GUAM: Visiting somewhere obscure for no apparent reason (NGO-GUM-KIX on UA J)

[smit0847]

For a laugh we decided to head to the 'Outback Steakhouse' a few doors down. When we arrived we read the menu with much amusement - it appeared they had pulled Australian cities and towns off a map and named dishes after them. The Alice Springs chicken sounded particularly unappetising to someone who has actually been to Alice Springs (do they even have chicken there?). We once again had a very friendly and professional waitress who we told with much excitement that we were actually Australian. She was surprised and perhaps a bit worried by this as I don't think she'd ever had an Australian in the restaurant and quickly advised us that Outback referred to both Australia and Texas. We ordered a long island ice tea (with some silly Australian name) which promised 5 different types of spirits for $7 but wasn't as strong as our LIIT's back home. The steak was actually pretty good. Food in general is pretty cheap on Guam and alcohol is EXTREMELY cheap.

 

[robd]

Love the Corona & lime

 

[get me outta here]

Great trip report for visiting Guam. What did you answer on why you were visiting - did the reasons get increasingly creative? I see a Japanese tourist standing in the water in all his clothes. Thanks for the ETSA recommendation.

 

[smit0847]

Great trip report for visiting Guam. What did you answer on why you were visiting - did the reasons get increasingly creative? I see a Japanese tourist standing in the water in all his clothes. Thanks for the ETSA recommendation.

For friends back home: 'because we wanted to go somewhere and warm up after skiing in Japan and there's lots of flights from Japan'
For people we met in passing 'because it's somewhere we'd never been before and it seems exotic'
For the occasional person we had a deep conversation with: 'we were looking at the best use of our FF points and started considering the different zoning.......'

 

[TomVexille]

Looks like a B-52

 

[smit0847]

DAY 5

Once again we awoke to clear blue skies and sunshine and guessed we had seen the last of the rain. We jumped in the car, put the top down, cranked up the tunes and explored the island. It's much bigger than I expected and with a top speed limit of just 35mph it takes quite a while to drive all the way around it. We quickly got lost with my poor navigational skills and lack of proper road signage (get a GPS if you are on a time limit). There are these cute little individual painted bus shelters all over the island:

But most of the island is really run-down with endless alcohol sponorship:

It is really hot and really humid on a sunny day in Guam. Even with the top down and the wind in our faces we were still sweating a lot. Keeep your fluids up.

We also (on a previous day during a moment of no-rain) visited 2 Lovers Point. This had a pretty impressive view looking south over Tumon Bay but I like the view of the observation deck as much as the view of the Bay! There was a small entry fee to get out on the deck (USD5 per person I think).

We headed across the island to the east coast and then going anti-clockwise drove south around the whole bottom-half of the island. We stopped at 'Jim's pirate house' which is apparently a Guam institution. This was a fairly kitsch themed restaurant bar which promised the best cheeseburger on the island as well as a greek menu (?). The cheeseburger was pretty good as was the view and the weather. It's a pretty remote part of the island so I was surprised the see so many tourists had make the trek down.

 

[smit0847]

We also made our way to the Talofo Caves and Waterfall tourist attraction. It wasn't the worst tourist attraction I've ever visited, but it was definitely Top 5. After now seeing the Trip Advisor warnings they are very valid: Talofofo Falls Park Reviews - Talofofo, Guam Attractions - TripAdvisor These reviews are not unfair or incorrect.

We should have been warned when there wasn't a sole around and the woman hiding behind the ticket window would only grant one-word answers as to what was included and how much it cost. Assuming we would never be here again we paid the USD20 entry fee (not even knowing what it included thanks to Mary Sunshine behind the counter) and entered a completely deserted very run-down mini theme park. For an unknown reason there were both pigs and dogs running wild all around us. We blindly followed the yellow line (not even knowing what it was leading to and arrived at a very old and unstable looking cable car). An attendant appeared (the cable cars were not even moving when we arrived), started it up and we got into a rickety old cable car and commence the short trip to the bottom of the (deserted) falls.

This is the inside of a theme park apparently!

From there we followed the yellow line around the waterfall. Although it was a month into dry season there had been a massive amount of rain earlier in the week so we expected the falls to be pounding.

They were... just okay. Having visited Iceland's spectacular waterfalls at every turn last year I wasn't blown away by Guam's 'falls'. We walked into the tiny museum which was thankully airconditioned which gave a fairly interesting, VERY pro-US history of Guam although the WW2 figurines were dressed in Civil War costumes. There was then the path to the cave and a 'monorail' alongside it. The 'monorail' had two tracks which, from my knowledge of monorails from the Simpsons ('mono means one and rail means rail') meant this was no ordinary monorail. The attendant slumped over a car appeared to be asleep. I was amused to see that the 'monorail' was not included in the park entry price but you had to pay an extra USD2 to ride it. Given the absurdly poor value of the park entry ticket and the fact that the monorail looked like it hadn't been used all day (or perhaps all week) I thought this was a rather ridiculous attempt to raise extra revenue. We walked the 5 minutes to the Cave and saved ourselves the USD2. We were most excited to see some other tourists in the park as we had assumed we were the only ones. The story of Corporal Yokoi is pretty interesting and a big deal in the South part of the island:

