting time to visit. February and March are Palau's non-rainy months, while June to August is the stormiest period. Typhoons tend to hit around this time when they come, which isn't often. Palau's water temperatures remain above 27°C (above 82°F) year-round, much to divers' delight.
On most of the islands you can almost be guaranteed that the temperature will be between 20°C (68°F) and 30°C (86°F) at any time of the day, any day of the year. Closer to the equator things are a bit warmer and days usually creep into the low 30s (high 80s). Humidity is usually high, averaging 80% on Koror, but the even temperature and fresh sea breezes means conditions are never too stuffy. The annual rainfall is 373cm (there are numerous heavy thunderstorms in June), with June to August the wettest months; February and March are the driest, although rain can seemingly strike at any time. Although Palau lies outside the main typhoon tracks, it does occasionally get hit.
Money & Cost
Comfortable travel in Palau will run between US$200 a day or more, depending on your taste for island hopping and dive packages. Travellers on a moderate budget can get by for about half that, assuming they only see a few islands and keep their food costs down.
There are banks in all the major tourist areas, where credit cards and travellers' cheques are widely accepted. Neither tipping nor bargaining is mandatory in Palau.
Currency
Name: US Dollar
Symbol: US$
Average Room Prices |
|||
Low |
Mid |
High |
Deluxe |
US$35-50 |
US$50-100 |
US$100-200 |
US$200+ |
Average Meal Prices |
|||
Low |
Mid |
High |
Deluxe |
US$5-10 |
US$10-20 |
US$20-25 |
US$25+ |
Getting there and around
Getting There
Continental has daily flights to and from Guam. Far Eastern Air Transport has four-weekly flights to Taiwan and another option, if travelling from the USA, is a Circle Micronesia air-pass. Other connections are through Guam. The airport is a 25-minute drive from the capital Koror; travellers leaving Palau must pay a US$20.00 departure tax.
Although there are inter-island boats within Micronesia, it's rare to find any sort of passenger vessel going to Palau from countries outside the region, aside from the occasional private yacht and live-aboard dive boat. Organised tours focusing on diving, snorkelling and - in dwindling numbers - guiding WWII veterans back through the islands in which they fought during the war, are also available.
Getting Around
A few hotels provide airport transportation for their guests. Otherwise, taxis and car rental are available at the airport. Because Koror is the nation's commercial centre, Palauans commonly commute by private speedboat between Koror and their home villages on other Palauan islands. You can sometimes hitch a ride with them by offering to chip in for gas. Ask around at the gas docks. Otherwise, there are occasional flights aboard small Cessnas and weekly trips by government boats from Koror to Peleliu and Angaur.
Visitors are allowed to drive in Palau for 30 days with their home country's driver's licence. Driving is on the right, and the speed limit is a doddering 40km/h (25mph).
History
Pre-20th-Century History
It's thought that the first inhabitants of Palau came from eastern Indonesia. Carbon dating of ancient habitation sites shows that the Rock Islands were settled by at least 1000 BC. These early Palauans developed fairly complex matrilineal and matriarchal social systems, wherein money and property were inherited by women though owned by the clan.
The first European to sight Palau was probably Ruy Lopez de Villalobos of Spain in 1543. Spain claimed the islands in 1686 but did nothing to develop or colonise them. It wasn't until 1783, when English captain Henry Wilson shipwrecked on a reef off Palau's Ulong Island, that any significant contact between Palauans and Westerners began. Wilson was aided by Koror's chief, Ibedul, who helped rebuild the ship and then sent his son, Prince Lebuu, back with the sailors to be educated in England. Although Lebuu died of smallpox shortly after arriving in London, his presence there touched many Britons and piqued their interest in Palau. The country soon became Palau's main trading partner and remained so for over 100 years, until the Spanish returned and expelled them in 1885.
Spanish missionaries introduced Christianity and a written alphabet to Palau before Spain sold the country to Germany in the wake of the Spanish-American War.
Modern History
Germany took control in 1899 and immediately set about curtailing the devastating effects of Western diseases on the local populace. They then forced the Palauans into servitude while setting up coconut plantations and other business ventures.
Japan occupied Palau from 1914 until the end of WWII. It was during this time that Palauan culture went through its greatest transformation: free public schools were opened, instructing islanders in a subservient dialect of the Japanese language, and village chiefs lost power to Japanese colonial bureaucrats. Koror was developed into a bustling modern city, with paved roads, electricity and piped-in water; thousands of Japanese, Korean and Okinawan laborers were imported; and the traditional inheritance patterns were shattered as Palauans lost their land, either through sale or confiscation.
In the late 1930s, Japan closed Palau to the outside world and began concentrating its efforts to develop military fortifications throughout the islands. During the final stages of WWII, Japanese installations across Palau became targets for Allied attacks. The fiercest fighting took place on Peleliu and Angaur; the more heavily populated Koror and Babeldaob (where the Japanese had relocated most Palauans) were never invaded.
When the USA began to administer Palau after the war, it hoped to spin it off with the rest of Micronesia into a single political entity. Palauans, however, held out, voting in 1978 against becoming a part of the Federated States of Micronesia in favour of retaining a separate identity. In 1980, Palau adopted its own constitution, and the first president, Haruo Remeliik, took office in 1981. Koror was named the provisional capital, though the constitution requires that it eventually be moved to Melekeok State in Babeldaob.
The transition to self governance, however, has not been easy: in 1985, Remeliik was assassinated (the crime remains unsolved), and his successor, Lazarus Salii, was found shot to death in an apparent suicide after being placed under investigation for accepting political payoffs. Palau's next president, Ngiratkel Etpison, a successful businessman and part-owner of the Palau Pacific Resort, was the first to serve out his term in full.
On 1 October 1994, Palau officially became an independent nation, ending 47 years as a Trust Territory. That same year it was admitted to the United Nations. The USA retains some rights to a third of Palauan territory, thanks to its Compact of Free Association, which netted Palau a hefty US$450000000.00 financial package for the first 15 years of the 50-year compact.
Recent History
Post-independence has been difficult, with political power struggles, the Asian economic crisis and lack of infrastructure. But Tommy Remengesau, who replaced Kuniwo Nakamura as president in November 2000, has promised to make Palau more organised and more self-sufficient. Besides, this country more than any other in Micronesia epitomises tropical paradise and the tourism industry - though still embryonic - is seen as an important future growth-stream.
In 2004 Palau passed severe anti-sharking laws, culminating in the frenzied spectacle of President Remengesau publicly burning shark fins and bodies seized from Taiwanese ships. However, Palau is nothing if not contrary when it comes to the environment - it's one of the few countries in the world to support Japan's pro-whaling stance.
Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com
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