Memoirs of Aleisha

Guam is an interesting little island. It’s pretty tiny, with a population of about 160,000 inhabitants. You can see the whole island in a day if you have a car. It’s really close to Japan – only a 3.5 hour flight. It’s a popular holiday destination for Japanese people. Guam is actually a US territory but the island is a mix of Japanese, American and local influence. It is heavily catered for Japanese tourists. Pretty much all the signs are in Japanese, as well as in English. It was almost like a mini-Japan, perhaps a cross between Hawaii and Okinawa. I found that I could understand more by reading everything in Japanese, despite the fact that everyone speaks English in addition to Chamurro. Maps, menu, signs etc are all in Japanese. And most of the tourists are predominantly Japanese or Korean. At the same time, it has an American culture. Big shopping malls, large portion food and the currency is USD. There is also quite a strong military presence with a both a navy and air force located on the tiny island. The weather though is hot, humid and sunny – it’s actually pretty close to the equator.

It has beautiful bays and coastline, and jungle/bush areas. But it’s a super tiny island filled with big cars and trucks. 98% of the cars are imported from Japan. It seemed like there were more calls than people. The malls and shopping outlets are popular with tourists. They even have a 24-hour KMart store. However, there is not a single Starbucks store on the island of Guam. Another random tidbit I learnt was that there is a jail on the island. It accomodates 300 people, but currently houses about 700 people.

The main city centre area is Tumon Bay (although that is not the capital of Guam). Tumon is the tourist hub where all the hotels are. It’s really pretty and the water is amazing. It was very picturesque and relaxing. Water and sunshine is all I need.

These are all photos from Day 1 in Guam.

Our view from the hotel room overlooked this side of the bay to the right:

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

I enjoyed waking up to this every morning I was there:

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

Ahh, paradise:

From Guam day 1

This was the other side, where we headed down for a swim on the Saturday morning:

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

The bay was super shallow, but the water super clear. Popular for snorkelling and there was a surprising amount of fish and marinelife.

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

An example of appropriate and inappropriate beach footwear:

From Guam day 1

The hotel was also really nice. We had a great view from our room and it had an infinity pool.

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

Surrounded by water and more water:

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

Brace yourself: lots of photos of pretty much the same thing. But that’s my style that you’ve come to know and love.

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

This is why I love water and love swimming.

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

Sunset from the hotel room:

From Guam day 1

From Guam day 1

Guam was an awesome holiday mini-break. I would have liked to have spent more time there. I managed to squeeze in a lot for a short amount of time. Saturday was mostly hotel-bound and admiring the views of the bay, aside from a small swim session and resting up before the 8km swim race. Sunday was then spent recovering the 8km swim, so I really didn’t do a lot of sightseeing over the weekend.