On a liveaboard in Palau, away from home

Daniela (not her real name) works as a maid on the boat, she is from the Philippines, is 32, and misses her 12 years old son who is back home. Her husband is working in Saudi Arabia. She goes home once a year, Palau is not so far from the Philippines, to see her son.

But she can only meet her husband every four years as it's more difficult for him to take time off and Saudi Arabia is a much longer and expensive trip for him.

They are trying to get together and work in the same country so as to be able to have a normal family life with their son but not easy. However, "for now just have to be faithful and make sacrifices," she says.

Roxy, her colleague and one of the greatest masseuses ever, says it's better like this because she knows both of them and when they were together they were fighting all the time!

Hospital experience in Koror, Palau

In the middle of the night my wife woke up with food poisoning, it looks like the green long beans at the buffet maybe were not well cooked or washed. Palau produces virtually no vegetables, they are all imported from the US. I suppose it might be easier to import them from Asia or Australia, but give the special relationship I am not surprised a lot of food comes from American farming. Even eggs I am told!

We hate having to wake up our cruise director but she is feeling really sick, even coughing blood.

Luckily our boat is not far from the port, and the skiff ride to shore in the moonless night takes only a few minutes.

The hospital is a simple structure but seems alright. I register her with a receptionist and get checked by a nurse before seeing a doctor: a young petite lady who wears a white mask and gloves. She sends us to an adjacent lab for a blood test. 

As I walk in the door there is no one to be seen but, after a few minutes, a really big betel-chewing guy with red gums shows up in a blue hospital apron and takes a sample of her blood. After some 20 minutes, we get the results. The soft-spoken doctor says not to worry it's not too serious and blood is just coming from her scraping her throat with the repeated vomiting.

On checking out, I'm pleasantly surprised to see a sign on the cashier's window that they accept my DAN (Diver Alert Network) insurance for their services. Except that they don't. When they see our cards they argue our policy does not include this eventuality. Insurance companies never cease to surprise. It's going to be 151 dollars for us. Could have been worse.

A poster on the wall encourages women to report domestic violence. It informs us that 37 percent of the victims in Palau don't ever tell anyone while 67 percent don't report it to the authorities.

Another poster explains ABC: babies must sleep Alone, on their Back and in a Crib. And without a pillow, but somehow the P didn't make it into the acronym. And by the way, no toys in the crib ...

Another poster warns about dengue fever: report asap any symptoms. I thought Palau was free of dengue but apparently it comes back from time to time.

On a happier note... an open box on the wall is full of condoms and a little colorful note taped to it encourages patients, or anyone passing along really, to take a free condom, "or 2 or 3..."

Palau politics and passport

Palau is one of the fewer and fewer countries that still recognize Taiwan as the legitimate government of China, much to the chagrin of Beijing. And this despite the fact that Chinese tourists now provide a large amount of business. 

This is because, despite the above-mentioned policy, Chinese nationals can travel to Palau visa-free, which of course makes it a very attractive destination for a tropical vacation.

China recently tried to make the point that enough is enough, and made it more difficult for tour operators to organize trips to Palau. But there are still quite a few who do come, so much so that there are a number of Chinese restaurants in Koror which cater mostly to them.

Some of these Chinese settle in Palau, some try and become naturalized citizens. For one, foreigners can't buy land or businesses alone, they can only be only co-owners with a local Palauan partner.

Another reason is that a Palau passport is one of the most coveted ones in the region, as its proud owners can travel visa-free in 118 countries around the world, including the USA. Though a far cry from Japan's 190 visa-free destinations, it is much better than most. Chinese nationals can go to 74 countries visa-free. Taiwanese can travel to 148 countries, exactly twice as many.

I should be quite happy with Italy's 188 destinations, which puts my country at the n.5 spot in the world, after Japan with 191, Germany with 190, Singapore and South Korea with 189.

Iro wreck dives, Palau

The "Iro" was not a "maru", like most wrecks in the Chuuk lagoon, ie it was not a merchant transport converted to military uses. It was an oil tanker built in 1921-22 expressly for the imperial Japanese navy. Funny she was powered by coal, was a steamer, even though she carried oil for the engines of other ships. One of only 9 oilers in the Japanese navy in WWII, a major weakness.

It participated in most major WWII operations, except Pearl Harbor. During the course of the war, it was hit many times but survived.

It was finally hit by a torpedo in her bow near the Philippines which chopped off a whole bite of the hull at the very front edge. In March 1944 it was limping on her way to Chuuk to be repaired when she learned of operation Desecrate, the American attack on Palau, and she was ordered to Palau, the next maritime line of defense for the imperial navy.

There she was again attacked and finally sunk.

It was salvaged in the 1950s, the Japanese recuperated the bodies and valuable metals but... the boat bringing the remains of the Iro's sailors and any valuables back to Japan sink en route!

