Thanks to me working the red eye Continental airlines shifts every thursday and sunday night for a year I finally got some pay back was lucky enough to go to Micronesia for 2 weeks travelling on standby(free flights :).. It was my first solo overseas trip and it was amazing!!! My first stop was Guam, if you haven't heard of it it's a territory of the USA but its situated North-East of Australia around 4 hours flight from Cairns and 3-4 hours from Manila!
So I arrived in Guam very tired at around 4.30am, Oscar my awesome couchsurfer host picked me up at the airport! what a champ ;) so after a bit of confusion on which side of the car i should get in we were off on a tour of Guam! What a tourist I was 'ooh look mobil service station we have them i Australia, hehehe the petrol sorry 'gas' is sold in gallons here..' I could go on and on about all my blondeworthy comments but Ive got a whole 2 weeks of blog to catch up on!! Anyway the tour of Guam, well off we went on our race to catch the sunrise, beautiful scenery all the way and as you can see I had to stop for a few of my usual posing pics.. We didn't quite catch the sunrise but got some beautiful pics anyway.. Of course had to make a quick stop and use the toilet which i was also mesmerized by as the flush button was in the wrong place as I was yet to find out would also be the case with every one that I facilitated over my 2 weeks away!! some of them also have an extra hole i think where the water initially flows through just incase you wanted to know that!! there must have been about 3 moments when I was tempted to take a photo of the toilets but would u believe i was able to restrain myself.. can't help but think this was probably due to my obsession of always having to have a person (usually me lol) in my photos.. and yeah no 'matilda on the loo' picture was not gonna happen :) not this trip anyway lol.
So after the long relaxing drive around Guam (thankfully not too many hills since 'Oscar' is still getting used to 'stick shift' haha bet he's been saying that for years.. ) we made our way to 'Denny's' don't think id heard of Denny's till now but I think its a pretty popular restaurant franchise in America.. so had 'bacon and eggs and some' was called something like that and had my first taste of real 'american style hash browns' must say not really a fan at all ill take the mcdonalds hash browns over the overfried shredded potato crap anyday lol but the rest was great!! hmm i think after a quick stop at the souvenir shop it was time to get acquainted with where i would be staying during my time in Guam!! Was so lucky that Oscar let me stay at his place which was absolutly perfect except he like his aircon at like 8 degrees celcius constantly, and im not even gonna try convert that to farrenheit! so half of my time in Guam I was getting around in a jumper and trackie pants (sweatpants..)wasn't so bad i like getting rugged up anyway.. Oscar gave me my own room and wow check out the view!!!how amazing is that!! unreal!! What more can I say!! Lucky me.. but for some reason luck tends to go my way most of the time... touch wood!
So got a bit of a kick out of playing with Oscar's gun (a glock) and dressing up in the military clothes hehe Oscar even let me keep one of the military hats as a souvenir only i know Ill end up wearing it heaps too :) 
So off we go don't ask me which direction we went but Oscar got us keen to go and find a freshwater cave his friend Ky told him about so we parked the car and started walking till we came accross what must have been the cave with 3 local guys at the entrance (not chamorro which is the real locals but maybe philippino or someting similar to chamorro i think) anyway they looked kind of happy to see us 3 girls or maybe it was Oscar lol who knows, but either way we decided to keep walking and check out the cave later as it sounded kinda busy down there anyways.
We kept following the path we were actually in search of a 2nd cave which we never found as we later discovered it didnt exist and was just an extension off the original cave that we had alreay passed (good one Ky!! lol) so we kept walking till we reached the ocean, it was really rough but beautiful on this side of the island so we decided to walk along the edge with the waves smashing against the cliffs and a strong fresh breeze blowing it was great just walking better then being stuck in a dental surgery anyway lol.. So we walked for quite awhile as there was an obvious path through the rocks and cliffs and grass.. we all thought we might still find this mythical other cave.. after awhile we realised that it wasnt just a path in the ground but there was these coconuts about every 10 metres they were empty and had like a whole carved in them like a nest and had wire through the top and they were cleverly attached to rocks along the way.. well this got me and maddie pretty excited because we thought they must lead somewhere special!!So much to Oscar and Erin's dismay we had to keep following them and it became really fun cause the coconuts became harder to find and the track less obvious but somehow we just kept finding these coconuts it was like off a movie or something!!