BBC News - Shoichi Yokoi, the Japanese soldier who held out in Guam
It's exactly 40 years since a Japanese soldier was found in the jungles of Guam, having survived there for nearly three decades after the end of World War II. He was given a hero's welcome on his return to Japan - but never quite felt at home in modern society.
For most of the 28 years that Shoichi Yokoi, a lance corporal in the Japanese Army of world War II, was hiding in the jungles of Guam, he firmly believed his former comrades would one day return for him.
And even when he was eventually discovered by local hunters on the Pacific island, on 24 January 1972, the 57-year-old former soldier still clung to the notion that his life was in danger.
"He really panicked," says Omi Hatashin, Yokoi's nephew.
Startled by the sight of other humans after so many years on his own, Yokoi tried to grab one of the hunter's rifles, but weakened by years of poor diet, he was no match for the local men.
"He feared they would take him as a prisoner of war - that would have been the greatest shame for a Japanese soldier and for his family back home," Hatashin says.

I would not recommend this attraction even if it was free.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm liking the trip report, but the likelihood of my progressing that plan to visit Guam is diminishing by every post!

 

[somebol]

Nice report.

How is the shopping in Guam? Does Macys compare to any of its mainland counterparts?

 

[smit0847]

I'm liking the trip report, but the likelihood of my progressing that plan to visit Guam is diminishing by every post!

Oh come on its not that bad! The photos do get better once the rain stops! Guam is definitely about the journey and not the destination though.

Nice report.

How is the shopping in Guam? Does Macys compare to any of its mainland counterparts?

I thought Macys was pretty good, I can only compare it to the NYC one. Prices and range were good - its not just xx_L leftovers - they have the full range of sizes. Clothes are very boxy and oversized to suit the average large American.

 

[appaz]

great report, thanks for all the info

i booked a trip to Saipan (hopefully not as dangerous as your friend the barmaid says )

 

[zainman]

I'm liking the trip report, but the likelihood of my progressing that plan to visit Guam is diminishing by every post!

It is worth a visit for 2-3 days but not any longer. Stayed at the Hilton which was quite nice!

 

[smit0847]

This is the most directional information we saw on the island

My Family - Only in America.

We then headed up the west side of the island to Rittiden Point which had promised to be one of the best beaches on the island. The road to Rittiden (alongside Andrews AF Base) is the WORST ROAD I HAVE EVER DRIVEN ON. I've driven on unsealed roads, roads with cracks and potholes before but this was something else. There were huge holes all over the road which required very slow and careful manouverability and even then it was an extremely bumpy road. The car in front of us gave up and turned around. There is no easy or comfortable way to get down this road and it could seriously damage your car. When we eventually got to Rittiden point there were several cars in the car park - I don't know if there's another way to get there or if they managed to survive the awful road that we did. We were a bit frustrated to see severe warnings not to go into the water on that day because of the water conditions. It's a beautiful beach but would be better if we could swim! Be warned the gates to the beach are locked at 16:30 every day. If there is no other way to get there I would not risk your hire car going through that road.

Note the ENORMOUS potholes.

Wanting to find a fairly quite beach (and some shade - the sun was baking) we headed to the Beach Club area at Hotel Nikko. There was a nice shaded area as it was later afternoon and we once again sat in the water cooling off and generally doing nothing. This water was not as pleasant as Tumon - lots of seaweed and rocks close to the shore.

It can be a tropical island paradise!

 

[smit0847]

Friday night we wanted to do something a bit different for our final night and headed to the local sushi restaurant in Tumon. Once again we were greeted with a long queue and once again the restaurant was painfully inefficient. We again waited for 45 minutes for a 2 person spot at the sushi train - for a good 30 minutes of that time there was a 2 person spot that stayed empty directly in front of us. An American couple was even more frustrated with us at the inefficiency to the point where they sat the manager down and explained why their system didn't work. This was met with a shrug and a 'this is how we do things here' explanation. The sushi was okay - the quality was not as good as Tokyo or Hakuba (not surprising) and it was actually quite expensive but it was nice to have something that wasn't deep fried or bbq'd.

We had tried to investigate the local clubbing scene and found out that there was a clubbing-type 'complex' called Pentagon in Tumon which had 5 venues under 1 roof. We headed down there and were surprised that there was no entry fee as males (a lot of venues advertise on the local radio as being 'ladies free all night, guys free before 10 etc'). The 5 venues idea was clever - it appeared that 5 different venues had realised they weren't offering anything that special on their own so joined together to make a 5-venue super complex with one entry point, ID check etc. There was a high-energy dance/hip-hop club, a strange cafeteria type pool hall with hip-hop, and outdoor deck with seating and hip-hop, a neon-lit otherwise dark hip-hop club and finally a really grungy dingy club playing, believe it or not, hip-hop. There were quite a lot of military there drinking heavily (you can spot them by their haircuts) and I would not want to be Security trying to break up a fight between some of these guys - they looked tough! The music was largely the same between all 5 venues and none really got full enough to have great atmosphere but we found a generous bartender in the neon-club that was extremely generous with his free-pour spirits so after only a few drinks we were very merry. We stumbled home around 2am and considered popping into the Green Lizard as we walked past to say goodbye to the girls but decided it would only make us more intoxicated so headed to bed. If you are young and up for a good time I would definitely recommend Pentagon for a first-night drink - sit at the bar and if its not busy, talk to the bartenders.

