In this blog entry we explore the wonder of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. Don't worry, when I first heard I was going, I didn't know where it was either. Micronesia means small islands. If you trace a line north up the east coast of Australia, cross over the equator and about 6 degrees into the northern latitudes there is a speck on the map. It looks like a bit of dust, but don't try and brush it away, that's the island of Pohnpei.
To get to Pohnpei I first had to fly up the coast of Australia to Cairns. From Cairns it was then international travel over the equator to Guam, a territory of the USA. Transiting through Guam I had to pass in and out of the US customs and border protection. I found my first encounter with the department of homeland security fairly tedious, though the man with the rubber glove was surprisingly gentle. From Guam it was onto Pohnpei. Working for the federal government, all international travel is business class, putting me in the unfamiliar position at the pointy end of the plane. On the Pohnpei flight, I settled into my seat to start reading my book "The seven pillars of wisdom". I didn't get through many pages before the guy next to me started a conversation. We got chatting and within very little time realised we were both from Canberra. With a book in my lap written by T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) about the arab revolt against the turks, I soon found out I was sitting next to the Turkish Ambassador in Australia! I carefully closed my book and put it away before he noticed the title. After that potential awkwardness I got along really well with the Turkish ambassador, as usually happens when you stumble across someone with a similar slanted view of the world. We were both excited about our respective tropical island visits (he was going to the Marshall Islands) and bustled for photographs out the window of the reefs, atolls, beautiful clear water and tropical islands. Throughout the flight we had a good laugh and he took my card with a view to invite me to a function at the Turkish Embassy in Canberra sometime later in the year. Score! 
I had been sent to Pohnpei to work on the south pacific sea level and climate monitoring project. This is an AusAID funded project and our involvement encompasses the running of fancy-pants continuous GPS sites at over ten pacific island countries and making height connections to tide gauges in the vicinity. Most of the work is relatively simple, but takes a while due to the distance between GPS sites and the coastal tide gauges. We had ten days in Pohnpei to finish the work. It all got done with some time on the end for sight seeing.The work involved a precise height level survey through Kolonia, the main town of Pohnpei. The work took a long time, allowing plenty of time for casual observations of tropical island life.
Kolonia is the main port and town of the island of Pohnpei. The town is a bit of a mess with a mixture of old and new buildings over run by tropical jungle and discarded rubbish. The town is overshadowed by Sokehs Rock on Sokehs Island. The rock is the outstanding symbol of Pohnpei which featured heavily in my photographs. The Japanese made use of the islands prominent position by placing cannons and military posts up there. When the sepos (yanks – septic tanks) bombed the town to buggery at the end of WWII the Japanese abandoned their posts. The war relics are still there and we made time for a quick inspection after walking up the side of the mountain. The guns are scattered about on the top, in amongst beautiful tropical plants and flowers. It's like a Japanese war garden. While up the top we also took in the birds-eye view of Kolonia and the surrounding reef.
We ate at every restaurant/hotel in Kolonia. There aren't a lot of places to chose from, so we visited most places several times. Most of the restaurants are attached to hotels and tend to sport spectacular views of the water,tropical jungle and islands. The food is relatively cheap and plentiful. I struggled to finish most servings and learnt to order half what I would at home as this was usually more than I could eat. There is an obvious mix of Asian (Japanese) and US influence on the food, although I always tried to eat local when possible. The fresh reef fish and sashimi was wonderful and I enjoyed coconut juice straight from the coconut. The Pohnpei style pancakes were wicked with a three stack covered in stewed fruit. Most of the tropical fruits were out of season, although I did try soursop and bread fruit and took advantage of the bunches of bananas growing on trees by the side of the road. There were some pretty cool bars in town. My favourite was one where you had to have faith and walk through two completely empty rooms in what appears to be an abandoned building before stumbling across the bar which opens up to a view of the harbour, town and mountain. It is a popular surfer bar, with messages on the wall from surfers who have travelled the world to ride the famous waves of Palikir Pass (P-Pass).
Locals chew betelnut. Young and old. Male and female. Betelnut are everywhere in the tropics and can be plucked from the trees or, for the lazy, bought from the corner store. Locals chew the betelnut along with ground coral lime and some tobacco leaves, similar to chewing tobacco. They cram all this stuff in their mouth and nor away. Apparently, they get a slight buzz from it and with the tobacco leaves it is addictive. When they chew the betelnut all the ingredients cause their saliva to go blood red, making it look like the person has a mouth full of blood. Looking into the mouth of a chewer is off putting as in addition to looking like they have just taken a bite from someones neck, the teeth are all discoloured and stained, or they have completely lost their teeth or have had replacement gold teeth inserted. It is common to see people spitting in the street or out the car door. This is a disgusting habit and I'm not sure what the appeal is. I can't imagine it impresses the ladies (although plenty of girls do it to).