After a while the path started to move away from the ocean and into the trees at this point Oscar and Erin were to tired to go on.. slackers lol so maddie and I headed into the unknown, and what do u know now instead of coconuts there is danger ribbon you know like the crime scene tape police use except this stuff was red and said danger and was torn into bits and tied around the trees inviting us to follow some more!! So into the bushes we went avoiding the spiders and giggling away deeper and deeper into the bush then suddenly we heard a shuffle in the bushes and out came a little bush pig!!! oh my god it was so freaky and then a few metres behind it was a bigger rustle in the bushes and some weird grunting noise and me and maddie just started running back towards the ocean cause we sure as hell werent keen to have an encounter with a big angry mama bush pig thats for sure! anyone would have thought there was a bloody axeman after us or something plus i think the bushpigs were probably running in the opposite direction anyway but ya never know lol i can't believe we didn't go ass up or run into any of them big spiders (not as big as aussie spiders of course) anyway we made it back to Oscar and Erin in one piece and Oscar was really wishing he brought his Glock so he could 'pop a cap in the pig's ass' lol. So that was our crazy hike!! 
We made it all the way back to the cave and no-one was standing at the entrance this time but still sounded busy inside but we could hear kids down there so figured it was safe :) So down we went to the mystical freshwater caves of Guam!! Greeted by about 10 friendly locals and there campfire and eskys we get out of most of our sweaty clothes and jump in the pristine sparkling freshwater! I really love places like that I don't know what it is but I could have stayed there all day!! There was one part of the cave which was like a very small room that was cool and would have been a nice place to hang out with someone special.. and then on the other side there is a small gap that u can swim/squeeze through and u get to another big swimming area really cool and private except for the few locals who walked across the top of the rocks to wach us.. We were so glad Oscar was with us cause it would have been a bit freaky with the older local guys there we caught them taking photos of us a few times but besides that they were really cool and offered us everything they had from beer to food to water. So we stayed there for about an hour and decided it was time to head home so we dropped the girls off and went home and got cleaned up because tonight was to be my party night in Guam!!
So after a few too many vodkas the boys took me to the tower of London a cool favorite bar of theirs were i met a few of there friends and they attempted to teach me shuffleboard and I played a few dodgy Australian songs on the juke box!!
Then Maddie turned up with her man and roped us in to going to the 'horse and cow' by the time i get there i must have been pretty maggot my only real memories are the photos which basically looked like me and some philippino girls and they boys dancing or just drunk posing to a lot of photos and didn't really look like anyone else was at that bar?? maybe i scared them off probably running around saying G'day Mate, a dingo stole my baby.... wouldn't put it passed me :)
Anyway after there my wish came true.. Id told the boys earlier that day that I wanted to go to an 'american strip club' so there we are at club USA, and someone brings this stripper to me and low and behold shes an 
aussie (apparently) so we were all excited and talking about where we have lived etc.. and i somehow remember her mentioning Havianas anyway Im pretty sure she must have been aussie or at least lived there a few years so we went outside and got a photo (love thise pics!) since no cameras in the club of course and then went back inside and bought her a drink apparently i bought her a special expensive one meaning a $30 drink with no alcohol in it cause they just scamming me i dunno, i dont car i had fun.. except damn that stripper who pulled me on the stage with her! im glad theres no photos of that im sure it wasn't a great sight and i definatly won't quit my day job!! So that wraps it up for that day but ever since Oscar insists that the aussie stripper was a 'fake aussie' but i think hes just jealous haha :)
Ok well my last day in Guam (until my return flight home that is) well feeling a bit sorry for myself after the night at the strip club but u know me still keen for an adventure so come on Oscar lets go for a snorkel!! so all we gotta do is walk downstairs to the water and Im keen to snorkel across to the little island that I've been looking out my window at for the last few days!! the water was a bit shallow at times to swim so poor oscar kept tripping up or scratching himself on the coral.. its very different here to Australia they are not as worried about standing on coral here.. the coral was a bit dull most of the way but got a bit more colour for some of it and was a bit of fish action lots of garfish and just heaps of colourful random ones i cant name.. when we got to Alupang island there was tons of starfish everywhere and sea cucumbers and heaps of stuff to keep us occupied though its not a very big island to walk around anyway, but the son started blazing like crazy after a few minutes i started worrying about getting scorched so we fastened the pace but still stopped for some photos of course and Oscar took a photo of a baby eel i had been chasing hehe :) we got back to where we started and i decided we should walk to the top of the island so we did that as far as we could and then walked back down.. oh yeah and i forgot to mention Maddie and her boy Dan were meant to meet us at the island so when we got back down they had finally made it so after a chat and a play with some hermit crabs it was time to say good bye but knowing for sure we would get to have another I love guam adventure on my way back to Australia :) Tonight it's time to fly to beautiful Palau and see what is in store for me there!!
