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Published: August 26th 2023
My past history with Guam is actually a fun one. I first stay here by mistake back in 2006. How can you visit a place by mistake you are going to ask me. Well, it happened to me twice. I stay once overnight in Lillongwe, Malawi after our flight couldn't land in Congo. That was a fun experience!
But back to Guam, we were supposed to land in Manilla from Hong Kong. Superb rain on landing, I was in the front of the Cathay flight, sitting right next a flight attendant. We attempted the landing...and few meters from touching the runway, the Captain put the gas again! I told the flight attending we are going to Cebu. She told me no-way...but yes way, 5 minutes later the Captain advised that we were on our way to Cebu. End result, 4 hours delay, and a missed connection to Palau. Well, there are only two direct flights a week on the Manilla-Koror route...and we were on two separate tickets! I knew it didn't look good at all as airlines cannot be hold responsible for weather delays.
This was another area for Cathay! I was top level Diamond
with them, and put it simply, they did care back then! So not only did they re-route us via Guam, but the provided a nice room in Manilla as well as in Guam for the long lay-vers. I don't think this would happen today. So we were left with few hours to discover Guam. Back then, we took the bus shuttle to the hotel in Tamuning. After some rest at the hotel, we went around using the local tourist trolley bus. I cannot say I saw much of Guam!
My next visit was planned in 2018 on my way back from Chuuk, Micronesia. I had a perfect 23 hours lay-over in Guam. I booked a cheap hotel not far from the airport and would have been ready to finally go around the island. Well, the United flight back ended up being 21 hours delayed! United took care of me in Chuuk, and I got my connection just on time to Japan...but never set foot outside of the airport! I'm not kidding!
This time, here it is...flights are on time, I'm landing at 7am from Palau, and my next connecting flight to Pohnpei, Micronesia is
only at 8.25pm tonight! I rent a car with Alamo, at just 40usd per day, it won't break the bank. The flight was short of 3 hours, so you can imagine was very very short. The challenge for me today is very simple, do not fall asleep on the wheel, I'm not kidding!
I started by touring the South Coast of the island. This took around 3 hours with all the stop. The drive is beautiful and pretty soon I'm finding myself in the back country. warning, I couldn't find a single stunning beach around it. I'm sure you will enjoy the pictures.
No pictures here of what I'm going to ear or going to shop. My next few stops are solid remote and I have a huge baggage allowance with United, so I shop on few essentials.
Guam is basically a mini Hawaii. Tourists here are mainly coming from Japan and South Korea. They used to come directly from the region of Vladivostok and the Great Eastern Russia, but that's gone since the invasion of Ukraine. What is the legal status of Guam? It is a US territory since 1898 and is
under the jurisdiction of the US Navy. So if you ask, yes, the place is packed with military bases, specially at the North and South-West ends.
Guam is also packed with all the junk food places the States are dotted with. So I admit, I'm guilty, lunch was a Philly cheesesteak sandwich and dinner a Burger King at the airport! Next stop it's back to tuna for me! The Guam airport is less than interesting! United has reopened their lounge, but only from 4.30am till 1pm, how not useful is this when your flight with them is at 8pm! Whatever, I did enjoy my day, I didn't fall asleep at the wheel, and yes, I have the feeling I drove most roads available to drive on Guam!
Next, is a two hours flight to East!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
It is good that you know how to navigate mistakes...
My only visit to Guam was a one hour layover on the flight from Honolulu to the Philippines in Feb 1972. The one hour stretched to 8 hours when the forklift unloading luggage pierced the side of the plane. Fortunately, the USAF had a repair facility which could handle it.