Restaurant at the Kosrae Village Ecolodge

Not only is Micronesia not overrun with tourists, it probably never will be. It is a very difficult place to get to and there is only one airline that flies there. The end points of the flight are in Hawaii and Guam which are tourist destinations in their own right, so Micronesia will never get many tourists. I don’t know if any any island in Micronesia has more than 100 beds.

I also don’t talk about hotels much on my blog. I do have a personal list of favorite places I’ve stayed while traveling, but I’ve never shared that list with anyone.

Enjoy views like this in Kosrae

Kosrae gets few tourists and the recession has dropped that number even further. The Kosrae Village is doing a very aggressive promotion to try and raise money: They are selling vouchers for $2,000 worth of lodging, food or diving for $1,000. Basically, you can vacation there for half the price.

With the voucher, you can get a double bungalow for $35/night per person, or you can go on a 2 tank dive for $55. That is cheap. All of this in an undiscovered, Pacific paradise.

If this interests you, send an email and contact Katrina and Bruce at info@kosraevillage.com.

I’m doing this because I want to help one of my favorite hotels and want to encourage people to visit one of my favorite places on Earth. It is also a really good deal.

If anyone does visit Kosrae, please let me know. If you stop by the Village Ecolodge, make sure to try the lime cordial!

The Amateur Traveler Podcast is one of my favorite travel podcasts along with the Indie Travel Podcast. Both podcasts focus on talking to real people, not just having tour guides and guide book editors on every episode.

If you are a regular podcast listener, I strongly suggest you subscribe. It is a very well done weekly podcast.

While I’m on the subject, Chris refers to a video I shot in Palau in the Jellyfish lake. For those who haven’t seen it before, here is the video

I want to post this before I leave Micronesia and forget about it.

While walking through the Guam airport I was struck by a large sign that listed the Micronesian servicemen and women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I knew that Guam and CNMI had soldiers in the US military. While I was in American Samoa I was frequently reminded that American Samoa had the highest percentage of enlistment of any US territory or state. One man from American Samoa and Guam were killed while I was in both places and it made the headlines of the local papers.

What I didn’t know, and sort of shocked me, was that FSM, the Marshalls, and Palau were represented in the US Military. All three countries have no military and their citizens can join the US military. Many do because it offers them a better career path than anything they could have at home. It was not uncommon to see American flags and Army bumper stickers on the cars in all of these places.

Palau has had three men killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. On a per capita basis, they have probably made a greater sacrifice than any state or city in the US….and they are technically not even Americans. I’m sure no one in the US would really fault them if they wanted to sit this one out, especially considering most Americans have never heard of these places and don’t know they even exist.

It was just something I wanted to pass along…

Inside my bungalow

After having gone ga-ga over Pohnpei, I wouldn’t think I would have been as impressed with Kosrae, but I was.

My stay on Kosrae was at the Kosrae Village which was very similar, at least in construction, to the Village in Pohnpei. All of the structures were built by locals out of local materials in the manner that old Kosraen villages were built. Most of the joints in the buildings were also lashed together which brought out my inner boy scout (I used to work at a scout camp and teach knots and lashing. I can still do them all…)

The inn was owned by an American couple who moved to Korsae 15 years ago to start their own resort and dive shop. I have to say it was one of the most thoughtful places I’ve stayed at on this trip. They had fresh lime juice, coconut oil for bathing, and books about Kosrae in every room. Unlike Pohnpei, on Kosrae I was right on the water so I could hear the surf pretty much all day and night.

The resort was only 10 rooms, but had a good sized restaurant, one of the better ones on the island. It was very affordable as well. This wasn’t a big chain hotel resort, you were greeted by the owners and they live there on the property.

My first day I went diving, which I haven’t done since I was in Fiji about two months ago. The reef on Kosrae was magnificent. It was one enormous wall of coral going down to forever. The coral formations were the largest I’ve ever seen. I also got to see a large spotted eagle ray. Our dive did something I haven’t seen in other places that made loads of sense. We just drifted with the current carrying a tethered buoy along with us. The boat up top just followed the buoy and was right where we came up at the surface. In Fiji I had a one dive were we wound up at least a half mile from the boat.

It was also the first dive I have made where I didn’t wear a wet suit. The water temp was 84°F down to 80 feet.

Ruins of Menka

The next day I took a hike into the heart of the island with a couple from Virginia to visit the ancient ruins of Menka. The walk out to Menka took about an hour through rain forest. I took my hiking boots but eventually took them off and used my sandals as we had to cross a stream five times. Our guide was studying botany so knew a fair amount about the plants and trees we saw on the way.

The ruins themselves were not nearly as impressive as Nan Modal. They were mostly piles of stone laid out in squares with a mound in the middle of the square. Our guide assumed they were tombs which I think is a reasonable assumption. I was told that there are many ruins on Kosrae which have yet to be studied by archaeologists. I’d think a promising young archaeologist would take advantage of trips to Micronesia to work on their PhD. I was told there are ruins on the island similar to Nan Modal in structure, but I didn’t get a chance to see those.

Like Pohnpei, Kosrae is one of the real secrets of the the Pacific. There are only 8,000 people on the island, great diving, great hiking, nice people, it is affordable and they have several initiatives in place to protect the reef and keep it in a pristine state.