I arrive in Koror, Palau and once again a friendly stranger is there to take me under their wing, Loraine!! sister of Lucie an amazing colleauge at continental who flys frquently between guam and cairns and was nice enoughto put me in touch with her sister who even let me stay at her house for most of my stay in Palau!! See there is no such thing as backpacker hostels in palau and I wasn't really in a situation to be able to afford hotel rooms nor did i want to stay in a hotel room by myself either and I had even emailed several hotels in Palau and they never responded anyway probably due to telecommunication problems there i think.. Anyway it worked out pretty perfect though I felt bad as if I was putting them out at times as they gave me a room to myself so i think the kids were in sharing with mum as my room had bunk beds in it.. i even had air con there as well, i don't even have air con at home in australia so it was a suprise! My first day in Palau wow amazing Loraine and her family took me out on their boat to the rock islands, this was pretty special for me I doubt many tourists get an opportunity like that!! First we went bottom fishing, same as we fish in OZ when we go out to the reef to catch red emperor, coral trout and nannygai, but has been awhile since i fished like this so took awhile for me to get the hang of it and to yang it right and hook the fish but finally i did and ended up with 2 white snapper maybe 30-40cm and heaps of small red snapper was fun and the most fishing id done in awhile.. So next we stopped at one of the rock islands one of the few that actually have a sandy beach area. Here's a description of the rock islands and palau from wikipedia-Rock Islands are a small collection of limestone or coral uprises, ancient relics of coral reefs that violently surfaced to form Islands in Palau's Southern Lagoon, between Koror and Peleliu, and are now an incorporated part of Koror State. The islands, between 250 to 300 in number according to different sources, with an aggregate area of 47 km² and a height up to 207 m, and are for the most part uninhabited, and are famous for their beaches, blue lagoons and the peculiar umbrella-like shapes of many of the islands themselves. The Rock Islands and the surrounding reefs make up Palau's popular tourist sites such as Blue Corner, Blue hole, German Chanel, Ngermeaus Island and the famed Jellyfish Lake, one of the many Marine lakes in the Rock Islands that provides home and safety for several kinds of stingless jellyfish found only in Palau.
So there you go anyway we got off on one of the rock islands and they got the fire started while me alea and mobel went off to collect hermit crabs but it wasn't long before the weather started getting crazy like seriously if they had of told me it was a typhoon coming i would have beleived it! the sky was so stormy and the wind so strong it was freaky but beautiful and exciting all at once, thankfully it didnt last too long but it never did totally clear up that day but never mind little did i know just how many more beautiful days I would have in Palau...
Mobel and I soon got bored and off we went in search off some sharks and so i could try out my underwater camera a bit more, i think i might of taken the first underwater photos of the kids :) i plan to print them off and send it to them in Palau i think they would love that :) So we snorkelled across to another rock island very close by and played with some of the starfish there though there pretty stationary animals so we soon moved on and found a sea snake which was cool especially since it was sliding on a big rock not in the water :) we started to get hungry so snorkelled back to the others and ate some 'heres some we prepared earlier' chops and taro and rice and soy sauce pretty yummy really! and then the kid ate the chocolate koalas i brought from Australia for them.. Meanwhile we were also cooking up a big unicorn fish that they must have caught another time :) we got to eat that one later while we were fishing some more mmmm yum baiting the hook and then eating the fish islander style was really yum though :) when we were fishing we were right near the rock island which apparently a lot of 'survivor palau' was filmed.. really must watch that series one day since ive been lucky enough to go there!! its really not many people i know who have been to palau i think 2 or 3 people i know not including people i met there of course.. :)so it got dark and we headed home and another good nights sleep for me as a big day of diving is in store for tomorrow (monday)!! Luckily Loraine told me her neighbour Daniel works for Sams tours(the dive company i booked) there not only neighbours but they share the same live in nanny, Evelyn a really friendly but kinda shy Philippino lady who later also was to be my fashion advisor lol. So Lorraine organised for Daniel to pick me up on his way to work! What a funny guy! love him to bits and hope i get a chance to meet him again one day, never a dull moment with Daniel he was too quick for me half the time i didnt even realise he was joking and he was just teasing me and making up stories etc.. you know the type anyway he also ended up being my dive guide for that day which i was very happy about cause it was my first certified dive and i had actually done more scuba in lake eacham then inthe ocean!! and to be jumping straight into the blue hole well thats a bit crazy but hey it's me where talking about.. i guess the sky diving etc.. paid off and Im getting pretty brave cause that is one big deep creepy but cool reef hole to dive into!! The dicing was great in Palau though i havent done enough in Cairns to compare it properly but the visability was perfect couldnt have been better! heaps of reef sharks at one time there was 11 all within 5-10 metres of me, there was a turtle swimming or feeding around every 5 miutes, fish everywhere of course, lots of colours, saw a starfish about 50cm long, saw my first crocodile fish and leaf fish really cool fish!!! There were a few large friendly Wrass similar to Wally the maori wrass we have here in Cairns. I used reef hooks for the first time to as there are some great places to hook on to and relax when the current is a bit stronger and u just watch the underwater world pass you amazing..The dive sites i dived in Palau were the blue hole and blue corner(twice), and matthews place. All the people i dived with were really nice though everyone was about 10-30 years older then me but I didn't mind I always had Daniel to hang out with and all the guides in Palau for everything i did were amazing and took heaps of photos of me and not once did I regret travelling on my own but a few people did pity me because i was solo but really it should be me pitying them they have no idea the opportunities that arise for me because of the way I travel, I know Im very lucky but at the same time I spend a lot of time with tourists when i can when they visit Cairns so I guess its karma..