After the recent expensive work done on my teeth I wasn't keen to give betelnut a go, but if an opportunity had of presented I would have sat in on a sakau (Kava) session. This is a popular drink in the tropics where they extract the juices from the kava plant roots and with water drink from a coconut shell. My fijian-indian colleague informed me that Pohnpei sakau is particularly potent and recommended I hold off until I am in Fiji where he will sort me out. Apparently the effect of kava is a bit like a tranquiliser and you remain clear in the head but your mouth goes numb just from a sip and you pretty much loose the feeling in your arms and legs. It is best had in a ceremonial fashion where people sit around in a circle passing the coconut shell amongst themselves following very strict ceremonial procedures.
Overseas influences are ever present, although with an islands slant. There is a definite US accent with the young, most likely brought on from all the US cable tv, as they speak black rapper style street slang. The supermarkets are full of US cereals and junk food dropped along the route from Gaum to Hawaii and a bag of doughnuts is a popular purchase from the corner stores. There are lots of cars on the main roads with every second vehicle being a pick-up (ute). It is common for a pick-up to drive along with every family member, friend and friend of friend sitting in the back tray, hanging over the sides. My favourite image was seeing two pickups cruise past on a rainy day. One had a load of unhappy, soggy passengers in the back, the other was full of umbrellas and smiling faces. Softball is a popular game amongst the locals. Every day there is a business league twilight game at the softball field which makes use of the historic Spanish wall (built during the Spanish occupation in the late 1890s) as one of the outfield walls. Each of the major businesses in town enter a team. A relatively large crowd attend the games, sprawling across the stands. The fans are generally quiet and seem impartial. It took a while for me to realise that most spectators are there just to see people make fools of themselves. They don't applaud good play, but wait for someone to make a mistake or do something silly and then erupt into laughter and cheers. 
I wasn't done meeting foreign dignitaries as we had to liaise with the AusAID representative and Australian ambassador at the embassy. The Australian ambassador is a pleasant, interesting woman, whose post covers Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau. My work colleague and I turned on the charm in our meeting with her majesty and managed to scam an invitation to the Australian residence on island. This was a wonderful treat as the Australian compound sits on top of a mountain in the jungle and overlooks the most beautiful scenery of Sokehs Island, Kolonia and the water. The compound consists of three beautiful houses, swimming, pool tennis court, etc. The ambassador is spoiled rotten with cleaners, cooks, etc. On our visit she let us put our feet up and waited on us with drinks. The place is a stark contrast to the reality of the local people living much tougher, cooking out of a bucket and sleeping under tree leaves in the villages in town.During my ten days I also competed in the Pohnpei 5km fun run. I joked that I was the official Australian representative and felt I did my country proud with a fifth placing. I was most pleased that I crossed the line before all the bible bashing US missionaries. There were heaps of Mormons and born again folk in town spreading the world of our Lord and saviour. That kinda stuff bugs me a bit, but Christan religion seems to have caught hold on the island with churches everywhere and church being a big part of life. On the Sunday while we were working the locals flocked to church in their Sunday bests and we were told a few times that we should have been at the service instead of working. On the same day we had a drunkard, who believed we were spys taking photographs of Pohnpei, come extremely close to attacking us, before he was cuffed and thrown into a police car. Always gets the blood pumping.
With our spare time at the end of the trip we explored a few of the island waterfalls and got out for a little walk through the wild growing jungle. We were advised against swimming as the locals up stream and their pigs are not the most hygienic bunch. With plenty of offers we went with a local as our guide to the Nan Madol ruins. These are ruins from the Saudeleur dynasty of a political/worship fortress built on artificial islands over hundreds of years up until 1500AD when the Kosraens (another micronesia island) came and kicked em' out. They built the city into the reef using coral and stones quarried into hexagonal blocks which are believed to have been brought to the area from the other side of the island using magic. Looking at the site, the size of the stones and the height of the walls I am willing to go with the best explanation being magic. It is a fascinating place. Most locals avoid the area as they are scared of the spirits. We were respectful of the area and the rising tide and left after a short visit.
Pohnpei was a fun trip and a great introduction to a pacific island culture. There are not a lot of tourists in Pohnpei and I think that is a good thing. It is a hard place to get to and you have to be really keen on surfing, diving, ancient ruins and tropical jungle to go there. At the airport, before I left, I noticed T-shirts in the tourist shop which pretty much summed up my feelings on my Pohnpei visit. The tops were bright colours with the text "Pohnpei. Been there, done that".