The Iro now rests upright, stern sank first and is deep under the sand with prop and rudder clearly visible. A most interesting set of dives.

Canoe in Palau

Leisurely break between dives, a tour in a canoe in the lagoon.

Chinese tourists in Palau

Mrs Wan, who runs some restaurants and hotels in Palau, came over from Guangzhou some fifteen years ago with her husband. She speaks Cantonese and Mandarin but only basic English. Their kids grew up here in Palau and speak good English.

She takes a liking to us since we keep coming back every day for dinner and comes over to chat. We come back because the food is excellent, the price is fairly low and they come and pick us up from our hotel for free. And take us back after our meal. Oh, and because my wife is Chinese and there are no Italian restaurants in Koror. None that could be called that really. And not many good restaurants, period. Lots of hamburgers and junk food I am sorry to say.

Mrs Wang also gave us free food a couple of times: a delicious crab one day and fresh yellow fin tuna just caught by her cousin another evening.

She says business is slow these days because the numbers of Chinese tourists are down. In fact during a whole week we've only seen very few patrons in the restaurant, all of them Chinese, which is surprising since there are quite a few western tourists around. I guess they prefer hot dogs and hamburgers. Oh well.

The biggest table in the restaurant, a big one with a lazy Susan in the middle, is always that of Mrs Wan's family and their visiting friends!

She came to talk to us a few times. She says fewer Chinese come to Palau these days despite the allure of a not too far sunny tropical destination accessible visa-free, an unusual combination of attractive factors for the rising middle class of China. The reason, she explained, is that Palau recognizes the government of Taipei as the legitimate government of China, and not that in Beijing.

So Beijing has forbidden Chinese travel agencies to sell group tours to the country. Since most Chinese still prefer group organized travels this has had a major impact.

Tom, an American dive guide who has lived here for decades, would later explain to us that another reason for fewer Chinese is that Palau's government has withdrawn the license it had given to Chinese charter flights. The reason is that too many Chinese were flying over but not spending much money. They would stick to their tour operator's activities, eat at Chinese restaurants, even bring their own food from China. Tom said the Palau government would rather do without them and try to attract bigger spenders like Americans, Japanese, and Koreans as well as the relatively few European divers who make it all the way down here.

These days they are opening a new Chinese resort, Palau Royal Garden. Some fear Chinese intrusion into Palau, some politicians think they will use investment as a political tool. That is not inconceivable I suppose though people like Mrs. Wang are just hard-working entrepreneurs who go and find opportunity where they can find it in the world, just like the Chinese have always done.

Palau kayak tour

Very American breakfast with lots of fruit juices though they are mostly from concentrate. Disappointing in a tropical island. Lots of processed foods actually, mostly imported from the US and Taiwan, even eggs! 

Weird...In Palau, cars drive on the right-hand side of the road, like in Europe but they all have their wheel on the right-hand side of the vehicle, like in the UK. Very strange. Maybe it's because here cars come mostly from Japan where they drive on the left-hand side of the road so it makes sense to have the wheel on the right-hand side here it's just strange.

We are picked up at our hotel by Marete, a stereotypical tall, blond, blue-eyed Danish lady who is spending a gap year traveling and working around the world with her boyfriend before going back to Denmark and continue her studies. Great idea. Not many Italians do this, even fewer Chinese I think. Too many Italians stay home with mamma until they move in with their wives. Anything to avoid cooking or having to manage a household.

Chinese are just beginning to understand the concept of a gap year. Until now they have to work as soon as possible to support the family. But the rising middle class now knows that is an option and can afford it, we'll see. 

Amazing canoe tour at Risong. A small group of us with a guide who comes from Tinian but has worked here for 12 years: meny more tourists, more money to be made. He takes us through the unmistakable Palauan volcanic formations carpeted with luscious green bushes whose branches overloaded with deep dark leaves reach all the way to the waterline.

An American pilot is with us with his Japanese girlfriends (panta rei, a few decades ago she would have rather died than be anywhere near him). he works for United Airlines is enjoying a day off before returning to Guam, US aviation and military hub in the region. We join a group of 4 elderly and very energetic American ladies. one asks where we live, and when I say London but not sure after Brexit she invites me to move to her native New York city.  

  

We can see small fish of all shapes and colors, a few baby reef sharks and lots of totally innocuous jelly fish, which do not sting as they have no predators in these protected waters. 

Dinner at the Yue Hai restaurant, owned by Cantonese family who moved here some two decades ago also run the hotel's jewelry shop all in the family, including some cousins who have come here for a few years to help and make some dollars. The restaurant is far more appealing and much better value than the jewellery store.

Beyond the Wall, my book on a Polish and Soviet adventure available on all Amazon sites.

My latest book:

Beyond the Wall:

Adventures of a Volkswagen Beetle

Beyond the Iron Curtain

has just been published and is available on all Amazon sites.

