Overview:
My tour of Kiribati was the first of two Pacific Island
Nations I scheduled with Advantage Travel & Tours, Poway, California to
complete my visits to all the countries in the UN. The trip was a set tour by Advantage Travel;
they called South Pacific Islands Explorer.
I was traveling with Lynn Bishop, Mary Warren and Bob Ihsen whom I have
taken many trips with in the past. In
January 2014 Bob and I roomed together on my Sub Anarchic Expedition, Cocos
(Keeling) Island, Christmas Island and Vanuatu trip. I just traveled with Lynn and Mary in April
2014 on my Sri Lanka, Maldives Islands, India and Bangladesh trip.
Kiribati was the 192 of 193 UN member countries for me to
visit.
Monday, June, 09, 2014: Fly LAX to Honolulu, Hawaii
My flight to Honolulu was scheduled for 13:00 so I was able
to get a normal night’s sleep and eat breakfast with Judy. My car service arrived a few minutes before
10:00. It was the first time I had
ridden with the driver. He described
himself as an Armenian Persian who left Tehran, Iran when the Shah left and
grew up in the US. As we approached the
connection between the 101 to the 405 the traffic stopped so he turned off at
Haskell Avenue and drove Sepulveda Boulevard to Sunset Boulevard before he
entered the 405. It was an interesting
trip down memory lane since I used to drive that route when I worked in Culver
City in the early 1990’s and had rarely driven the route since then. It took us forty five minutes to reach the
airport.
Check in and Security processing was a breeze. The scheduled gate was next to the United
Lounge and I waited in the lounge until noon.
They boarded the plane at 12:15 and I settled in my seat with a woman
and her daughter sitting next to me.
They lived on the big island and were returning from a visit to their
former home in Boston. The plane was a
former Continental B-757-300 with Direct TV which meant that I would have to
pay $7.99 to watch TV, a movie or even listen to music. I can’t tell you how much I dislike that
configuration.
As the departure time of 13:00 approached the Second Officer
announced that the departure would be delayed because the Captain was flying in
to LAX and his plane was delayed. I sat
there watching CNN with no sound, just reading the captions streaming by on the
bottom of the screen. When the pilot had
still not arrived at 13:30 a Flight Attendant announced that the Direct TV fee
would be waived for the flight. We still
had to swipe a credit card to activate the service but they would cancel the
charges when we landed in Hawaii.
I tried to activate my screen to no avail I used every
credit card in my wallet and one a flight attendant had. The unit would not read a card so I switched
to reading. I had not caught up on
reading my Time magazines and Sports Illustrated from my April
trip and had brought them along.
The Captain finally arrived at 14:00 and announced that in
addition to his late connecting flight the flight plan for our flight had not
been filed correctly and he had to spend time getting that straightened
out. I had just read that morning an
article in the Wall Street Journal about how United was still having problems
integrating the old United and Continental systems and crews. I could see why they were ranked near the
bottom in customer satisfaction.
After we finally took off at 14:30 they served lunch which
was not free. The flight attendant that
had tried to get my TV to work gave me a free lunch and beer.
One of the features on the United Hawaii flights was the
“Halfway to Hawaii Game”. Passengers are
asked to determine the exact time the flight would reach the geographical
midpoint using flight plan information provided by the flight crew. I decided to play the game. After takeoff the Second Officer announced
that the distance in the flight plan was 2,299nm with airspeed of 468kts and a
headwind of 29kts. We had taken off at
14:31 and they wanted the answer in Hawaii local time. I estimated the halfway time to be 14:07 and
the actual time ended up as 14:04:35. I
was announced as the winner of the Lonely Planet guide to Hawaii. It was fun to think I still remember how to
do basic dead reckoning navigation. As a
former winner of Navigation Competitions in the USAF I would have been
embarrassed if I hadn’t won.
We landed exactly an hour late which played havoc with my
seat mates and others connecting to flights to the other islands. United dropped the ball on our arrival by not
announcing our luggage area. I wandered
around the terminal with a group from our flight before we found someone to
direct us to the United baggage claim area.
Once I found the correct carousel my bag was one of the first off and I
proceeded to call my hotel and get the instructions on where to meet their
shuttle bus.
I checked into the Airport Honolulu Hotel, unpacked and
decided to visit the Navy Exchange about a mile away. The taxi cost me $10 for the short
distance. The items I was hoping to
purchase were not available at the Navy Exchange and it was too late in the day
to take a taxi to the USAF exchange, so I walked over to a strip mall near the
exchange and visited the Verizon store to get help in the Global features of my
new Samsung Galaxy 5 smart phone. After
they found that Kiribati and most of the other locations I was going to visit
on the trip would not have cell coverage I elected to not purchase the Global
Data Plan.
When I left the Verizon store I stopped in the Subway next
door, ate a tuna sandwich and decided to walk back to the hotel. I watched the Interview of Hillary Clinton by
Diane Sawyer, and wrote in my journal and waited for my roommate on this trip,
Bob Ihsen, to arrive. I went to bed at
22:00 and was asleep when Bob finally arrived a little before mid-night. His flight, also on United, was delayed four
hours because of maintenance problems.
