This is civilisation at its most western, and was a version of America where I didn’t expect to find it. It was easy to be a bit cynical about Guam, but this didn’t mean that Guam was devoid of any interest.Americanisation had imported lots of modern conveniences, and it was all the more less authentic an experience than I hoped for, because I could have been at any beachside resort from Coolangatta to Waikiki. It also reminded me in many ways of Okinawa. Especially in urbanised areas, I didn’t sense any overt uniqueness. I’m sure it’s under the surface there somewhere, but I didn’t have long enough to find it.

However, the main tourist centre on Guam has a good beach – Tumon Bay. The swimming there is great – the water is calm and clear. The only drawback – the commercialisation alongside.

It seemed that there is Old Guam – the legacy of Spanish colonialism. Then there is the New Guam – with modern trappings.  I hired a car, braved American 4-way stop signs (what is it with those?? who goes first???) in a left-hand drive, and drove around the south of the island. I liked rural Guam, where for the most part tourists don’t seem to go, and the resorts are left behind.

There are coconut palms everywhere, jungle waterfalls, swimming holes, a lagoon, rugged mountains, and Nan Madol ancient Micronesian ruins. There are no beaches on the main island – just mangroves down to the water – but the islands in the outer lagoon have excellent beaches, although I didn’t have the time to visit them.

The main town, Kolonia, is like a frontier town. When I visited, Pohnpei didn’t really have much of a developed tourist industry. The only real souvenirs are local coconut products: coconut soap, coconut shampoo, coconut milk, etc. And, Pohnpeian pepper was said to be the world’s best.

I found some great food. I ate superb Japanese food, including a mangrove crab. The sashimi was great – Pohnpei is in a major tuna fishing area.

I found Pohnpei to be remote, non-commercialised, friendly and very beautiful. If only I could have stayed longer…

Thanks to Yalmer Helgenberger at the Pacific Skylite Hotel for making my stay lots of fun, including the sakau.

]]> http://www.micronesianodyssey99.com/pohnpei/fm/feed 0 http://www.micronesianodyssey99.com/nauru/nr?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nr http://www.micronesianodyssey99.com/nauru/nr#comments Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:20:55 +0000 David http://www.micronesianodyssey99.com/?page_id=56 My day on Nauru, the world’s smallest republic, began at 5:45am. It finished at 6:25pm the same day.

There’s not much on Nauru. By area, it’s the second smallest country in the world. I had a tour of the island, which only took 2 hours. My comprehensive tour of the entire country was only AUD$25. The circumference of Nauru is only about 20km.

The centre of the island was in total desolation, and looked like an ecological nightmare. After all the phosphate has been mined out, there is not much of Nauru left. The golf course had no grass, the airport runway runs alongside the Parliament and government offices and the national bird, frigate birds, are kept in nets to make sure they don’t fly away.

I visited Nauru well before the infamy of the Tampa, refugees and detention centres arose. It seems that now the detention centre has closed, Nauru is having some real troubles that go to the core of its survival. Some sort of rehabilitation of the island is reportedly planned, but have a look at the photos and see how easy you think that might be. What does the future have in store for this tiny Pacific country?

Rota is home to only about 2500 people.  It is the only place I have been to where ALL other drivers wave to you as I drove past.  I only stayed in Rota overnight, but I wish that I had been able to stay a little longer, and enjoy relaxing there a bit more.

There is fantastic snorkelling, World War Two relics, great coastal and jungle scenery, and ancient monuments and artefacts.

These are latte stones. The ancient Chamorro people built these for an unknown purpose. It is likely that they were used as foundation stones for structures – the higher the stone, the more important the owner. But, nobody really knows. One of the mysteries of the world. These have since been moved from their original sites and lined up here as a gateway. Latte stones are the symbol of the Mariana Islands.

Did you know that if you fall in between those pinnacles, nobody will ever be able to find you? (That’s one of those urban myths that spreads around the place, but it might be even true).

Have a look at these images and decide what you think about the Nauruan environment.

Sakau is the same as what is called kava in other Pacific islands.  It is made from the root of a pepper shrub – ground and mixed with water.  It is a mild narcotic, but legal in FSM.

It tastes like a mud milkshake – and it makes your tongue and mouth feel tingly and a bit numb.  If you have too much, you lose control of your motor functions, even though your mind seems to work just fine.  It is a sedative.

According to people I spoke to, sakau was enjoying somewhat of a resurgence on Pohnpei in recent years.  All the locals drink it.  Driving around the island at night was said to be fraught with danger – there are cars meandering all over the road at only 10 to 15 miles per hour!  This is presumably the result of too much sakau!
Yalmer, the guy who owned my hotel, took me out to drink sakau one night, his wife tagging along.  We drove up the road and bought a few bottles from a local who makes the stuff, then headed on down to the causeway near the harbour.  This is apparently a popular sakau drinking venue.  We sat in the back of Yalmer’s van, looking out at the stars and the water, drinking the night away.  After a while, I didn’t notice the taste so much (it does taste like mud).  We got through a bottle each, and I could (mostly) manage to walk OK.

No hangover the next morning – but for a beginner, it didn’t agree with my system.  Probably local water and not the sakau itself.  Didn’t stop me from going back for seconds a few nights later.  That time, we teamed up with Captain Smitty, a local ex-pat, and got some sakau to takeaway, down at the local bar out in the mangroves.

Nan Madol is a man-made complex of small islands off the eastern Pohnpei coast.  It was built hundreds of years ago from basalt “logs”, although how they came to be brought there, and how it was all put together are still shrouded in mystery.  They were inhabited by an ancient society, including the Pohnpeian kings, who ruled from the now sole remaining intact island in the complex, Nan Douwas.

It is amazing that such a significant and awesome place can exist and not be frequented more often.  Its remoteness gives it a special quality that doesn’t exist at other countries’ premier tourist attractions – there are no queues, no ticket gates, no commercialisation.  There are almost no people there at all.