Heh, heh...I'm sure some accommodations can be arranged (reaching for his calculator).
Guam has currently been experiencing what they locally refer to as "depression". As in the economic type. The news media has been using the D word for over a year now. Travelers from the states would be a welcome surprise. Their economy rests on two shoulders, Japanese tourism and the US Military presence an odd couple when you think about it. The closing of Philippine AB leases was a big help to this second but still its not enough. Japan has to dig out of its decade long malaise.
I was out there last August for a short visit. While there, I hopped over to neighboring Rota for a round of golf on their one course. I singled on at 9:30 AM and never saw another golfer in front or behind me, while I played three balls for the practice. I "owned" that course for the day. Someone is losing money big time, even if they are using low cost Philippine labor imports to run the complex.
November might be a good time for a meteor watch. The cooler dry season would just be starting. It might not rain too much. A couple years back, when the Leonids were predicted to be big over Asia and I was riding the market bulge better, I had Monica set me up with reservations to head over to Ullan-Batar just to find a dark spot to watch the night sky. It is good that I never followed through with that dream. Although the meteors never came, the steed I was riding on my way to stardom shortly created a storm of its own falling walrusi fashion back down to mother earth in a fairly large splat.
Every July 21st, the locals line the streets for their annual parade. Marine drive (their main highway is shut down and a huge parade and fiesta ensues. This event marks the annual remembrance of Liberation Day, that day when the US began the reclamation of one of the few US pieces of territory lost to the Japanese during WW2. They remember well the horror and brutality brought upon them by the invading Japanese and are happily and staunchly American citizens. But they want a separate peace. They are one of the last American colonial vestiges. They fall under the dominion of the BLM which I would imagine to be something akin to be ruled by Cal Trans. They have a presence in Federal Congress but their voting powers are limited. Like all western American cities, their transportation is car based. There are more cars on Guam than coconut crabs and there are lots of coconut trees.
There used to be a Very Large Sign, above the entrance of the MAC terminal at Anderson AFB on Guam. It read, literally, "GUAM is GOOD, by order of the Base Commander". |