Tumon at night

DFS Galleria at night.

I guess they don't have fast-food on Base.

 

[smit0847]

Some other random shots from around the island:

 

[RooFlyer]

Oh come on its not that bad! The photos do get better once the rain stops! Guam is definitely about the journey and not the destination though.


<snip>.

Fair enough!

 

[somebol]

I thought Macys was pretty good, I can only compare it to the NYC one. Prices and range were good - its not just xx_L leftovers - they have the full range of sizes. Clothes are very boxy and oversized to suit the average large American.

Thanks. Currently I have two days in GUM as I was hoping to do some shopping there. With only Macys I probably can cut my time there to 1 day.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Thanks for the info Smit0847 & the time & effort you put into writing the TR. We head up that way next month so looks like we may have to visit the Green Lizard for a sherbet or two.

 

[smit0847]

Day 6
Our final day in Guam. After our large evening we slept in and then slowly pcked our clothes. With all the duty free shopping we had been doing I had to buy a hideous Asian shopping bag to get it all home. We were allowed a noon check-out and decided to see if we could find anywhere that did parasailing that day. Google told us thet Ocean Jet Club at the bottom of Tauming Bay was one of the only places that did it and when we rang them that morning they said they had spots that day but we would need to come down and book in person. We drove down there and enquired about availability to be told they only had 3pm available. Unfortunately our flight was at 5pm which would have been far too rushed to make it. We settled for jet-skiing which we have done many times in Vietnam and Thailand. We paid USD55 for 30 minutes of jetskiing which also included bbq lunch, locker hire and use of any of the beach clubs
non-motorised facilities. We thought this was pretty good value.

The jet skiing was very fun - we were told we had to follow a specific course and that we would be watched and if we disobeyed the rules we would be pulled offwith no refund. These rules initially seemed pretty harsh but I soon understood why - the jet ski area is in about 60cms of water with large rocks underneath. I have never jet-skiied in such shallow water before and would be terrified of going off course because the jet ski could easily scrape a extra large rock. The instructor took us around for our first lap and then left us to it. He went VERY fast so I was not concerned about the 'no speeding' rule. It was a bit bumpy and I had an enormous amount of salt-water spraying in my face but it was great fun to be out in the sun hording around. After this we, for something completely different, sat in the shallow water and did nothing. Tauming Bay was much, much quieter than Tumon and for that reason I probably liked it more. The beach club was extremely peaceful and there were plenty of staff around to answer any questions, supervise safety and make sure everyone had a good time. We watched many hapless Asian tourists excitedly jump onto kayaks in groups of 2 and 3 only to give up
shortly after as they could not coordinate paddling in anything other than circles. Lunch was rice, microwaved mixed vegetables and bbq'd chicken and ribs. The meat was delicious.

 

[smit0847]

A bit more beach time and we unglamorously showered and changed into 'plane' clothes attempting to remove all sand and headed to the airport. We wanted to allow plenty of time to argue/persuade the check-in agent that we shouldn't be charged the USD200 fee for the snowboard bag (to the point of flashing my *A Gold card and checking-in before we even returned the hire car) but check-in was a breeze. There were no questions asked about the bag and no fee charged and in stark comparison to NGO, check-0in was completed
in just minutes by a cheerful UA agent. I was surprised that she was able to issue us UA and TG boarding passes all the back back to MEL (on UA stock) but assumed these would have to be replaced with proper TG BPs at some stage.

We headed through Security and immigration (both were very quick) and then looked for the UA Club which for those wondering if next to Gate 10. As we were walking there the main walk-way was being roped-off by Security. We then had to wait for an ENTIRE 747 planeload to walk past us from the plane to the inbound immigration hall. This took a good 15 minutes and was extremely frustrating as even when there was a gap in passengers streaming through we were still blocked from passing until every single passenger had disembarked. This continued the Guam theme of inefficiency!

We eventually made it to the UA Club which, apart from its rather grandiouse stair case was just a basic lounge. There are no showers. The tarmax views were good and it was fairly spacious but the
food offering were once again minimal. Anyone expecting to find a whole meal here to catch up on sleep on the flight is going to be
disappointed. Drinks were far more substantial. They called boarding very early (45 minutes prior) and knowing we were only a few gates away we didn't hurry. As we left the lounge the desk agent looked at us and said 'Osaka?!' When we said yes her face indicated that we should hurry. We walked quickly to the gate (thank god another 747 had not landed in between the Club and the gate!) to find boarding completed and the doors being closed. The gate agent was on the phone and I could hear her saying 'yes, I see them coming now' so I'm guessing she was speaking to the Club desk agent. We were still 25 minutes prior to take-off and I found all this drama unnecessary. I have arrived at MEL AIRPORT 25 minutes before my (dom) flight left and still made it easily!