Visitors to Pohnpei

A while ago (early July!), my mother, father and uncle visited us here in Pohnpei.
To help them fit in, we asked them to grow small shrubberies on their heads before they arrived.


The mobile phone system is so good in the FSM that we wanted to show them the very highest antenna there is at the top of Sokehs Ridge. It was quite a hike to the top... Not bad for their second day in the tropics!


Nothing that can't be soothed by the ocean view at The Ocean View Hotel however. That's Sokehs Ridge, behind the pole Dad is standing in front of.

Congress was in session, and we attended the opening day. We were very kindly welcomed by Senator Halbert and Speaker Figir. You can see the journal transcript by clicking here.
(bottom of page 9, top of page 10)


We toured Kolonia, seeing the sights, such as the bell tower of the ex-German catholic church.

Had a brilliant day on a tour with The Village Hotel.

We snorkelled and picnicked at Manta Road and Na Island, on the way to Nan Madol.



Nan Madol was amazing and awe-inspiring as usual.


And we had a glorious swim at Kepirohi Falls.

We visited the Marine and Environmental Research Institute of Pohnpei (MERIP), where friends of ours breed giant clams, amongst other weird and wonderful things.

We attended the inauguration of the new President of the FSM, Emanuel (Mani) Mori.

We spent a glorious weekend at Black Coral Island, snorkelling, swimming, eating, drinking and sleeping.

And, after all that, they still wanted to leave.
They had to leave their shrubberies though, you know how strict the customs officers are in Australia...

That's their plane, as seen from our balcony, whisking them back to Australia.

It was a great 9 days, and we really enjoyed being 'the locals' and showing them around.
Thanks Mum, Dad and Paul for taking the huge effort and expense to visit us, it was excellent!

Ben

pretty cool

It's not every country in which you can start hitchiking and be picked up by the President....

Palau

Oh dear,

A few special visitors, a trip to the islands of the FSM and a trip to Palau, and the blog goes out the window. I did point out to Ben that perhaps HE could post a few more things, but to no avail. He is very stubborn.

But, to the issue at hand. Whoops. No posts. Sorry. I'm still doing much better than Sophia Rahmani though (sorry Soph, but it is true).

I got back from a trip to Palau last week, having attended a Parliamentarians conference there. Wow, Palau is really cool. It has strict environmental protection laws that seem to be enforced, and they have gorgeous aquamarine coloured water and sandy beaches out on the rock islands.

The time I spent there was very short, I didn't have much spare time at all as it was all conference, conference, conference. I didn't even get the change to go to the Indian restaurant I was so looking forward to patronising! But I did have a lot of fun, ate a lot of lobster and crabs and other seafood, drank my fair share of wine and enjoyed Saturday with the conference delegates out on the rock islands swimming and picnicing.

I also managed to get 3 dives in on the first day of the conference (didn't start until 8.30pm!) which were lots of fun. Unfortunately I got a very sudden mask squeeze, and even though I cleared it I did manage to burst all the little blood vessels around my eyes. Ew. It made me look about 15 years older and very haggard. I have now placed an order on strawberrynet for expensive skin care products to placate my new fear that my future face has that look in store for me.

I'll bring the camera to work tomorrow. In the meantime, there is a cool montage of photos of the FSM at:
http://bild-art.de/kpress/images/stories/images%20of%20micronesia.jpg

It's Pohnpei's local paper. Check it out!

Jo