Pacific Puzzle An overwhelming feeling of gratitude came over me, along with a super-sized sigh of relief when we finally touched down in Majuro. The Marshall Islands was my very last country on an absolutely ridiculous and downright unrealistic 11-country, 30-day itinerary that would take me through nine new countries, all in The Pacific. I’d…
View More
Grumpy McGrumperPants My kryptonite is no sleep, which turns me into a complete, worthless, grumpy zombie. My journey to Pohnpei would begin from Palau at 2AM, so there wasn’t even one wink of sleep for me. I arrived in Guam by 5AM. It was weird being stamped into the US in the middle of this…
View More
New Year, Who Dis? I’d ring in the New Year (2023) from Palau this time (even though I’d be snoozing by 9:30PM). Before I get started on Palau, I thought it would be fun to recap my New Year’s by location over the last few years: 2022: Comoros 2021: São Tomé e Príncipe 2020: Pakistan…
View More
Time to get Nerdy There are currently 193 fully-recognized countries in the world. But was 193 always the number? Of course not – countries come and go over time. Take for example, the USSR. When it was finally broken up back in 1991, 15 brand new countries were created almost overnight: Uzbekistan, Georgia, Moldova, Latvia,…
View More
Wham Bam The Solomon Islands were part of a huge, end-of-year, 30-day jaunt around the Pacific. The trip would wrap up the region for me, completely – checking off nine new countries and include two repeats (transit). Even though I had an entire month to get nine countries done, because of the scarcity of flights…
View More
Kira-Whati? There have been a handful of “mysterious” nations that I’ve been intrigued with over the years, and I saved Kiribati until close to the end. The Pacific island nation joins other fascinating places that my friends have never heard of, like Nauru, Tuvalu, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea and Suriname. These are places we did not…
View More
Gimme Samoa If you’re a regular reader to my blog, you know that some countries give me a “vibe” right off the bat – a succinct feeling in my heart. Samoa was one of them. I thought, at first, it could’ve been just the impeccable warm welcome from the hotel. Moments after arriving at the…
View More
I’m so Excited (and I Just Can’t Hide It) I was excited to see Vanuatu just for the name itself. “Vahn-ooh-ahh-too.” So exotic right? Flying a new carrier (for me), Vanuatu Airlines, was also a bonus. The three-hour flight from Auckland to Port Vila in business was nice. The food was solid, complete with carrot…
View More