Tuesday, June, 10, 2014: Fly Honolulu, Hawaii to Christmas
Island, Kiribati
I awoke from a sound sleep to my alarm at 06:00. I showered and let Bob sleep a little
longer. We went to breakfast at
07:00. We ate with Lynn and Mary and
returned to the room at 08:00 to finish packing. At 08:30 we took the shuttle bus to the
airport. We were a little early because
Fiji Airways did not start checking in passengers until 09:00. Due to last minute schedule changes by Fiji
Airways I had lost my assigned seats but was able to get an exit row aisle seat
all the way to Nadi. Originally I was
scheduled to change seats at Christmas Island so I felt pretty good about the
new assignment. My bag weighted over the
50lb. limit so I removed my snorkeling gear which was in a carry-on bag anyway
and hit the limit.
At the Security check point I passed through a full body
scanner but I had neglected to remove a large container of sunscreen lotion
from my snorkeling gear and it was confiscated by the TSA Agent. The assigned gate for my flight was a very
long walk from the Security check point and as I took the walk I was surprised
that none of the airport shops sold suntan lotion. When I reached the gate I called Judy and
Cathy. Cathy was having problems with
the computer that access the airline network and gave me instructions on what
we should do if she can’t complete the re-issue of all our tickets.
We boarded the aircraft on time and departed for Christmas
Island, Kiribati. My exit row seat
didn’t turn out as good as I expected. I
had a very heavy man sitting next to me wearing a tank top and had a little
underarm order at my nose level. I could
not store my day pack under the seat in front of me and I asked the flight
attendant if I could move to a row where I could stow the day pack with all my
reading material in it under a seat. She
stowed the day pack under the seat in a vacant row several rows in front of my
seat and after takeoff I moved to that row for the duration of the flight to
Christmas Island.
The movie they showed was the Lego movie so I skipped it and
read my Time magazines. They served a
meal which had no meat in it and free drinks during the three hour flight.
Wednesday, June, 11, 2014: Fly Christmas Island, Kiribati to
Nadi, Fiji
It was the same time but Wednesday when we landed at
Christmas Island. I couldn’t find a way
to set my watch so I kept it on Honolulu time.
My camera was even more confused.
After we landed, the passengers flying on to Nadi were told
to stay on the aircraft but Bob Ihsen talked the flight crew into letting the
four of us get off and take pictures of the terminal. It marked country number 192 for me of the
193 UN countries.
When we departed Christmas Island I had to return to my exit
row seat but this time the heavy set man had switched places with his wife and
was sitting by the window so he could take pictures of the island on climb
out. They were a couple from Sidney that
had visited friends in Honolulu and we had a pleasant conversation about
travel, especially around Australia.
The movie was not worth watching and I was able to read some
more magazines. It was almost a five
hour flight and it was full of workers from Korea and Ecuador that work on the
fishing boats in Christmas Island.
When we landed in Nadi we encountered a very long line at
Immigration. A wide body flight must
have arrived just before our flight. Eventually
we got though at the same time our bags were coming on the carousel. My bag arrived just as I wheeled a trolley up
to the belt. I exited Customs and asked
where to get the hotel shuttle bus and then waited for the others and led them
to the pickup point. The hotel was a
short drive away, actually just across the road from the airport entrance. Bob and I were assigned a two room
suite. I took the room that had an
outlet where I thought I could use an extension cord to plug in my power strip
for my CPAP machine and cell phone.
After dumping our bags we went down to the restaurant and
ate a salad. Lynn and Mary skipped the
meal. I discovered that Wi-Fi was not
free and I purchased an hour. It was too
late to call Judy so I planned on using the hour in the morning to call her and
receive email.
When we returned to the room I attempted to hook up my CPAP
machine. My adapter for the Australian
style electrical outlet kept falling out of the outlet. I tried taping it up but it eventually would
drop down enough to lose the connection.
I was getting frustrated so I went down to the front desk to see if they
had an adaptor. The desk clerk couldn’t
find one but gave me an extension cord.
I returned to my room only to find that the end of the extension cord
was recessed so I couldn’t plug my adapter in.
I returned to the desk and gave them back the extension cord and they
told me they has found an adapter and gave me that. Using an adapter I still couldn’t maintain a
connection and determined it was a faulty outlet. I returned to the front desk and got the
extension cord back and with the extension cord I carry and their adapter
plugged in to the coffee machine outlet in Bob’s room.
I finally retired about 23:00.
Thursday, June, 12, 2014: Fly Nadi, Fiji to Tarawa,
Kiribati
I had set my alarm for 04:00 with intention of using my one
hour of internet time before we had to go to the airport at 06:00. I woke at 03:55 and turned off the alarm so
as not to wake Bob. I showered and
packed and connected to the Wi-Fi at 04:30 only to find the band width would
not support Vonage calls.
I wasted so much time trying to connect on Vonage that I
didn’t have enough time when I switched to my laptop to send a message. I wrote one to Judy and received a message on
the screen that my connection had timed out.
A porter came to take our bags down to the reception and I finished up
on my laptop and went down. The gang had
already boarded the van before 06:00 so I quickly put my carry on in the back
when Lynn discovered he had left a bag in his room. When he went back to get his bag the front
desk came out to inform me I hadn’t paid for my internet service. We resolved both issues and were soon on our
way to the airport.
When I checked it I asked to see a manager to obtain a
voucher for our Sunday night stay in Tarawa due to their moving our Sunday
flight to Monday. He told me to obtain
the voucher from the Tarawa Station Agent.
