So I’m not going to lie…the reality is we panic booked our flight to Guam. We were looking into ways to fly from South Korea to Timor Leste (we know, not your average route) and while trying to avoid a ridiculous layover in Kuala Lumpur I discovered you could fly from Busan to Guam (that’s totally the same place as Timor right?). I’m going to be totally honest now and say at the time I really didn’t know either where Guam was or anything about it (Dani at least knew it was a U.S. overseas territory) all I knew is that the tickets were on sale and if we missed out it was going to get a lot more expensive to get there (without really knowing why I had a sudden desire to go to a place I knew nothing about). I kind of briefly ran the idea past Dani and we made the decision that we needed to book these tickets quickly in case the price went up. One thing we maybe should have checked was where you could fly to from Guam before booking but hey life’s an adventure right..?! Within 30 minutes we were proud purchasers of tickets to Guam and still had no clue as to how to get to Timor from there. This is when we discovered that the only way we could do this was Guam to Manila, Manila to Bali and Bali to Timor. Also at the time it looked like United was the only option to Manila and it was not going to be cheap (after booking these expensive flights we discovered that Cebu Air do much cheaper ones at a much more sociable time of day). Also another thing we hadn’t thought through was that in attempting to avoid the long layover we were now going to be arriving in Guam at 3am…joy. This was perhaps not our strongest of planning circumstances…but…what you gonna do? Well, it turned out that in panic booking a random flight we were now heading to what would become one of our favourite destinations of the trip. Not only this, but we were now going to finally be seeing the Philippines afterwards on the way to Timor 5 years after we had initially planned to see both. We arrived in Guam early and knew that we weren’t able to check in to our AirBnB until 9am. I had also looked at a map before arriving and seen that it was only 5km from the airport to our apartment…totally walkable. So, at 4am we ignored the catcalls from taxi drivers and set off into the dark…along a highway…in the rain...with our 16kg backpacks and 7-10kg front packs and no sidewalks or pavements in sight! Why I hear you ask…we’ll get back to you on that one! Our only saving grace was knowing there was a Denny’s that we prayed would be open 24 hours like they are in the rest of the world waiting at the end. I’m not sure how but we made it just before sunrise and not only were the staff the friendliest people we had met in months but they had peanut butter, chocolate chip pancakes the size of my head and best of all they weren’t pickled or spicy. Now, I’ve been rambling on a little about how we got to Guam but for those of you who like previous me know nothing about Guam it is a U.S. overseas territory that has 2 large U.S. military bases that take up about a third of the land there. The rest is a stunning tropical island with amazing locals including the indigenous Chamorro people. Think…maybe Hawaii without the ridiculously high prices. The beach in the main tourist area is practically deserted, with white sand and turquoise water and some really good snorkelling just off shore. Just about asleep on our feet we made it to our AirBnB for 9am and checked in. The house was basic but had a kitchen and good aircon and it wasn’t long before I passed out. Accommodation is expensive in Guam so the $74.25AUD ($56USD) a night was steep for our backpacker budget but with the ability to cook for ourselves we hoped would greatly reduce our overall costs. After having a decent nap I thought that the best plan of action would be to leave the house to avoid falling back asleep. I’m not sure why I thought after the 5km walk in the morning a 4km round trip was the smartest idea but the need to stay awake kept us going. We were off to the worlds largest Kmart. Yes you heard me right Guam has the worlds largest Kmart. What this Kmart didn’t have wasn’t worth knowing about. We stocked up on snacks and started the hot walk back. Just for future reference there is a shuttle bus that takes you to all the major shopping malls for $4 USD ($5.30 AUD) per journey but we thought that would add up too quickly to start using it on day one. That night we slept like the dead and woke up really ready to explore. The main tourist beach and shopping district was not far down the road from our apartment so we set out to wander. Guam is a bit of a shoppers dream. It has the convenience of the U.S but set in a tropical paradise. It’s a good place to get new clothes, eat a bit of western food and then immerse yourselves in with the friendly locals. There are so many shopping malls and souvenir