Tales from Guam, Part I
Greetings, I have returned from Guam! (Yes, Guam.) And get this: I actually managed to keep some semblance of a diary while I was there! Which means most of my blog entries for the trip are already written! Wooo! So, without further ado...
~~~
Backstory: Why Guam?
Guam is a popular vacation spot for the Japanese. That's how I first came to hear about it. I confess that I didn't know it was a US territory (or that a bunch of other Micronesian islands like Saipan and Rota are commonwealths, apparently). Hell, I didn't even really know where it was. But after hearing about it from a few Japanese friends, I became mildly curious, and subsequently logged Guam away into that I'll-go-there-someday-if-the-opportunity-should-happen-to-arise category in the back of my brain. After all, between Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Japan, I already knew that I like islands. A lot.
Then came my first semester at Ritsumeikan, at the end of which, I felt the overwhelming need to "get away [from it all]," as it were. So I started looking up places to go. Guam was, strangely, the first place I thought of, though it did get outvoted pretty quickly by more exotic and inspiring options, such as Australia and Peru. For about a month, I went 'round and 'round a spinning wheel of destinations (mainly Peru), until most of them just turned out to be too damn expensive.
Then January 11th rolled around.
A year ago (January 2009, that is), I had plans to go and visit Dad down in Key West. Without getting into the messy details of how THAT trip went wrong, I missed the plane and ended up with a voucher for a very expensive plane ticket on Continental Airlines, restricted to something on the order of $700, non-transferrable (meaning I had to be the one using it), good for 1 year.
Throughout this last December/January season, I remembered and forgot about the thing at least a dozen times. For a while, I was holding out for my friends to decide if they wanted to go to Taiwan for Chinese New Year in February, but then January 11th rolled around...and I realized my 1-year deadline was down to only a few hours.
So it was that I spent hours, HOURS trying to find a flight (ANY. FLIGHT.) out of the Kansai area for anything around $700 on Continental. And guess what? There is exactly ONE PLACE that you can go with that kind of money on that airline out of Osaka.
Guam.
(After all the fees they tacked on, of course, it turned out costing me about $250 anyway.)
Arrival, 02/14/10:
Guam is to America what Korea is to Japan. For those of you (I'm guessing all of you) who don't remember/didn't read my Korea stories from all those years ago, by that I mean: Guam is weird.
The island is like a strange, confuddled mix of 2 (well...3 or 4, really) cultures and lifestyles. There are American stores everywhere, but you walk through them hearing the staff speak Chamorro and the cashiers speak Japanese. All the meals are American sized, but most of the people who eat them are Japanese tourists coming from a long day of visiting old Spanish ruins. I've never been asked so many times in my LIFE (esp. after mentioning that I live in Japan) if I'm in the military. Nor have I ever gotten so many weird looks at restaurants by asking for a table for 1. (People...still travel alone, on occasion, right? I'm not the only one who does that, am I?)
Having said that, I guess it was a little weird setting out on this trip alone. I got myself packed and ready the night before, with my passport and trusty travel journal sitting on top of my luggage. I had the route to the airport planned out, the times of the trains, the prices of the tickets...all things I probably wouldn't have worried about as much if I'd been going with someone else. But there was something invigorating about getting up bright and early to head out and catch an 11am flight (from an airport that's almost 2 hours away). I suppose it has something to do with independence, and maybe something else to do with excitement about being free to do whatever you want when and if you get to where you're going.
For me, luckily, it was "when." Our plane took off at 11, set down on Guam at 3:30pm after 3 hours in the air.
My first impressions of the island were of it being a little run-down and even somewhat ignorant as to how to best accommodate its guests. Guam has some amazing tourism potential, but there were a lot of half-built or shabby buildings right next to the biggest resorts on the island. There were hardly any pamphlets or brochures around to advertise fun things to do. When I asked at the front desk about booking some marine activities (VERY BIG on Guam), I got, "most guests at the hotel utilize this shop adjacent to us" or "you can ask about that down the road." Made me glad to have done my research on what there was to see there ahead of time.
This is not to say that I didn't get some amazing service while on the island. In fact, it was the service that most impressed me during the trip. Over the course of a week, I received a complimentary pina colada (for a minor misunderstanding at a restaurant), a hotel escort to dinner (as an apology for recommending a tour that went horribly, horribly wrong), a free tour of the island (see reason for free escort), free bananas/coconuts/star fruit (from a chatty Chamorro gentleman and his retired Japanese chum), and free internet usage at the hotel (because the woman didn't think it was worth charging me when I used only 8 out of 10 minutes). Those free things all come with stories, of course, but I'll get to that. ;)
~~~
Backstory: Why Guam?