We still had a voucher for breakfast at the hotel so as soon as we
checked in we returned to the curb to find the hotel shuttle bus arriving with
another load of passengers. We jumped in
and returned to the hotel for breakfast and then caught the 07:00 shuttle back
to the airport.
At Security they objected to my having a can of insect
repellant outside a sealed bag. I had a
bag of toilet paper and wipes in a plastic bag in my day bag and stuffed it in
there to make them happy. The silly
rules imposed on us since 911 really annoy me.
That reminded me to purchase some sun screen. I couldn’t believe that in neither the
Honolulu nor Nadi Airport no shop sold sunscreen. After visiting all the stops I wandered to
the gate just as they decided to call the flight so I was the first one on
board and discovered it was the same aircraft we had flown on the day before.
We didn’t depart on time because flights to Tarawa required
a certified mechanic on board and the one assigned to our flight was late
getting to the aircraft. A fact I found
unbelievable. It was not like he had to
fly in from another location since Nadi was the headquarters for the
airline. Anyway we took off thirty
minutes late. I was asleep when we took
off and didn’t wake until they served a meal an hour after takeoff. After the meal I attempted to read but fell
asleep again. My naps made the three
hour flight appear short.
We arrived in Tarawa at 11:30 and found only two Immigration
Officers processing our flight. It took
a while to have my passport stamped but then I had a very long wait for my bag
to arrive. The others in the group were
waiting in a non-air conditioned bus while I waited for my bag to arrive on the
last cart from the aircraft. They were
six customs agents and they were being very thorough checking bags for
foodstuffs. I had indicated I had some
snack bars in my bag but they passed me without opening the bag.
The road to the hotel was full of pot holes and caused us to
drive slow and bounce around. It took
about thirty minutes to reach the Otintaai Hotel. It was not what I expected. The entrance road had rather nice two story
structures facing the water but the reception office was in a small building
across the road from the rooms. I
discovered later that the building between the buildings with the rooms was
being remodeled and that was where the reception used to be. Behind the old reception area was the
restaurant.
Our assigned room had a double and single bed. An outlet was next to the head of the single
bed so I took that and let Bob have the double bed. There was one desk and a small table. I had the maid bring us another small table
that I set between the two beds to hold my CPAP machine. After we arranged the room and did some
unpacking Bob and I went to lunch. We
ordered fish and chips and while waiting I retrieved my Lonely Planet guide and
we read about the island.
The
description of our hotel recommended the fish and chips. They were good! It also mentioned that we should not swim in
the area because of sewage runoff.
Diving and snorkeling was reserved for an area you have to take a boat to
get too. Another caution was not to
drink the water.
The
islands are mostly 33 scattered coral atolls with a population of 104,488. The history of Kiribati (pronounced
Ki-ri-bas) dates back to the string of islands known as the Gilbert Islands and
became a British protectorate in 1892 with Tarawa as the capital. In 1900 high grade phosphate was discovered
on Banada then named Ocean Island and it was added to the protectorate and made
the administrative capital in 1908. The
phosphate mining provided a great source of revenue to the protectorate. In 1915 they were granted colony status. And
in 1919 the Christmas Islands and the rest of the Line Islands were joined to
the colony. The Phoenix Islands were
added in1937.
In
December 1941 the Japanese bombed Banada and Tarawa, captured Butaritari, Makin
and Tarawa, the three most northern islands.
The Japanese built an airfield on Betio, Tarawa and a seaplane base on
Butaritari. They held a strategic
position to attack US supply ships sailing from Hawaii to Australia, the
Solomon and Vanuatu Islands.
In
November 1943 the US Marines attacked the airfield on Betio, Tarawa using
amphibious tractors (Amtracs) to storm the beach in a bloody battle that cost
the lives of over 1,000 marines (about one fifth of the landing force) but
resulted in a US victory.
After
the war the administrative capital was moved back to Tarawa and the Gilbert
Islands were granted self-rule by the UK in 1971 and complete independence in
1979 under the new name of Kiribati. The
US relinquished all claims to the sparsely inhabited Phoenix and Line Island
groups in a 1979 treaty of friendship with Kiribati.
Commercially
viable phosphate deposits were exhausted at the time of independence from the
UK in 1979. Copra and fish now represent
the bulk of production and exports. The
economy has fluctuated widely in recent years. Economic development is
constrained by a shortage of skilled workers, weak infrastructure, and
remoteness from international markets.
Tourism provides more than one-fifth of GDP. Private sector initiatives and a financial
sector are in the early stages of development.
Foreign financial aid from the EU, UK, US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, UN agencies, and Taiwan accounts for 20-25% of GDP. Remittances from seamen on merchant ships
abroad account for more than $5 million each year. Kiribati receives around $15 million annually
for the government budget from an Australian trust fund.
After lunch we tried to contact Molly Brown, our local guide
recommended in the Lonely Planet, to let her know we had arrived and schedule a
time for our tour the next day. The
number we were given had been disconnected.
