Even though we spent half a day in Waikiki yesterday, today seemed like the first time we could actually relax a bit. We slept much better last night which also helps. We woke up to a nice vista of Guam’s waves rolling in toward the beach. Nicole got a free breakfast at the executive lounge since she’s a diamond member. It didn’t have a ton to choose from, but it did have some fried spam, which is always a nice treat and on-brand for pacific islands.
After breakfast, we spent some time on the lanai trying to figure out our next steps. We plan to fly to Palau this evening, but the rental car situation there is rather difficult. This isn’t helped by the fact that the airlines tend to operate rather bizarre schedules in and out of Palau. For example, our flight out of Palau will likely be at 2am, a time at which the rental car office will have long been closed. When I tried to book through National car rental, I received a message that they will only take bookings more than 24 hours out. That was a bit of a problem since I was hoping to pick it up tonight. Furthermore, today is Friday and evidently a lot of people on Palau are 7th Day Adventists which means they follow a sort of Judaic/Old-Testament dogma and don’t work after sundown on Friday or all day Saturday.
Between me yelling at my iPad and Nicole working the phones, we eventually got a booking through Avis. They will drop our car off at the hotel before sundown and we will have the hotel shuttle pick us up at the airport. It was one of the most convoluted rental car arrangements we have ever had to do — with the business being done primarily through WhatsApp. After dealing with all that, we went for a walk to the nearby beach. While the Hilton we are staying at, has a “beach,” it didn’t exactly elicit a relaxing atmosphere. A fear of lawsuits or other mayhem has resulted in signage like this as you walk to the beach.
The sandier stretches of beach were also around the curve in the bay from the Hilton, but were cut off because the Hilton has decided to act more like a compound isolated from real Guam or something. We had to walk all the way out the Hilton driveway and down the block to go to a beach that was 20 meters from the Hilton property. It is known is Yao Beach Park and it appeared to be primarily locals. I took a dip in the water. The waters were quite clear and I saw a surprising amount of fish in a short distance from the water’s edge.
Throughout the day, waves of rain would come and go without warning . . .or in most cases visible clouds. When we returned from the beach to go get lunch, it was the same. The lady serving us gave me a military discount even though my voluminous poofy fro likely betrayed me otherwise. I told her I wasn’t military, but she said not to tell anybody, that she already gave the discount. Friendly isle this. Of course, probably 90% of the people here are military. We ate lunch near two German servicemen. They were wearing their uniforms to ensure they got the discount. Various military aircraft fly by in the distance with regularity.
We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to relax in our room with a nice view of the water. Guam has many similarities to Hawai’i. But whereas both Waikiki and this part of Guam have numerous high-rises, it doesn’t seem nearly as chaotic here. There is a relative calmness to it all.
After adjusting our late checkout time to 5pm, we slowly worked our way to the airport in a taxi that rarely broke the pace of a brisk walk. There is an inexplicable amount of traffic here, which was very unexpected. We eventually arrived at Guam’s Antonio B. Wan Pat International Airport. We had already checked-in online and done a very tedious amount of forms, attestations, and vaccine record verifications, so we went straight to security. Being the “U.S.,” I tried to go through TSA using my driver’s license, but they insisted I use a passport. I don’t understand Guam, and I don’t think Guam knows what it is either.
Regardless, we entered a very dead terminal. Only two flights were scheduled for this evening — both United. One was ours going to Palau and continuing on to Manila, and the other was a direct flight to Manila. We had plenty of time to kill in the airport, but virtually everything was closed including all the lounges, so we got some steps in by walking the length of the terminal in both directions a few times. Eventually our flight commenced a rather slow boarding process that was very much on island time. It was about a two hour flight from Guam to Palau. It was a fairly seamless process with only a couple of hiccups with the QR code I had generated.
A driver from the hotel then drove us about 20 minutes or so to the Carolines Resort up in the hills of Palau. We are staying in a bungalow at a place that only has a handful to begin with. It’s a very different vibe than the Hiltons we have been at. We’ve spotted some lizards who have decided to room with us as well. It’s quite dark on this island, so it is hard to really tell if we have any kind of view off our lanai. Tomorrow we plan to just take it easy. It will be the first day in a while that we don’t need to go to an airport. That’s pretty exciting.
passports & pepto bismol 