Guam is a popular vacation spot for the Japanese. That's how I first came to hear about it. I confess that I didn't know it was a US territory (or that a bunch of other Micronesian islands like Saipan and Rota are commonwealths, apparently). Hell, I didn't even really know where it was. But after hearing about it from a few Japanese friends, I became mildly curious, and subsequently logged Guam away into that I'll-go-there-someday-if-the-opportunity-should-happen-to-arise category in the back of my brain. After all, between Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Japan, I already knew that I like islands. A lot.
Then came my first semester at Ritsumeikan, at the end of which, I felt the overwhelming need to "get away [from it all]," as it were. So I started looking up places to go. Guam was, strangely, the first place I thought of, though it did get outvoted pretty quickly by more exotic and inspiring options, such as Australia and Peru. For about a month, I went 'round and 'round a spinning wheel of destinations (mainly Peru), until most of them just turned out to be too damn expensive.
Then January 11th rolled around.
A year ago (January 2009, that is), I had plans to go and visit Dad down in Key West. Without getting into the messy details of how THAT trip went wrong, I missed the plane and ended up with a voucher for a very expensive plane ticket on Continental Airlines, restricted to something on the order of $700, non-transferrable (meaning I had to be the one using it), good for 1 year.
Throughout this last December/January season, I remembered and forgot about the thing at least a dozen times. For a while, I was holding out for my friends to decide if they wanted to go to Taiwan for Chinese New Year in February, but then January 11th rolled around...and I realized my 1-year deadline was down to only a few hours.
So it was that I spent hours, HOURS trying to find a flight (ANY. FLIGHT.) out of the Kansai area for anything around $700 on Continental. And guess what? There is exactly ONE PLACE that you can go with that kind of money on that airline out of Osaka.
Guam.
(After all the fees they tacked on, of course, it turned out costing me about $250 anyway.)
Arrival, 02/14/10:
Guam is to America what Korea is to Japan. For those of you (I'm guessing all of you) who don't remember/didn't read my Korea stories from all those years ago, by that I mean: Guam is weird.
The island is like a strange, confuddled mix of 2 (well...3 or 4, really) cultures and lifestyles. There are American stores everywhere, but you walk through them hearing the staff speak Chamorro and the cashiers speak Japanese. All the meals are American sized, but most of the people who eat them are Japanese tourists coming from a long day of visiting old Spanish ruins. I've never been asked so many times in my LIFE (esp. after mentioning that I live in Japan) if I'm in the military. Nor have I ever gotten so many weird looks at restaurants by asking for a table for 1. (People...still travel alone, on occasion, right? I'm not the only one who does that, am I?)
Having said that, I guess it was a little weird setting out on this trip alone. I got myself packed and ready the night before, with my passport and trusty travel journal sitting on top of my luggage. I had the route to the airport planned out, the times of the trains, the prices of the tickets...all things I probably wouldn't have worried about as much if I'd been going with someone else. But there was something invigorating about getting up bright and early to head out and catch an 11am flight (from an airport that's almost 2 hours away). I suppose it has something to do with independence, and maybe something else to do with excitement about being free to do whatever you want when and if you get to where you're going.
For me, luckily, it was "when." Our plane took off at 11, set down on Guam at 3:30pm after 3 hours in the air.
My first impressions of the island were of it being a little run-down and even somewhat ignorant as to how to best accommodate its guests. Guam has some amazing tourism potential, but there were a lot of half-built or shabby buildings right next to the biggest resorts on the island. There were hardly any pamphlets or brochures around to advertise fun things to do. When I asked at the front desk about booking some marine activities (VERY BIG on Guam), I got, "most guests at the hotel utilize this shop adjacent to us" or "you can ask about that down the road." Made me glad to have done my research on what there was to see there ahead of time.
This is not to say that I didn't get some amazing service while on the island. In fact, it was the service that most impressed me during the trip. Over the course of a week, I received a complimentary pina colada (for a minor misunderstanding at a restaurant), a hotel escort to dinner (as an apology for recommending a tour that went horribly, horribly wrong), a free tour of the island (see reason for free escort), free bananas/coconuts/star fruit (from a chatty Chamorro gentleman and his retired Japanese chum), and free internet usage at the hotel (because the woman didn't think it was worth charging me when I used only 8 out of 10 minutes). Those free things all come with stories, of course, but I'll get to that. ;)