Kepirohi Waterfall

Pohnpei is the most beautiful place I’ve visited in my trip so far. Hands down, no questions.

I was completely taken aback at the flowers, birds, lagoon, mountain, and the reef. The place I stayed was the Village Hotel, which is exactly what you think of when you dream of living on an island.

All the buildings were made of nothing by palm frond thatching and wood. No glass windows, just screens. There were no “rooms”. All rooms were individual bungalows made of mangrove timber and palm fronds. You could hear the birds outside chirping. I had a giant gecko in my room. My view overlooked the lagoon and its islands. It was awesome. If I ever get married, I know where I’m going on my honeymoon. (they had water beds too. I never slept so well..)

I’m amazed that more people don’t visit Micronesia as a tourist destination. Micronesia lacks any large resorts or chain hotels. As far as I know there are zero in the entire country. They use the US dollar, drive on the right, have US/Japanese electrical systems, speak English, and even use the US Postal service. (believe it or not, the banks are also FDIC insured too)

Given how beautiful and affordable Micronesia is, you’d think there would be more tourists, or at least more attention given to it. It suffers from being in the middle of nowhere more than most of the Pacific and having tourists destinations on either end of the flights that come in (Hawaii and Guam). Micronesia is 5-7 hour flight from Hawaii which is itself 5 hours from Los Angles. Getting anywhere in Micronesia is commitment and most people prefer to take short trips to Mexico or the Caribbean for vacation.

Tomb Ruins at Nan Modal

In addition to the beautiful scenery, Pohnpei also has some ruins which are on a par with Easter Island: Nan Modal.

I would guess that the majority of the people reading this have never heard of Nan Modal. I never heard about it until about a week before I saw it first hand. Despite its lack of fame, it deserves to be listed alongside other wonders of the ancient world including the maoi of Easter Island, Machu Pichu and Stonehenge.

Nan Modal (meaning the water in-between in Pohnpeian) is the ruins of an ancient religious complex on Pohnpei. The total area of the complex is about 200 acres and sits on 92 small islands with canals running between them. Think Venice meets Machu Pichu. The only fully intact structure are the royal tombs. The structures of Nan Modal were mostly built with long pieces of volcanic rock that look like hexagonal logs.

It is the basalt logs which makes this place a real wonder. You’ve probably read or heard about the “mysteries of Easter Island” and how archaeologists have tried to figure out how the moai (stone heads) were moved from the quarry to the sea. Having been there, I never really thought it much of a mystery. Yes, the moai were big, but I could come up with several solutions which involve nothing but manpower, wood and rope. They might not be the most efficient, but I think they would work given enough manpower and time. In fact, they have tried and succeeded with at least five different methods of moving the moai that I know of.

The walls of Nan Modal

Nan Modal seems like a much more challenging construction project. For starters, the complex is surrounded by water. I was told a team from the Discovery Channel came out last year and tried to build a raft to float the stones, but it didn’t work. Even if there was a network of bridges connecting the islands (which I think is the case. Some of the islands looked to have small broken bridges between them), I still don’t think enough men walking in a straight line could carry a single basalt log. Using the exact same methods they used on Easter Island wouldn’t necessarily work either, because unlike Easter Island, Pohnpei is still covered with thick forest which would make dragging the logs that much more difficult.

Furthermore, once the logs got to the complex, some had to be lifted into place up to 20 feet in the air, whereas on Easter Island they just had to be tipped upright. The largest of the basalt logs at Nan Modal are estimated to weigh 70 tons, which is as large as the largest moai on Easter Island. The moai are all made from a volcanic tuff which is much lighter than a regular basalt. The Nan Modal logs are very dense. Also, some of the pieces of the structure at Nan Modal aren’t logs but are just large basalt boulders.

Pohnpei from the lagoon

For the most part, the Pacific is devoid of ancient structures. Aside from Easter Island, I’ve only herd of a few other places which are nothing more than mounds and are pretty unspectacular. If you put some amazing, accessible archaeological ruins on top of a beautiful island, you should have a tourism winner….but that isn’t the case.

I don’t usually give travel advice on this site but I have to say, if you want a trip to someplace unspoiled, adventurous, and affordable, consider Micronesia. I’d recommend it higher than anyplace else I’ve been in the region.

Micronesia has been one of the highlights of my trip so far. I’ve been living in grass shacks, eating fruit off the trees, diving, hiking in the rainforest and living life like it was a James Mitchner novel.

I have a lot of photos and much more to say, but it will have to wait until I can get a broadband connection and a USB port.

So far on my trip I’ve been lucky, but I think I might have just hit my first snag. There are no rooms on Chuuk the next two days. There is some sort of conference on the island. I may have to skip Chuuk (aka Truk) and move right to my second destination, Pohnpei, tomorrow.

….and Saipan? Oh man…

***EDIT*** I had to make a quick judgement call. I couldn’t get a hold of anyone in Pohnpei, so rather than risk it, I’m going to stay in Guam for two days and go directly to Pohnpei from here. My schedule will be exactly the same, I’m just replacing Chuuk with Guam. Not really the ideal situation, but I’ll make due.