Pa-slow

The internet here is like the opposite of the Majuro. In Majuro, the infrastructure on the island was horrible, but the actual connection to the net was OK assuming you could get one.

On Palau, there are internet cafes all over, but it feels as if the whole country is on the same dial-up connection. Everywhere is slow. I’d be willing to be the country has one crappy link to the outside and there is way more demand than there is bandwidth. No matter where I have tried to get on, I’ll have long spells where no data gets through, then there will be a torrent of data and everything will go quickly.

Uploading my photos is painful. I got a few of my photos from Majuro up, but the rest will have to wait until I have more time or until I get to Manila, where I’m assuming it will be much faster.

There is a great little walk-up restaurant on the street here. The English under the Chinese sign says “FRIED CHICKEN WITH SALT”. I’m going to eat there because I can think of nothing better than advertising fried food with salt.

I think everyone will love the Palau stamps I had to buy. It’s so……well, you’ll see. Remember, small countries view stamp sales to collectors as a form of revenue.

I’m going to rent a digital camera tomorrow for my dive and trip to Jellyfish Lake. I think it merits the expense. I will also probably be taking a kayaking trip to some of the rock islands on Sunday as well and maybe a short helicopter flight too. The islands are just that cool.

I also desperately need a hat. I lost my hat on Guam and it really makes a difference in the sun…especially with my head. I don’t know if Palau is usually hot or it just happened to be hot today, but this has been the warmest day I’ve experienced in the Pacific so far.