It was the same number that was in the Lonely Planet guide. Fortunately the reception clerk knew the guide’s
daughter and told us she would contact her for a correct number. We then had the clerk contact Fiji Airways to
get the Sunday night voucher. They told
her we would have to pay for the room and get reimbursed when we returned to
Nadi. I found that unacceptable since we
were only in Nadi for two hours and in transit to Suva which meant changing
terminals from International to Domestic and would not have time to find
someone at Fiji Airways to pay us. I
tried to call Cathy and could get through to her but she couldn’t hear me. I also tried to call Judy and couldn’t get a
good connection. It was going to be a
frustrating four days with spotty Wi-Fi connection.
The receptionist told me the Fiji Airways office was just a
short walk from the hotel so I decided to talk to the manager face to face and
get him to resolve the payment with corporate.
The clerk told me the Fiji Airways office was across from the gas
station.
I took off walking and didn’t see a Fiji Airways sign or a
gas station for quite a distance. A car
stopped and asked if I needed a ride.
When I told him where I was headed he told me I had passed it so I
reversed direction and again didn’t see any sign. As I got close to the hotel entrance I
stopped to ask a man if he could direct me to Fiji Airways and he pointed to
across from where we were standing to a Travel Agency and Café. There was a large pile of sand and a
collapsed concrete structure behind it that was once a gas station. He said the Fiji Airways office was in the
new building next door behind a chain link fence. I walked into a nice office and Café and
asked for the Fiji Manager. They had me
sit down and after a while a woman came up and told me they didn’t work for
Fiji Airways, they were just their local agent.
They would try to contact the Station Agent and get back to me. I thanked them and as I left I noticed they
advertised Wi-Fi for $5 per thirty minutes.
When I returned to the hotel the receptionist told me she
had gotten in contact with our local guide.
We and the Lonely Planet had an outdated number. She planned on meeting us at 17:00 to go over
the next two day’s schedule. I reported
that to Lynn and Bob and then went to the bar to purchase a bottle of
water. I also had a refreshing cold
beer. No one else was around. The hotel looks as though it was pretty nice
but had fallen into hard times. Many of
the tiles on the floor of the bar which was a very large area were missing like
the area was once under water. In back
of the building are rooms were in there was a row of picnic tables with a shade
structure. They were all tipped on their
side. A high chain link fence ran along
the edge to the water.
Back in my room the maid knocked on our door to inform us
that our local guide had delayed her visit to 19:00. I wrote some in my journal and attempted to
connect to the Wi-Fi with spotty success.
At 18:00 I went to the reception area to try to connect to the internet
with a stronger signal. I was able to
receive some emails and apparently Cathy had heard some of my conversation when
I had connected on Vonage and heard we were having trouble reaching the local
guide so she contacted the guide by phone and email.
I was still trying to process email and attempting to
contact Judy on Vonage when Bob arrived a few minutes before 19:00. Shortly after he arrived the receptionist
told us we had a phone call from Molly.
She was suffering from the ‘trots’ she speculated that was caused by dust
kicked up by road construction in her area.
She apologized and told him she would not be able to meet with us until
the morning.
We informed Lynn and Mary and went to dinner. I had fried fish and a baked potato. After dinner I returned to the room and
retired early.
Friday, June, 13, 2014: Tour Tarawa, Kiribati
I awoke a few minutes before 06:00 when my alarm was set to
ring so I turned it off and took a cold shower.
The Wi-Fi was spotty but I was able to get some emails and received a
disturbing email that my son-in-law Robert had been attacked while jogging in a
park along the river in Sacramento and had received a gash in his right arm
that was so severe he lost the ability to move his fingers. I jumped up from the breakfast table, we had
ordered our food but it hadn’t been served, and ran over to the Reception
Office to see if I could connect on a call.
I was able to contact with my daughter Wendy but she didn’t have much
more to report other than he was being operated on in the hospital.
It took forty minutes to serve our breakfast so I was back
at the table before the food arrived. I
had a fried egg, bacon, sausage, three pieces of toast and a slice of
papaya. I made a sandwich out of two
pieces of toast, the egg and the bacon.
It was tasty.
Molly arrived just after eight. She handed us a schedule for the next two days. We gathered our raincoats, hats, sunglasses
and cameras and departed at 08:30 in her Toyota Harrier station wagon. Leaving the hotel gate we turned right to
head west to the village of Betio at the very end of a chain of small islands
connected by roads and causeways. The
islands were not very wide (north to south) and we could often see both the
lagoon to the north and the ocean to the south at the same time. The road was terrible. Molly explained that Wednesday night a rare
violent thunder storm hit the islands and left large puddles of water and
downed trees. The puddles further
enlarged the pot holes in the road. On
the lagoon side the sand came right up to the roadway in many places. It was very picturesque with the blue lagoon,
palm trees and white sand. But the
thatched covered huts sometimes added to the picture but the bumpy road and
many rusty wrecked vehicles pulled me back to reality.
We passed the Parliament Building which was scheduled on the
next day and after a forty minute drive stopped at the Catholic OLSH Convent in
Bairiki, the last island before Betio.
The side road to the convent had several trees and broken limbs
down. At the convent Molly scheduled a
time for us to meet Sister Margaret Sullivan keeper of the World War II archives
and an authority on the history of the Gilbert Islands and the USMC ‘Operation
Galvanic’ that rid the islands of the Japanese.
After Molly scheduled our visit we stopped at the ANZ Bank
in Bairiki to change money. I did the
exchange for the group and it was an interesting process. Only one teller in the bank handled Foreign
Exchange and she also processed withdrawals.
There were four rows of three chairs in front of her window and I was
instructed to sit in the first unoccupied chair. Every time someone was waited on we got up
and moved to the next chair. Eventually
I got the money and we continued on to Betio.
We had to pay a toll to cross the causeway into Betio. On the south side of the causeway we saw
several concert Japanese bunkers and large guns. Over two hours after leaving the hotel we
reached the Betio War Memorial erected by the Australians on the 60th
anniversary of the Japanese killing a group of Coast Watchers and local
foreigners in October 1942. The people
were killed in retaliation to the US bombing the island.
We walked around the area which was designated Black beach
in ‘Operation Galvanic’. There were
still a lot of rusty war relics, metal pillboxes, square concert bunkers and
ammunition storage bunkers with dome tops, and guns pointing out to sea. The Japanese thought that any invasion would
come from the ocean on the south because it would be difficult for invasion
ships to pass through the narrow opening to the lagoon on the north side. There were several 8inch guns along the beach
that ironically were manufactured by the British and moved by the Japanese from
Singapore to defend Tarawa. We spent
about twenty minutes walking the area.
Molly told me the paved road we had driven on to the Memorial was once
one of the Japanese airfield runways.
We continued riding west to Green Beach which was the west
facing end of the island and the location of several 8 inch guns. Next we stopped at Red Beach 1 facing the
lagoon. The Red Beaches was where the
main invasion took place. The USMC used
the Amtracs to drive over the outer coral reef and across the shallow lagoon to
the beach. There we walked across the
flat and coral sand through puddles to the remains of Amtracs and tanks. In one of the remains we discovered a
CD. I didn’t realize the Marines had CR
players in their invasion vehicles. The
label had worn off so I couldn’t tell if it was Glen Miller or Bing
Crosby.
We returned to the station wagon,
stopping to wash our feet in a village.
Molly then took us on a tour of another village which had built their
houses on top of bunkers. We saw how the
villagers washed their clothes and took pictures of young girls giggling in a
hammock and little naked boys and girls running around the village. The area behind the village was Red Beach 2
where there was a rusty landing craft and a Sherman Tank buried in the sand up
to the turret. Molly had taken one of
the decedents of the men that had escaped the tank on his visit to Tarawa
several years ago. He told her that most
of the crew lost their lives on Iwo Jima.
The tide was low and we could see the hulls of large ships rusting on
their side out in the lagoon. It was a
depressing sight and hard to believe that it had been cleaned up in 70 years.
We walked back to the station wagon through a settlement of
huts. It was lunch time and Molly drove
us to a Chinese Restaurant. We walked in
and saw no tables and a young man came running from the back to tell us they
were closed for a party. Molly then
drove us to Aboy’s Kitchen, another Chinese restaurant where I had a delicious
lunch of sweet and sour pork, the best I had tasted in a long time.
After lunch we stopped at the Japanese War memorial which
had a fence around it and Molly told us the care taker had lost the key so we
couldn’t get close. Next to it was the
Kiribati Customs Service building.
Our next stop was the American War Memorial on the grounds
of the Sports Complex. It was not as
impressive as the one on Guadalcanal. On
one side was a plaque to the people of Kiribati below a larger plaque that
read:
“Follow Me”
2nd
Marine Division
United States
Marine Corps.
BATTLE of TARAWA
November 20, 1943
To our fellow
Marines who gave their all!
The world is free
because of you!
GOD REST YOUR
SOULS
1,113 KILLED 2,290 WOUNDED
The Central
Pacific Spearhead
To world victory
in World War II
‘Semper Fidelis’
On the side was a red plaque from the Second Marine Division
Association on the 65th Anniversary of Operation Galvanic, dated
November 2008. On the back side was the
United States Navy memorial plaque that listed 30 Killed and 59 wounded. Below that was a brass plate sealed on Nov.
20, 1987, Camp Lejeune, NC to be opened Nov. 20, 2143. With inscription: From our world to yours:
Freedom above all.
We then rode over to the local police station to see next to
it the Japanese Armory bunker. Across a
courtyard from the bunker was the jail and we observed two policeman talking to
one of the prisoners. Back in the
vehicle we rode to the Japanese Command Bunker.
It was a multistory square concrete building with many holes blown in
its side which showed had thick and reinforced with steel it was. Over 300 bodies were found in the building
after it was captured by the Marines. In
one of the large holes a young man was sitting and laughing. Molly suspected he was high from sniffing
benzene he had in a bag he kept sniffing.
We rode back to the beach and stopped at an 8 inch gun which
was in good condition. Four boys were
climbing and playing on the gun. Down
the beach from the gun were the rusty remains of the temporary bridge used to
ferry vehicles and materials ashore across the beach. Our next stop was behind a warehouse where
Molly showed us the remains of an aircraft cockpit and propeller. The instrument panel was there and the hose
to the oxygen mask.
Molly then took us to a friend’s house to view a DVD video
on the battle. Unfortunately the DVD was
so scratched it wouldn’t play. It was
time anyway for our meeting with Sister Margret Sullivan.
Sister Margret was in her eighties and had been assigned to
Tarawa since the 1950s. She had an
interest in history and started to study and record initially the Catholic
Church’s activities in the Gilbert Islands and then expanded her studies to the
people of the islands and the country of Kiribati. Since WWII had such a big impact on the
history of the islands and the people she became the world authority on the
Japanese occupation and the US invasion.
