Displaced Beachbums

I probably could have done without spending two nights in Majuro. It’s a dirty, overpopulated, litter-ridden island. Litter is absolutely every where you look and there are plenty of stray dogs who seemed much worse off than the ones in either Pohnpei or Kosrae.

We saw the beautiful atoll of Arno as we flew over and tried to get out of the capital city for the day. Unfortunately, we attempted to take a boat over to Arno but, it was Tuesday,and one boat operator only went there on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. Another boat operator just said “the boat is broke.”

We ended up getting a tour of the copra (coconut) factory which was surprisingly interesting. Who knew there were so many uses for coconut even for fueling their trucks. They also ship coconut “meal” to Australia for their cows.

One of the most beautiful beaches on Majuro is “Laura beach”, which is located on the far end of the island. It was a 1 hour drive to Laura beach from our hotel and well worth the drive.

The highest point on the island is a whopping 20 feet: see photo below:

Am I glad we stayed-over for two nights? Yes! At least I got to meet a few locals and I can form my own opinion about the place.

It’s in need of a serious overhaul. All I kept thinking was the potential this place has, but it’s in such bad shape both politically and economically. One of the more serious problems is the population of the Marshall Islands is that over 50% of the people are under, yes, UNDER the age of 15.

I could see pockets of areas which were doing well but for the most part it was a sad place to visit. When we were waiting at the airport for the flight to Honolulu, all I could think of was “If this plane is delayed and we have to stay another night here, I think I’ll cry.” That’s how much I was ready to leave.

Kosrae is a lush, beautiful, and very remote island where the people are friendly. We felt welcomed and very safe. It’s a volcanic island with high peaks. The interior of the island is largely unpopulated and the locals are very religious ~ mostly Congregationalist. We spent a Sunday on the island which meant no drinking liqour and no activities. Lucky for us, we found a local tour guide who’s mormon and was willing to take us on a morning tour of the island, on an outrigger ride and a short snorkel.

If the Village hotel in Pohnpei was the most unique hotel we’d ever stayed at, then this tour was by far the strangest ever! Don’t get me wrong, the guide was very freindly and knew his stuff but…I wasn’t so sure about the sea worthiness of the outrigger:

Or our touring vehicle which had NO BRAKES. He used the handbrake when he needed to stop 😉 And seat belts? Forget about it! It did have a front windshield but a coconut had fallen on it and shattered the whole left side. Thankfully, it’s a right hand drive car so our driver could still see out. Pedestrians and dogs in Kosrae own the road ~ they barely put up with the cars. Dogs sleep in the middle of the road and make the cars go around them which, strangely, all cars do.

The GREEN tangerines in Kosrae are DELICIOUS! I’ve never seen them anywhere else and would love to import them to the states. They sell the tangerines in the Kosrae airport and we noticed all the pilots buying a bag on the stopover. They have to eat them all before they get to Hawaii, due to the quarantine, but I’m sure that’s not a problem. The other item we really enjoyed were the fresh Kosrae limes. They give key limes a real run for their money. No chance of scurvy for us on this trip! FG is holding a green tangerine in this photo:

After going out in the hand-carved outrigger, which turned out to be just fine, our guide cut down some coconuts for us…soooo yummy and refreshing. I put mine down for a minute and this little lizard decided to share it with me.

The local gas station on the island where the gas is $5.00 a gallon:

A little geography on the island: Kosrae is the easternmost island of the Federated States of Micronesia and it’s the only one without any outer islands. It’s about 42 square miles and is a third the size of Pohnpei. The highest point of the island is Mt. Finkol at 2064 feet.

A sure sign of the remoteness was the lack of goods in the stores. Not well stocked at all. On the Saturday that we were there a container ship came in and people were giddy with anticipation about their goods. All ships come through Guam so if there’s a storm or anything else affecting Guam’s port such as a typhoon or earthquake, then Kosrae suffers for it.

Once again, it made me think about how much I take for granted all the things at my fingertips!

The island-hopper from Guam to Honolulu follows this route: Guam-Chuuk-Pohnpei-Kosrae-Kwajalein-Majuro-Honolulu. We choose to get off on Pohnpei, Kosrae and Majuro. The flights go Guam to Honolulu on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. The reverse route goes on Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. You’re out of luck if you want to take a flight on Sundays 🙂 It truly is a milk run and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you plan to spend a few days on the islands. When you land, even if you’re not staying on the island, half the plane has to disembark so they can clean and inspect the plane. Time on the ground is about 45 minutes at each location.

After checking-in at the Pohnpei airport for our flight to Kosrae, we were advised there were mechanical problems (with the air conditioning) and the plane in Chuuk had to return to Guam. I wasn’t too sad because Continental gave us lunch vouchers for The Village Hotel restaurant and also a day room. Since it was going to be at least a 6 hour delay, we returned to the wonderful ambiance of the Village Resort, had lunch and a little nap. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

One of the things I love about traveling, besides seeing new sights and meeting local people, is talking with other travelers and hearing their stories. Once our flight was delayed, we had lunch with the Englishman who was on our tour boat the day before. What an interesting story: he had a very successful but grueling business in England for about 10 years and recently sold it. He used a portion of his proceeds to pay for a 5 month diving trip. He started in Eygpt and was going as far as Kosrae and had stopped at many places in-between. He’d already been to Chuuk and Yap when we met up with him in Pohnpei. He stayed at the same hotel with us in Kosrae so we had dinner with him there as well. It was fascinating to hear about his travels and which places he liked the best. Thailand was his favorite place.

Another interesting character we met was a mechanic for Continental. He flies on the plane through all the islands and gets off in Majuro. He refuels the plane at each of the island stops and is there for any mechanical issues. We ended up talking to him at dinner in Majuro and, again, an interesting story. He actually lives in the Philippines and takes a flight to Guam to start his workday. Now, that’s a lot of flying! He goes home for the long weekend (Thursday-Monday).

Three of the nicer hotels in Pohnpei and Kosrae are owned and operated by expats. Both Village Hotels (Pohnpei and Kosrae) are owned by Americans who found their way to the islands. The owners of the Kosrae Village have been there for 13 years and are super duper dive experts. Everything was tech diving, nitrox, etc. I’d be happy going down 20 feet!

The owners of the Kosrae Nautilus hotel are Australian and built their hotel 13 years ago as well. They left for eight years and their partner ran it until their return 2 years ago. Again, they are big on diving which is the thing to do in this part of the world.

Meeting all these wonderful “pioneer’ spirited people has FM and I really thinking and talking about what we want to do post-army.

I finally got a few photos loaded on Flickr but it took almost an hour so the rest will have to wait until we get to Hawaii. Here’s what I have so far:

At the Kepirohi Falls:

Relaxing at the Village Resort:

After a swim with the Manta Rays and sharks:

The Gazebo at the Village Resort: