Ben and I went on holidays last week to Kosrae (pronounced kosh-RYE), the next State over from Pohnpei. It was our friend Dan's 40th birthday, and he is teaching music there for the summer. He was kind enough to put us up, and even slept on the floor of his own lounge room so we could be more comfortable. What a host!
Kosrae is a volcanic island, but is much smaller than Pohnpei and the soil is younger, so they can grow all sorts of exciting stuff that's hard to grow on Pohnpei. The tangerines are famous, and I'm pretty sure that if I returned to work without bringing any I would have been fired. The population estimates I have heard for Kosrae vary from about 8,000 - 11,000. Either way, it doesn't have much of a claim to being home to lots of people. There are three hotels/ resorts on the island: the Kosrae Village resort, the Tree lodge and the Nautilus resort. So not a huge array of choices re eating/ drinking and accomodation. But they are great!
Kosrae is known as the 'island of the sleeping lady", as there is a view of the mountain that really looks like a lady lying on her back. It gets a bit shaky under the breasts, but you can see what they mean. To badly paraphrase a traditional belief, the lady did something bad, and was sent down from the Gods and put to sleep.
Kosrae is less developed than Pohnpei, and more religious. The missionaries struck gold here (and continue to do so) - it is illegal to do many things on Sundays. Such as snorkel, play checkers and drink alcohol. Chess is OK, but scrabble's legal status is uncertain. You'll all be relieved to know that it's still OK for women to cook and clean.
It was, in fact, illegal for both Ben and I to drink there, as we are both under the legal drinking age of thirty five. It's fun being naughty.
You can still see Kosraens paddling through the lagoon in outrigger canoes, which I think is really cool. Here is a lonely one waiting for its owner.
Apparently we saw a lot more people out on canoes than usual, as the island ran out of petrol towards the end of our stay (the pumps failed at the main thingy). For someone who spent 4 years working in a petrol station, the ones here are just...... hmmm. more fun but not much bothered with safety and clean fuel. But definately more fun. The stations are little plywood shacks, with old gallon sized bleach bottles full of petrol or diesel. The fuel is put into the car using a funnel. We didn't have to worry about the petrol shortage as Dan had hired a ute (pick-up!) with a big tray to transport lots of people, that ran on diesel. It was dirty, old, and made funny noises. But all was forgiven when we saw it's name. The best name for a vehicle ever.
And yes, people do travel in the back of utes, very frequently. People even put plastic chairs in the tray for a bit more comfort. It's really fun if you enjoy seeing your life flash before your eyes regularly. I certainly have done a lot of things....
Ben got his open water SCUBA diver qualifiaction during our stay, which means we can now take advantage of the amazing diving over here. I got a NITROX certification, which means that I can use enriched air when diving so I can stay down under water for longer, and it makes you much less tired at the end of the day. The water is so clear in Kosrae, and the coral and fishies are abundant and very beautiful.
When Ben was off doing crazy things like removing his mask underwater and learning what to do if you need to vomit with your breathing regulator in your mouth, Dan and I went for a hike at the Menka ruins. You can check out his blog for an account of our whole holiday there. I'll plagiarise his text on Menka:
"Wednesday after work, I went with Joanna down to Utwe. On the Finkol River bridge we met Salik who was to guide us on an afternoon hike.
Our destination was the Menka Ruins: the ancient home of the goddess Sinlaku. In the 1850's Sinlaku had a preminition of the missionaries arrival and left for Yap. That is why the missionaries had a relatively easy time converting the whole island to Christianity.
Anyways, in the middle of Kosrae lie the Menka ruins where everyone went to worship. They are now overgrown by mold and jungle, but you can still see the square-shaped structures each with a small or large pile of rocks inside. The structures vary in size, but are approximately 40 feet on each side, I guess.
We only saw four of the structures, but Salik said that there were hundreds(!) of them. He said that long ago, the area was cleared of trees. He also thought that no one lived there (since there are no known graves), but people only went there to worship.
It was an eerie spot within the dark shadows of the jungle, and we spent some time just sitting there drinking coconuts before beginning the hour-long hike back.
The hike is quite breathtaking. We followed the Finkol River under the towering trees. Salik pointed out various flowers and plants and their uses. He even pulled up a plant that has poisonous roots which people put in the water so fish will die. A lazy way to fish!"
This is a ginger flower we passed on the hike to the ruins- so beautiful, especially against the predominat green, green, green of the jungle. There is also another type of ginger flower that looks a little bit like a red hot poker flower- if you pick it, you can squeeze it like a tube of toothpaste and out comes delicious smelling hair conditioner! I tried it, it's great. The women of Kosare used to use it when bathing in the streams.
These are 'mountain apples' - not really on a mountain, nothing like apples, but tasty sour little crunchy things. They grow straight off the trunk of the tree!
This is a sakau punding stone - it's pretty hard to wear away at basalt like that! Kosraens don't drink sakau (like kava) anymore. Missionaries again.
Some of the ruins. There are apparently hundreds of them around the mountain.
I love jungle.
Dan's birthday was on the Tuesday. He had a BBQ (a grill) in the evening, it was splendid. We had fresh skipjack tuna burgers, and 2 birthday cakes. Happy Birthday again Dan!
Lucky birthday sacrificial tuna
Lucky birthday boy. He managed to blow out all 40 candles in one go!
Lelu ruins.
Ben and I explored the Lelu ruins one afternoon. There are ruins similar to those at Nan Madol (see one of our first posts!) on Kosrae. I won't get into the debate about which ones came first, I am not that silly. These ruins are in the middle of a residential area, and it's very strange to stand in these breathtaking (if very ill kept and overgrown) ruins and see a lady doing household tasks just off to the side. The ruins are great, you really get the feeling that you are the person that discovered them and are exploring them for the first time since they were abandoned. well, apart from the homes nearby and the signs telling you what each compound was used for.
Every Thursday night there is a booze cruise. I think the proper name for it is 'sunset cruise'. Mark, who runs the Tree Lodge resort takes out his boat and anchors it in the harbour so you can watch the sunset over the sleeping lady's ample and perky bosom. Such a good deal - he provieds sashimi and nori rolls and beer and 'jungle juice' - $10!
sunset on the sunset cruise (no bosom).
Beer. I've never seen Korean beer before. I love new experiences.
Mangroves. The Tree Lodge restaurant (home to Friday night happy hour and some amazingly good food) is built out over the mangroves. There is a wooden path, not well lit, with no railings that heads out over these mangroves to get to the restaurant. This path apparently became too difficult for a customer after one happy hour and they went straight in. Ouch.
RANDOM PHOTOS
Cats. They took a shine to Ben's bag at the Kosrae Village Resort restaurant.
Blade runner coming to Kosrae?
It's not exactly the most futuristic of places.... although the island did get television in the last 5 years. Doesn't look like it's going to stop the Mormons from trying to take over the world. We half expected to see robots marching out of the building...
Goats
Tragedy. Can you pick what's wrong with the picture of the (expensive) exotic beer I spied and ordered at the restaurant after a hard day of diving theory and exams?
Ribs. just liked the sign.
Jo
A while ago (early July!), my mother, father and uncle visited us here in Pohnpei.
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.