Many veterans and military history buffs have visited her and provided
her with books and papers on the war.
She has edited several documents for accuracy herself. She gave us a briefing that included a Power
Point presentation and videos on the war and her activities. It was by far the highlight of the tour and
may go down in my mind as the highlight of the trip. She was a fascinating individual and a credit
to the Church.
It was after 17:00 when we left her fascinating
meeting. It was a long, eventful day and
we had dinner at 19:00 and retired at 22:00.
Saturday, June, 14, 2014: Tour Kiribati
It was party night
at the hotel. I was awakened several
times and especially around 05:00 when someone was laughing continuously and a
motor was being gunned. I finally got up
about 05:50 and showered. There was
still no hot water and this time when I tried with just the hot water faucet on
the water stopped running so I know they have a serious problem. After getting dressed I attempted to connect
to the Wi-Fi to call Judy. I was not
successful but I was able to receive some emails Facebook which had a picture
of Christine with Robert in the hospital and he was smiling so I guess he was
on the road to recovery.
I joined the gang at breakfast. There was no waitress around and another
guest went looking for her and found her.
We ordered about 07:05. Lynn
announced that he was not going on the tour.
He said the rough roads made the riding so unpleasant he was going to
stay at the hotel and have Mary report to him what we saw. I then tasked him to bird dog the hotel about
the hot water situation. At 07:50 our
breakfast finally arrived and the orders were not correct but we went with what
they delivered.
I finished up rather quickly and again attempted to call
Judy on Vonage I was able to connect for a few minutes and then the line
dropped. About that time our guide
arrived so I returned to the room and got my day pack and a bottle of water I
had in the freezer. That time I also
packed a rain jacket and umbrella.
We departed the hotel about 08:30 and headed east towards
the airport. Our guide stopped to at the
museum manager’s house to find out if it would be open. I don’t think she got a straight answer and
we continued on. A few minutes later we
came upon a wrecked car. Since the road
is so full of pot holes the drive had to be very drunk to even get up to the
speed that would cause the wreck. People
were transferring items from the wreck to another vehicle. I am amazed at the number of wrecked vehicles
I had seen on the island. Of course
there were hundreds of broken down vehicles that could be attributed to the bad
roads but the wrecks I didn’t understand although there were stretches of
smooth roads that drivers, probably out of frustration of the slow pace would
speed up to create a wreak. Someone in
the wreck, most likely the driver got hurt since the windshield was smashed on
the driver’s side.
When were reached the airport we asked our guide to stop so
we could meet with the Fiji Station Agent that I was told was not going to pay
our hotel for Sunday night. The terminal
was locked up but our guide was able to talk to a man through the fence that
opened the Departure Terminal and told us that the Fiji authority in Tarawa was
at the Tobaraoi Travel agency that I had visited on Thursday. We were getting the run-around! There was nothing more we could do at the
airport so we got back in the car and continued the tour of Tarawa.
We continued on, driving up the runway toward North
Island. Bob questioned if that was safe
but our guide told us she did it all the time and she could see in the sky that
no aircraft were approaching the runway.
We were then headed north and soon reached a military style steel bridge
where our guide stopped.
Tarawa is shaped like a backward letter L or a letter Z with
the top removed. The bottom land is
called the South Island and it is a narrow strip running east to west. The airport is at the extreme east end and
the battlefield at the extreme west end.
North of the airfield the land is a series of small islands linked in a
northwest direction and called North Island.
The bridge we stopped at connects the south island to the
north island. Our guide told us that
they used to use a ferry to cross the narrow channel. Then they used a causeway constructed of sand
bags. It was still there just northeast
of the bridge. The water was flowing
over the sand bags in places and a group of boys were running on the causeway
and sliding on the water covered surface.
They appeared to be having a great time with some sliding on their feet
and others on their stomachs.
On the southwest side the channel flowed into a large
shallow lagoon. The tide was out and we
could see people out on the mud flats walking, digging for clams and catching
fish trapped in the pools of water.
There was a point of land with some huts on it. Our guide told us she was going to take us
out there so we got back in the car and crossed the bridge and turned into a
small group of huts and parked careful not to be under a coconut tree. We walked through a settlement of huts toward
the hut on the point.
Along the way our guide pointed out the living conditions,
cooking and kitchen setups. One
“kitchen” had a large bunch of bananas hanging from a rafter, a two plate
Bunsen burner and a sink for washing dishes.
They used a lot of buckets filled with water, many for washing
clothes. The settlement had two large
meeting pavilions. The first one we
walked through had a grass roof and a small stage with three microphones
hanging on a rack. I guess they sing
karaoke. There were men and teen age
boys sprawled on the floor sleeping off the night before party. We encountered one young man that was
climbing the coconut trees with a knife but for the most part we only saw women
awake. Another “kitchen” had a large
pizza style oven and in another hut a woman was frying flat bread in a large
skillet over a wood fire. The bottom
line was there was a large variety in the setup of the huts and cooking areas.
The settlement also had a small store with cans of spam,
corn beef, and fish on one shelf and soy sauce, catsup, curry powder, oil,
vinegar and noodles on another shelf. We
continued on to the hut on the point.
Just before it there were a half dozen grass roofed huts around one
cinderblock building.
