GAY & LESBIAN TRAVEL STORIES

Palau

TREADING WATER

We traveled about 45 minutes by boat, rounding city-block sized islands, mushrooming above the aquamarine colored sea before pulling into a clandestine dock on one of the larger bodies of land. From there it was a quick

20-minute hike with some snorkeling gear to what appeared to be any lake-sleepy, torpid, quiet-found in any number of forests across the planet, though it's name, Jellyfish Lake, belied any perceived banality. And after about a 100-yard or so of a leisurely swim, I realized that Belinda Carlisle was right-heaven is, indeed, a place on Earth.

From a distance, I began to notice what appeared to be tiny orange fluttering lights, luminescent spheres, enticing me to come closer. Pretty soon, those pulsating lights are the size of footballs and are completely surrounding you in a nebulous psychedelic cloud that seemingly stretches as far as the eye can see. I peak above the surface, whose quiescence reveals nothing of the absolute wonderment taking place centimeters below. Now, I'm not the sort of person who enjoys touching any sort of wildlife - the innocuous cockroaches on New York City sidewalks give me the heebie-jeebies, but these jellyfish were halcyon, childlike in their innocence, to the point where I found myself petting one and turning somersaults among the their herd. And not to worry, I'm not going to get stung. These jellyfish have been closed off from the ocean for thousands of years, and with a dearth of any predators, so they've lost their ability to sting. I'm safe here, in this one-of-a-kind place.

GETTING AWAY

The small nation of Palau is located in the far Pacific, somewhere due north of Papua, New Guinea and about four hours east of the Philippines. And it's about a million miles away from your stressy daily grind. Palau's tourism board has dubbed it "The Rainbow's End" and I'd be hard pressed to argue that fact (though some may say New York City or San Francisco could lay claim to such a slogan). It's a land where the salt of human touch has yet to adulterate the purity of its natural resources. Its people, who have been under control of three different imperialist nations (Japan, Germany, and the U.S.) in the last 100 years, have the kind of smiles and friendly attitudes that appear to most westerners to be only hyperboles of hospitality. Indeed, this is a land of vast romanticism.

There is nothing particularly gay about Palau. There are no gay bars, clubs or organizations of which to speak. But consider that there is also no movie theater or Starbucks in the entire country either. Catch my drift?

While we love escaping to Amsterdam or on a gay cruise every so often, just because we are gay, doesn't mean our vacations have to be gay-centric. You'll find that there is so much "sparkle" to be found exploring Palau's bucolic countryside, beguiling shorelines, and glowing underwater worlds that the sound of Madonna's voice may start to fade from memory. Palauans are matriarchal, they are not a violent people, and subsequently are very friendly to outsiders, gays and lesbians included.

SINKING IN

Palau is best known as the location of the world's best scuba diving and snorkeling. Guests could spend weeks exploring the alien subterranean world just off Palau's southernmost coast, made up of hundreds of limestone rock islands, neatly carved so they mushroom out over the water. Clam city is a cluster of giant clams, covered in fabulous glistening shades of turquoise and pink. Open mouthed, you can see their brown and white tiger striped muscles. As you swim above them, they are full of life, quickly snapping shut. Big Drop Off, is, just as the name claims, a gorgeously covered coral wall that descends as far as the eye can see. According to Jacques Cousteau, this is the best snorkeling or diving area in the world.

On a less adventurous note, however luxurious, Palau contains a natural mud-bathing site that we pray Sephora never gets their greedy little hands on. Milky Way, is an inlet among the limestone islands in Koror, that has gathered sediment from sea life, soil and sand, for hundreds of thousands of years. Six feet below the surface of the visibly milky water, you'll find the kind of skin care no dollar could buy.

And not all the action lies on Palau's south. Babeldaob-the main chunk of land to the north-is also a natural wonderland. Rainforests with majestic waterfalls (don't miss Ngardmau Waterfall), hiking trails that lead you past still intact native structures (called a bai), where you can literally pull star fruit down from the trees to eat, and endless stretches of beaches that melt into the horizon are not dreams. Here, they are as real as exit 9 on the New Jersey Turnpike.