Description:

1980: the Cold War between capitalist West and socialist East is in full swing. Tensions are high but, at the academic level, some channels of useful exchange remain open. The author and two classmates would join one such program linking a leading American university and its counterpart in Poland. They drive to Warsaw in a bright yellow VW Beetle and, in addition to attending classes, travel far and wide within the country as well as to several of the neighbors in the socialist bloc where the Soviet Union called all the shots. They drive across the USSR and visit the Berlin Wall, the symbol of the division of Europe. Throughout, Marco takes detailed notes of what they see and hear.

Almost four decades later, the East-West division of Europe is gone. Marco recently found his diary and decided to publish an expanded version of it. His written notes from 1980 have been enriched with descriptions and analyses of historical events that will help the reader see his personal experience in a more significant cultural, social, political and economic context.

The author hopes this real life story will help younger generations, who did not live through the Cold War, better appreciate the blessing of living in a European continent that is immensely more open, rich and free than it was then.

Skiing in Cervinia and Zermatt

Sled-dog in Cervinia

National day in Guiyang

Today it's China national day, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. It is the beginning of one week of celebrations in the whole country.

We take a walk in the Culture Park. Lots of families, and quite a few children, many waving Chinese flags.

Chicken paws

We celebrate in the evening when we have dinner with family and friends. The main curiosity of the day is pig intestine, at least for me, they are used to it of course. Also, duck paws and melt-in-your-mouth breaded pork cutlets. To finish off the meat dishes, some frogs! Everything delicious!

Pig intestine

The men are drinking considerable amounts of distilled alcohol, 4 of them share a bottle. O. empties the bottle into their 4 glasses and then they make various toasts and challenges to each other until it's all gone! (It does not take very long!)

Drinking away

O. says he wants his son to marry a girl who has an older brother so he can protect her. But he wants his daughters to marry men with older sisters who would then help their younger brothers set up their families. It is a bit convoluted but his reasoning has its own logic from a traditional point of view. Good luck! These days Chinese kids find their partners online and I doubt the gender of their siblings is an important part of their decisions.

Massage and herbal bath

They opened a new massage parlor near home. It is the second branch of a company we tried last year. They offer a broad series of treatments, they sell beauty products and they complement it all with a herbal bath in a hot water tub.

It is located on 12th floor of an apartment building that includes lots of modern shops and, at the ground floor, one of the biggest supermarkets in town.

I am surprised to see this kind of service in a town at Guiyang's stage of development. Is it a sign of gentrification in the area?

The masseuses are all ladies, no masseurs. There are several rooms, each with one or two massage beds and, in an en-suite bathroom, a wooden tub. The tub is lined with a thin transparent film and filled with hot water. A bag of herbs is sunk into the water an hour or so before the treatment so as to diffuse its scent through the water and the whole bathroom.

Before the treatment they offer tea. The masseuses are mostly little skinny girls but they are very strong. They massage especially hard massage at the base of my skull, which is a bit painful but I can feel the muscles and joints enjoying it.

At the end I feel great my joints are smooth, my muscles relaxed and a big red area on my back, along my upper back, demonstrates the energy the little girl has put in her hands as they pressed and slid along my spine.

More tea is provided at the end of a blissful hour and a half of treatment.

As I leave my masseuse and two others escort me to the elevator, I thanked them and asked if they were hungry for lunch now and they nodded in unison, and wave goodbye.

The subscription for this parlor is 3988 Rmb for 20 treatments no expiration date. It is not cheap, actually very expensive for local salaries (about two months' wages of a waiter) but they are in business and expanding, and there are no tourists in the city, so the only explanation is that there is a growing middle class who is eager to use this kind of services!

Grey day and wedding

Grey day at home working on the English edition of my Maldives book.

Mother in law and niece went to a wedding of some neighbors from Yan Jia village who are throwing a party in Chenzhou.

We had decided to go for lunch to a Korean restaurant in town, one of many new restaurants with foreign food which are open for business trying to attract the up and coming local middle class. Been there before, but would love to go again, look forward to some different kind of food. However, the clouds and especially the cold drizzle eventually act as a powerful deterrent and we decide to stay home.

Mother comes back with plastic bags full of of food, left overs from banquet: fruits sweets even a half kilo or so of delicious spicy prawns. It's the custom here: invitees to wedding receptions take home their share of leftovers. She said they took away the least compared to everyone else at the party. Some parents unabashedly tell their children to grab as much as possible as fast as possible!

Festival della Luna a tavola

La festa del "mezz'autunno" lunare. In pratica coincide, con date variabili di anno in anno, approssimativamente con l'equinozio d'autunno solare.

Dopo il capodanno cinese è la festa più sentita, più partecipata in famiglia, anche se non si vedono le migrazioni di massa bibliche del capodanno. Ci viene a trovare qualche parente, ci si scambia qualche invito con i vicini.