At the point we encountered a group of young boys that posed
for pictures with silly faces and hi-fived us.
Inside the hut which was a platform about three feet off the ground,
corrugated metal sides and roof with several old tires to keep it from blowing
off in a storm was the old Grandpa. He
was in his eighties and was happy to see us and pose for a picture.
Our guide explained the living arrangements and cooking
setup. We then started back and
encountered the Grandma and her daughter returning to the hut. They stopped and talked to our guide and
posed for pictures. As we walked past
the cinder block building we saw that it was under construction and next to it
was a large meeting hall with a corrugated metal roof and a tile floor. Both men and woman were sprawled on the floor
passed out or sleeping in very uncomfortable positions. In a corner of the structure was a small
altar with a Happy Birthday banner, a statute of the Virgin Mary and a row of
flowers. It must have been a wild party
from the condition of those lying about the settlement.
When we reached the car our guide told us she had made
arrangements for a young man to show us how he husked coconuts. He used a strong pointed piece of wood stuck
in the ground and pushed the coconut down tearing off the husk. When he reached the nut he opened a small
hole and handed it to me to drink. I
have drunken a lot of coconut water in my travels but that was about the best
and the most I have found in one coconut.
We returned to the car and drove back over the bridge to the
airport. That time we did not drive down
the runway because a military C-130J had just landed and was at the ramp. I couldn’t see the side markings but the tail
was plain so it wasn’t a US military aircraft.
Just past the airport we visited a fish farm and a young man
threw flour in one of the fish holding areas to attract the fish so we could
take pictures. They were Milkfish about
eight inches long.
Our next stop was the chicken farm. There we saw three large buildings. Two of the builds were full off chickens free
to walk around with feeding circles in the center of an area. We entered the third building where a man was
grading eggs. He would bring the eggs in
from the chicken houses and lay them on a table placing the eggs in waffle
cradles and entered data in a large ledger.
From the chicken farm we rode to the village of Bikenibeu
and stopped to tour the Catholic Church.
It was decorated with colorful balloons because a wedding was being held
inside. The church had no pews, just an
open floor where the people sat. Next to
the church was a pond our guide called the Virgin Mary pond. It had a statue of the Virgin Mary with a
large star on top on a platform in the center of the pond.
Leaving the church we rode a short distance to the Bikenibeu
Chinese Restaurant for lunch. I ordered
sweet and sour pork again and found it not as good as the lunch I had the
previous day. The museum was next door
and our guide thought they were going to open it for us at noon but it was
locked and she called someone who told her that it was not going to be open
that day.
We then continued on and stopped at the Tobaraoi Travel
agency to meet with the Fiji Station Manager.
He was very pleasant and told us he was aware of our situation. He took some time to find the correspondence authorizing
the hotel to bill Fiji Airways for our Sunday night stay. He finally gave us a copy of an email message
he sent to the agent at the airport to pay the hotel. Since the Tobaraoi Travel agency was next
door to the hotel we stopped for a bio break and I gave the copy of the message
to the hotel receptionist.
When Mary returned to the car she reported that Lynn had
been told the hot water system was beyond repair and a new system was on order
but not in time for our stay.
Our next stop was to tour the Ambo Aquarium which was a
project of the Taiwanese to raise fish and clams. A young man gave us a tour. Starting with a large concrete pool of mother
fish where they collect the eggs and have them hatch in other tanks. It was fascinating to see a tank full of fish
that were a quarter of an inch long.
Next he showed us a tank of clams that were very colorful. Most were purple but some were gold and
green.
A short distance from the Aquarium was the Parliament
buildings. We stopped to tour the outside. Several buildings were in the compound. In front was a large oval circle with a map
of the nation’s islands and atolls set in concrete. The Equator and boundaries for the various
island groups were marked and each island group which included the Gilbert,
Phoenix, Northern Line and Southern Line Islands had their islands/atolls
labeled. In my mind it was an impressive
display. Behind the circle was the
Parliament Main Chamber building with a triangle shaped roof. Its entrance was flanked on both sides by in
their words canoe shaped (in my view sail shaped) display buildings. The circle which was tilted so the map could
be seen and the three buildings behind was an impressive site. Behind the main chamber and on both sides
were the Cabinet and other administrative office buildings.
We circled the complex and rode on to the Handicraft
Market. The handcrafts on display were
mainly necklaces, ear rings, broaches and other items made of small sea
shell. They were very attractive if you
like that type of jewelry. There were
also some very good wood carvings.
That was our last stop for the day. Molly told us she would meet us at 08:00 on
Monday to take us to the museum. We bid
her farewell and retired to our rooms.
Lynn reported that he had investigated the lack of hot water situation
and was told the system was busted and a replacement unit was on order but it
was going to take some time before the hotel would provide hot water.
Bob and I wrote in our journals until dinner at 19:00. We invited the other Caucasian guest to dine
with us. His name was Edward but goes by
Ted. He was from Australia, a school
teacher, administrator and consultant under contract to UNESCO to assist third
world countries with their education systems.
He had lived a colorful life and his daughter had followed in his
footsteps, working in foreign countries for IMF. We had great conversation. He had been to the island several times but
had not gone on formal tours like we had taken so he was interested in what we
saw.