shops it isn’t funny but the good thing is that unlike the states they actually include all the tax in the prices. As the closest U.S territory to Asia it has become a bit of a shopping haven for the Koreans, Japanese, and Filipinos. The best way to see the island is by car as there aren’t many buses running (although they do exist). One option is to hire a car but this is quite expensive so the option we decided to go with is booking a tour through Tropical Tours Guam. This turned out to be the best decision we could have made. Our first tour was the island tour and was to include the history of Guam. The company’s owner José picked us up and there were already 2 other guests in the car. One of who already had a can of beer in his hand and was already hammered at 8.30am. I think this was a bonding experience for José and the 2 of us and by the end of the day we were laughing and joking like old friends. This tour was a great introduction to the island though because it showed this history from Chamorro traditional architecture (Late Houses), Spanish forts, Japanese occupation and how Guam became a U.S Territory. We also visited a very cool WWII museum that showed the perspectives of the Japanese and the U.S in Guam and told the story of a Japanese soldier who didn’t realise the war had ended and hid out in the forest for 26 years. By the end of the day we felt like we had really started to get more of an understanding of where we had ended up. After dropping off the other 2 guests José invited us out to have dinner with his family. Not just him, his wife and his kids but also a collection of aunties, uncles and cousins as well. It was so nice to hang out with them and really get to see a different side to the island and feel like we’d made some real friends. We also signed up for the cave tour ($45 USD/59.70 AUD pp.), which took us to a beautiful cave set in a very pretty part of the island. You can snorkel in the fresh water, which is amazing and it is the perfect way to cool off in the tropical heat. The only thing is I would recommend doing the cave and waterfall tour together rather than just the cave as I feel it would give you a better-rounded trip. I can’t really explain just how much we needed Guam when we arrived. We have been on the road for 22 months now and it was so nice to arrive in a place that felt distant, fresh, new and exciting all while still feeling a little bit familiar. Guam is suffering a little after the Japanese stopped coming due to tensions with North Korea and it doesn’t deserve it. It is a warm and welcoming place with a total island vibe and a place where you can unwind and relax. We learnt it wasn’t as expensive on the ground as we thought it would be and if you are traveling around Asia and want somewhere that’s a little bit different why not give this Micronesian Island a chance. It is after all only 3 hours from Manila and 3 hours from Busan. LGBT: We were welcomed with open arms in Guam and we learned that the churches view of homosexuality is one of the reasons people in Guam are turning away from the church (the other reason being the continuous child abuse scandals). There is even a weekly drag night at one of the bars in Tumon. Budget Time $$$What it actually cost:
$1,088 AUD for 7 days. Accommodation: $445.54 Entertainment: $297.09 Food: $238.41 Souvenirs: $62.89 Drinks: $24.86 Miscellaneous: $19.78 This works out at $77.71 AUD per person per day. Guam is not a budget backpackers destination. In fact, it’s not really a destination at all for many people. So unsurprisingly it isn’t cheap! Being an American overseas territory you basically need to be prepared to pay American standard prices for things. Our daily budget for the two of us was $200AUD ($150USD). We did manage to come under this but that was largely the result of staying in an Airbnb with a kitchen and therefore cooking most of our meals ourselves instead of eating out. This is definitely a good tip if you want to visit Guam on a budget as supermarket groceries for the most part aren’t particularly expensive. In terms of the cost of activities on the island, again you have to accept they are going to be pretty standard American prices. We did a couple of tours with the fabulous Tropical Tours Guam which offer a multi tour discount and are absolutely worth looking into for your planned excursions while on the island. Your only other real alternative is to hire your own car which a lot of visitors to Guam opt for as their transport option, although we decided this was not necessary for us. Honestly, Guam does not cater to the backpacker crowd, it targets package holiday makers from nearby Korea and Japan. That being said it is a fabulous and very worthwhile off the beaten track destination to visit, you just have to be prepared to pay for it!
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