Gran pranzo a casa, tutto cucinato fresco: il giorno di mezz'autunno è proibito mangiare cibi cotti precedentemente. Niente minestre riscaldate!

Si pasteggia con l'alcol fatto da mio suocero facendo fermentare patate dolci. Colore ocra gialla, profumi di mele e pere cotte di media intensità, mediamente secco, ed equilibrato al palato, e di media lunghezza anche se non molto complesso.

Piccoli bicchierini per tutti, tranne ovviamente la nipotina e mia suocera che ultimamente non beve alcol, non ho ancora capito perché. Tocca a me, il genero, come uomo meno "senior" di versare a tutti. Poi brindo, con il Jian kang! (Alla salute!) di rito, facendo attenzione che il bordo del mio bicchiere tocchi il lato del bicchiere di mio suocero, quindi sotto il bordo del suo bicchiere, in segno di deferenza.

Se provo a bere un sorsetto senza brindare a mio suocero (mi capita, anche perché sono quasi sempre inevitabilmente tagliato fuori da ogni conversazione in dialetto hunanese) mia moglie mi redarguisce e devo subito rimediare. Idem se il bicchiere di mio suocero resta vuoto e io non lo rabbocco all'istante. Per gli altri commensali basta brindare una o due volte nel corso del pasto. Comunque mia moglie è paziente, non si scompone troppo e mi continua a rammentare di rabboccare.

Il "vino" di prugna è una novità, ma devo ammettere che con il cibo medio-piccante che preparano i suoceri si abbina alla meraviglia. La morbidezza del resto, me lo hanno insegnato all'AIS, anzi è stata addirittura una mia domanda all'esame da sommelier, è la migliore amica del piccante.

A pensarci bene è un po’ come tra due innamorati, lei morbida e delicata, lui piccante, leggermente aggressivo ma pronto ad arrendersi e farsi avvolgere dalla seduzione.

Solo alla fine, quando non si beve più alcol, l'ultimo brindisi è preceduto da un Gan bei! (pulisci il bicchiere!) che indica l'impegno a svuotare completamente il bicchiere, fino all'ultima goccia.

Chissà perché, una volta che tutti hanno fatto gan bei, si comincia ad aggiungere riso al vapore nei piatti. Non ho mai capito la ratio di questa consuetudine anche se ho chiesto ripetutamente. Forse, ma è solo una speculazione, quando una volta c'era poco da mangiare a tavola, prima si finivano i cibi nobili (carne, verdure) e poi, se si aveva ancora fame, si riempiva la pancia con il riso. Che comunque non era necessario finire, poteva aspettare nella pentola fino al giorno dopo. Forse un giorno scoprirò se è veramente così.

A fine pasto mio suocero tira fuori anche un distillato, sempre prodotto dalle patate dolci. Pungente all'attacco, ma con finale morbido, si sente quando scende in gola. Ne prendo un assaggio, dopo vari bicchierini del fermentato non vorrei trovarmi sotto al tavolo.

Ma nessuno si può alzare da tavola senza aver provato il liquore di prugna: semplicemente prugne affogate per qualche mese in alcol puro, al quale cedono il loro sapore. Un goccio e mi fermo, il gioco si sta facendo pericoloso!

Market n. 2 in Guiyang and mid-autumn proparations

Morning to buy food for the mid-autumn day celebrations at Market n.2, just a kilometer or so from home.

On the way I cross paths with a lady who is carrying a balancing basket. She is collecting paper and plastic bottles to sell back to commercial recycling companies, apparently a common activity here.

Lots of sellers of ducks line up the streets today, it is the traditional moon festival meal. All the ducks, of course, are sold alive and kicking in their reed baskets.

One lady buys a duck but she does not trust the seller's scale, so she grabs her animal  and asks the next seller down the sidewalk to weigh it, not sure how it turned out but she bought the duck, 30 Rmb, about 4 euro.

The market is very busy, meat fish (always alive in water tanks) veggies of all kinds. Large quarters of cows are hanging from the roof of the covered market, and the butcher slices off any cut and size his clients require. On one side, a man with a grinder produces the typical spicy chili paste that is so common in Hunan cuisine.

As I snap away a policeman approaches me and Lifang and explains he doesn't want me to take pictures of his police car, which I haven't done and have no interest in doing anyway.

 A little girl drinks fresh juice out of a plastic cup then throws cup on ground, I pick it up and try to show her to hold on to it until she can put it in a bin but her mother takes it from her and shows her how to throw it... on the ground! I give up.

At home mother in law has bought a duck, which is swiftly slaughtered in the bathroom, fairly quickly and effortlessly. The blood flowing from the neck is collected to make bean curd and then used in a soup. It's very delicious!