After dinner I walked over to reception to try to get a
stronger Wi-Fi signal. I met the owner
of the hotel and during our conversation learned he was a member of the Most
Traveled People (MTP) and that several TCC and MTP members have stayed at the
hotel to visit Kiribati. His name was
Emil Schutz. I looked up his MTP record
and he had recorded visiting 72 locations out of the 875 locations listed.
I returned to my room and retired at 22:00.
Sunday, June, 15, 2014: Tarawa, Kiribati
I set no alarm and the partying didn’t make too much noise,
so I was able to sleep until almost 07:00.
Bob and I went to breakfast at 08:00 and afterward I was able to connect
briefly with Judy via Voage but she couldn’t hear every word I was saying so we
terminated the call.
I returned to the room and wrote in my journal until noon
when I carried the laptop to reception to get it updated. The connection was so poor I wasn’t even able
to delete all the messages in the Delete folder so I returned to the room and
Bob and I went to lunch. Lynn and Mary
passed but Ted joined us. We ordered
sandwiches. I had tuna and Bob had a
grilled cheese.
After lunch I put my laptop in my day pack and walked over
to the Tobaraoi Travel agency to see if I could purchase some fast Wi-Fi
time. Carrier, the Fiji Manager did not
appear to be around so I walked back and sat in the Reception office for over
an hour slowly processing the emails on my laptop. It was really frustrating and time consuming
but eventually I cleaned them up. When I
returned to my room I wrote in my journal.
At 18:00 we met at reception to calculate our bills. Since I had beer with some of my meals and
Bob had sometimes two cans of soda, a simple 50/50 split was not fair to Bob so
I analyzed each charge slip to determine a fair accounting for Bob. We were surprised to learn they were charging
us for breakfast because Cathy had stated in her document that it would be
included.
After the meeting we went to dinner. I ordered the crumbled Chicken which had a
coating more like KFC than the harder crust they had on their fried
chicken. Ted joined us and we talked
about his report. One of the issues he
needed to calculate was the percentage of literacy in the students and on the
island in general. He felt that the way
the Kiribati government calculated literacy was over stated based on his
analysis of student enrollment and test scores.
He thought the only accurate way would during the census that a simple
test be given each person that would score their ability to read and
write. He said Kiribati was not alone in
overstating the literacy in his analysis in other third world countries. Ted was an interesting dinner companion.
After dinner I called Judy with great difficulty but was
able to briefly connect. When I returned
to my room I started packing for the trip the next day and retired at 22:00.
Monday, June, 16, 2014: Leave Tarawa, Kiribati
I woke to my alarm at 05:00, showered and packed. Just before 7:00 I went to the reception area
and called Judy on Vonage and then went to the restaurant to order
breakfast. As usual it took about forty
minutes to be served. I had the same
breakfast as the last three mornings: an egg, bacon, sausage link, and toast.
We finished just before 08:00. Molly was waiting for us outside the dining
area and we departed at 08:10 to visit the Culture Center and Museum. It didn’t have a lot on display. I liked their display “A chronology of key
events: Kiribati Timeline” and the warrior armor constructed from coconut fiber. The helmet was something to see with sharp
prongs sticking out.
We returned to the hotel before 09:00. I went to reception to coordinate our ride to
the airport. The clerk on duty called
Fiji Airways and was told we needed to check in between 09:30 and 10:00. I questioned why we needed to be at the
airport over three hours before the scheduled departure of 13:05. The clerk then told me check in was not at
the airport it was just next door at the Fiji agent’s office. I scheduled the bus for 09:40 and informed
the rest of the group. They couldn’t
believe we didn’t have to go to the airport to check in but Molly was still
there and confirmed it was done at the Tobaraoi Travel agency. We said our ‘good-bye’s’ to Molly and went to
our room to get our bags.
It only took a few minutes to ride to the Tobaraoi Travel
agency. There we lined up on the porch
and the check in station was setup next to an open window. It was a little confusing and when I checked
in they told me my carryon was too heavy.
I transferred my laptop and Lonely Planet books to my day pack and
cleared the weight. I was given a
baggage tag and then had to go inside to the café to get my boarding
passes. They charged $3.00 to take our
bag to the airport and another $3.00 US exchange fee. I got the others to pool our baggage fees and
then only one bank fee would be needed.
They couldn’t find Lynn and Mary’s reservation at first so I
went searching through my correspondence from Cathy to find their ticket
number. They finally found their
record. They were told that for $7 per
head they could get a ride to the airport.
Carrier, the Fiji Manager, told me that usually the hotel takes its
guests to the airport because they need to meet the arriving plane and he would
call for them to pick us up when it would be time for the Departure Terminal to
open at the airport.
I purchase thirty minutes of Wi-Fi and called Judy and only
used half the time. Carrier told me I
could use the rest at the airport. The
hotel bus arrived and we rode to the airport.
There we processed through Immigration and had to pay a 20 AUD departure
tax. My bags had no trouble at the
security but they gave Bob some static on his bag’s toilet articles and Lynn
and Mary had to be checked twice.
We finally boarded the aircraft at 12:45 and departed at
13:15. The flight was not full and I
moved to a row where I had no one in the middle seat. The hassle at check in left me a little
exhausted and I slept on the most of the flight. They served a nice chicken stir fry lunch.
My visit to the country of Kiribati was over. I only had one more UN member country to
visit to reach my goal of visiting every country in the UN.
No comments:
Post a Comment