trip report
resuming the blog after a vacation hiatus with a sentence fragment. for ease of composition & comprehension, i may break up my report into sections, in which case this will be the first of several parts.
this latest vacation was my most ambitious yet, involving two main destinations, pohnpei in micronesia and tokyo, japan, plus a brief side visit in the vicinity of nara, japan, over roughly two weeks. considering all the logistics, the trip went amazingly smoothly. for the long flights between LAX & narita, japan, we managed to get bulkhead and exit row seating, meaning 1st class legroom in economy class, thanks to singapore airlines' online checkin. singapore air's meals were xlnt by economy standards, their inflight entertainment was better than ever--dozens of films and around 100 cds to choose from--and they provided a great beverage selection, from which we sampled the non-alcoholic fruit spritzer, and the spiked singapore sling that tasted just like punch. weather was fine, as well, except for intermittent rain on one day in pohnpei; in particular, japan was much milder than i expected it to be; and as my constant reader, FG knows, i coincidentally missed some stormy weather back home in southern calif. we also had good to xlnt food basically every day of the trip.
the biggest surprise of the trip was our 2 stopovers in guam. people seemed genuinely friendly there, and from what we picked up in conversation with them, it appears guam has way lower cost of living and housing than hawaii, the other US tropical paradise. given our propensity for travel, and guam's relative closeness and ease of access to numerous Pacific rim destinations, such as australia, indonesia, hong kong, and japan, we're seriously considering guam as our retirement, or even relocation, destination. the only drawback, and it is a significant one, is the frequency & intensity of typhoons there.
the other big surprise was snorkeling. i had tried this with little success in two earlier trips to jamaica and australia, but gave it another shot in pohnpei, given that it's one of the main recreational activities there. i had some difficulty the first time in keeping water out of my snorkel, but i got the knack, or else a better snorkel, the next time, and had great views of numerous tropical fish & corral. i even managed to tread water at one point. the remarkable aspect to all this is that i'm basically a non-swimmer, but i will be a swimmer by the next time we visit a tropical destination. oh btw, another attraction of guam is the presence of reefs; it may not be a renowned snorkeling/diving spot, but it should suffice between trips to the spots in nearby micronesia.
this does it for part 1. part 2 to follow as time permits.
this latest vacation was my most ambitious yet, involving two main destinations, pohnpei in micronesia and tokyo, japan, plus a brief side visit in the vicinity of nara, japan, over roughly two weeks. considering all the logistics, the trip went amazingly smoothly. for the long flights between LAX & narita, japan, we managed to get bulkhead and exit row seating, meaning 1st class legroom in economy class, thanks to singapore airlines' online checkin. singapore air's meals were xlnt by economy standards, their inflight entertainment was better than ever--dozens of films and around 100 cds to choose from--and they provided a great beverage selection, from which we sampled the non-alcoholic fruit spritzer, and the spiked singapore sling that tasted just like punch. weather was fine, as well, except for intermittent rain on one day in pohnpei; in particular, japan was much milder than i expected it to be; and as my constant reader, FG knows, i coincidentally missed some stormy weather back home in southern calif. we also had good to xlnt food basically every day of the trip.
the biggest surprise of the trip was our 2 stopovers in guam. people seemed genuinely friendly there, and from what we picked up in conversation with them, it appears guam has way lower cost of living and housing than hawaii, the other US tropical paradise. given our propensity for travel, and guam's relative closeness and ease of access to numerous Pacific rim destinations, such as australia, indonesia, hong kong, and japan, we're seriously considering guam as our retirement, or even relocation, destination. the only drawback, and it is a significant one, is the frequency & intensity of typhoons there.
the other big surprise was snorkeling. i had tried this with little success in two earlier trips to jamaica and australia, but gave it another shot in pohnpei, given that it's one of the main recreational activities there. i had some difficulty the first time in keeping water out of my snorkel, but i got the knack, or else a better snorkel, the next time, and had great views of numerous tropical fish & corral. i even managed to tread water at one point. the remarkable aspect to all this is that i'm basically a non-swimmer, but i will be a swimmer by the next time we visit a tropical destination. oh btw, another attraction of guam is the presence of reefs; it may not be a renowned snorkeling/diving spot, but it should suffice between trips to the spots in nearby micronesia.
this does it for part 1. part 2 to follow as time permits.
posted by yitwail at 8:31 AM
2 Comments:
Guam??? Ah alwayz invizhnd that az a bleak place. So, Morro Bay iz out?
Ah invy ewe yer snorklin; ah jis LUV picsherz uv unnerwater thangz: reefs, corullz, neon-color fish, crazy seaweed, etc.
actually, FG, i'm quite pleased with my current address, *except* for the traffic and the property tax. just the prop.tax, insurance, and utilities combined averages about $1000 a month, which seems a trifle high for a retiree, and i don't think morro bay would be much different.
Post a Comment
<< Home