After diving we went to jelly fish lake, Very mystical place, loved it why.. because of the great photo opportunities of course ha ha, Was cool to swim with all those jelly fish and touch them really funny to especially when Daniel was doing his trick where he blows a ring of air and the jellyfish gets caught in it and goes round and round really fast till it reaches the surface :) Stayed there for ages :) better be careful when im back in cairns might go touching all the jelly fish.. wasthinking i could show the tourists the photos and tell them see theres nothing to worry about, you dont need a stingersuit in Cairns.. hehehe.. ;)
After the 2nd day I went diving (a few days later) we went first to snorkel at a place where the baby reef sharks live so snorkelled with heaps of reef sharks.. will never be scared off them again i guarantee it :) and then wewent to a place called Clam city, biggest clams ive ever seen and got some more cool pics!! Oh and of course I must tell you that today was the day I chewed my first (and last!!) betel nut! thanks to Daniel!! Id been curious to try it for a couple years but hadn't had the chance so what better place to chew then Palau! I swear 75% off the population must chew betel nuts its out of control! i wonder if the dentists there warn about the oral cancer risks? The dentists there probably chew themselves!! anyway so Daniel prepared the toxic cocktail of betel nut, pepper leaves and god knows what else (maybe some tabacco, salt, lime?) and i chewed and chewed and chewed and spat!! yeah that lovely red/orange mouthful of betel nut spit!! tasted pretty gross but i persisted wanting to see whats really so good about it but i chewed as long as daniel did and had to spit about 15 times! but barely felt a buzz, must be just me guess its like alcohol takes a lot to get me drunk.. So my reccomendation.. try it at least once but do it properly not the cheats way of just chewing the nut!!
Ok next day is Tuesday the 14th, Kayaking today!! with Lolly and JFive the guides and Jefferson the driver!! Pretty small group consisting of just me and another couple from Hawaii Patricia and her husband. We requested to kayak long lake so they took us there but on the way that typhoon like weather cam back at one stage we couldnt see anything it was like heavy rain and fog 360 degrees so i ask jefferson has he got a compass and he laughts and points to the dash where the word compass is written lol bloody clown!! :) felt safe and in good hands the whole time but seriously we could have been out in the middle of the ocean for all we knew lol on the way we stopped and jumped in the ocean (CrAaZy im tellin u but still did it, suprised i didn't get swept out to sea) and Lolly showed us a small zero japanese fighter plane that was sunk (i think thats what it was) tried to get pics but they didnt turn out :( probably due to the torrential current!! :)
We make it to Long Lake and start kayaking not much to say here just that its beautiful and I haven't menioned the colour of the water in Palau yet well if you see pictures on line and the water looks so good that its probably been 'edited' well it hasn't it really is a magical blue, green colour crystal clear and just gorgeous!!! so you can imagine kayaking amongst the rock islands in this water with birds andfruit bats flying about and some parts of the lake/ocean is so deep and others is so shallow u can almost reach down and touch the coral! we stop at another 'clam' spot here and getout of the kayaks and do some free diving to look at the clams.. this was before the day i went diving and we stopped at 'clam city' otherwise i wouldnt have bothered trying so hard to safely free dive 8 metres without drowning just to get a blurry picture of a clam lol. The locals are like fish free diving is like going for a jog to them!! After assisting the oldies from Hawaii get back into their kayak (no any easy task!) we head off again, we go to an old clam farm which is usually home to a few manta rays but not today, then to secret lake which gets its name since we can only access it at low tide because at high tide the water covers the entrance.. cool :) Then Lolly took us to another spot to snorkel really cool loads of coral and at the end of the snorkel we end up at a tunnel called wait for it...'The tunnel of Doom' Its where all the water from the other side of that rock island rushes in and out through this tunnel when the tide goes up or down.. Theres only about 1 time a year when it could be possible to kayak through there..wish i could do that..
Saving the best for last was Milky Way a special place amaongst the rock islands where the ocean floor is just pure white mud so u can guess what we got up to then.. and of course made for more great photos!!! Loved making Jefferson a mud bikini!! I love Palau!!!!!
