PacTravel

Ancient terraces in Aemiliik State, a sign, archaeologists say, that a complex society once existed here. Photo: Scott Radway

Rain clouds in the distance, we descend on a snaking, volcanic-red path to a little-known site best described as Palau's Stonehenge. As we walk, Brian Dively, an American archeologist who has assisted on some of the major digs on the big island of Babeldaob, picks up a small, dirt-crusted slice of rock. "Pottery," he says. Perhaps thousands of years old.

By the time we reach the open field where the four-feet-high, black columns rise out of the scrawny undergrowth, shards of pottery are under our every footstep. Now in the know, the shards are as easy as to find as shells on the beach.

"This is one of those areas where it is hard to walk without walking on archaeology," Dively says.

It's invigorating running my fingers over a shard, considering the bustling village this site once was. Picking an ancient piece of daily life off the ground like that, inspecting it without all the polish and mustiness of a museum, history is close and alive. This is an object that can get your imagination skipping across eons of time.

The black stones called the Monoliths are so old oral tradition hardly sheds a sliver of light on just why they were quarried and dragged here. They go so far back they are most often ascribed to the Age of Gods. One story recounts how a prankster god fell behind in his work as the foundation for a meetinghouse was being built. To avoid discovery, he created a rooster from an ignited coconut husk. The rooster crowed and the first daylight came, sending all the gods home. The stones were left as they are found today. The gods never came back. The Monoliths are known locally as Badulrulchai.

There are four secluded, upscale cottages at the North Beach Cottage resort. Photo: Scott Radway

But this trip to Babeldaob is not about archeology, not really. The Monoliths and the ancient defensive terraces that form their backdrop are the far end of a little known travel experience in an island nation that is already well off the well-trodden travel itineraries. Palau is located 700 kilometers east of the Philippines and 1,300 kilometers southwest from Guam. Connecting flights through Manila, Guam, Taipei and Tokyo are the way to get here.

Few make the trip today but avid scuba divers and most don't visit Babeldaob Island, the second largest island in Micronesia and yet to be developed. Dotted with a few villages here and there, thousands of years of history scattered at your feet, and the vast remainder alternating between virgin jungle, monstrous mangroves and eye-squinting white, sandy beaches.

As we inspect the Monoliths, the rain hits hard, tropical island hard. We huddle under a pandanus tree. It quickly lightens and we climb back up the hill to find the grayness sliding north and to the south, a blue sky has opened. In the split of dark and light, the lagoon is utterly surreal. In two years a new 53-mile road will ring this serene island. It will still be beautiful here, but it will not be the same. Now is the time.

On the way back, we pass ancient stone carvings and stone platforms sitting in the backyards of island-style houses; we pass people sitting up in an open-air hut, talking at the day's end, and chewing a local nut wrapped in peppermint leaves called betel nut, their smiles red. A child races with our car, bare foot, as we cruise slowly through a village. Fifty feet, she is still in the lead. We declare her the winner.

I hold my hand out the window, running my fingers over it all.

The lagoon at low tide near North Beach Cottages. Photo: Scott Radway

We are staying with Shelly Kleca, a former Peace Corps volunteer who has come back to Palau to run the North Beach Cottages, the place to stay if you take the north road from Koror. She is known by her Palauan name Maisar, which she has carried since her Peace Corps days. Her small resort opened in November and caters to honeymooners, cultural tourists and locals who want to get away from the city of Koror, or who have to attend a cultural affair in a nearby village. She rents out four, upscale cottages with Californian king-size beds, air-conditioning and cozy decks-all tucked in blissful seclusion just where dense jungle meets a turquoise sea. She also rents individual rooms at lower prices for the more budget-conscious backpackers.

"It's not produced," Kleca says. "When you see someone weaving a basket it is not for show. People still walk up and down these roads with baskets on their heads." Most tourist experiences in the Pacific Islands are colored by affected hotel demonstrations. But here, on Babeldaob, people are just doing their chores.

Her cottages are about two hours from Koror, sometimes a little longer depending on the state of the mud and dirt road. The trip north though is really part of the richness: The beginnings of a paved, 53-mile road are the perfect frame for this kind of vacation. It gives the sensation of off-roading, but without the risk of getting into any serious kind of jam. The travel industry term is "soft adventure." Kleca puts it this way: "It's slightly outside of some people's comfort zone without being uncomfortable."

"I think it makes for great stories," she adds.

The Monoliths. Photo: Scott Radway

Her guests spend their days relaxing with a book under the breezy canopy of trees that fringe the beach, or with visiting places like the Monoliths and the terraces that crown every peak. Or they visit the tumbling, deafening Ngardmau waterfall and the stream where legend has it that an old woman turned young by magical waters and her granddaughter was so scared she had lost her grandmother that she stomped uncontrollably, leaving her footprints in the stone. Visitors can snorkel too, in coral gardens busy with colorful, darting fish. Or guests can kayak in light surf, watch pods of dolphins, even swim with them, if lucky enough. And some guests just ask to be dropped off in a village, to take a quick journey back in time.

Kleca has many inquiries from people around the world, people who want to spend their entire vacation at the cottages. She deters them. Even though she would benefit from longer stays, Kleca wants people to truly experience Palau and that means visiting the renowned Rock Islands. Take a few days, take in Rock Islands, Blue Corner, Jellyfish Lake, do some shopping, eat at a few restaurants; visit a museum, she says. Then make the trip north.

Up north, out of Koror, visitors can get a real glimpse of what locals call "the old Palau." You see it in the villages that sprout here and there. No billboards, no shopping centers, no streetlights, nothing but relaxation, the bone-deep kind.

Back to the Cottages that evening, there is fresh steamed fish in a spicy ginger coconut sauce. Kleca's rule is that 60 percent of what she serves has to be local. That means lots of seafood.

Later there is wine by the beach as the sky explodes in glowing pastels. Then a profusion of stars comes, more vivid and clear than you have ever seen, like glittering pinholes in the floor of heaven.

For more information, visit www.northbeachcottages.com.