Rumble
rumble
5:30 or
thereabouts the engines begin to make a LOT of noise. Forget about any sleep
after that. I could see the lights of Guam in the far black distance. Pretty
soon the sun began to hint at dawn and still we didn’t seem to be any closer.
It turns out the pilot didn’t get on board at the planned time and the US Coast
Guard won’t let a ship like this into US waters unless it has a pilot. So we
were an hour late berthing. And in the meantime, the wind was fierce, which it
pretty much maintained all day. And then there was some rain.
But alas,
finally, all is well.
Immigration
We are give
all our forms in advance, and our passports are delivered to us. At our
appointed time (we go in cohorts by number and based on your tour time and
such) We present appear at the door of (this time) the Cabaret Lounge where a
crew member at the door checks that we have all our forms properly completed.
Stationed at regular intervals are other crew members to assure we keep moving
along. So first we surrender our instruction sheets with our names on them.
Then we stand in line (very briefly I assure you) to be pointed to immigration
officials. there Were at least 6 that I saw and more wandering the ship. After
our passports are stamped, we are directed to yet one more immigration
official, this time about agriculture. So he checks it all over and gives us a
piece of paper that says we passed, and we move along to surrender our
passports once again to the ship’s staff (I pity the poor soul who gets the job
of remaining on the ship and refiling all these!), get our card sized piece of
paper saying we have gone through immigration and are now pointed in the
direction of yet one more gathering site where we are given our number for the
free shuttle if we wish to use it. This is provided free by the local merchants
and only goes one way: to the GPO: Guam Premium Outlets. It takes about 30
minutes to get there and we debated finding other folks to share a cab.
Eventually we rode along in a nicely air conditioned bus and saw the district
court, Governor’s House, some Chamorro sites (the local indigenous peoples who
were pretty much eliminated by the Spanish).
The temp was
in the 80s and humid but the wind so fierce it was actually nice. The poor
coconut trees here are so bent to the wind many look frazzled and others just
gave up and their branches only point away from the wind.
The locals
Mostly
Asian. This is a Japanese destination, but we heard Tagalog too. Few Americans
but everything here would be familiar to you. Lots of Polynesians of course.
Topography
The area is
lush as you’d expect a Pacific Island to be with lovely beaches (though we
didn’t see anyone on them: it is Thursday). There were puddles of water
indicating recent rain beyond what I say this am.
GPO
This complex
has about 15 stores and you’d recognize all the names including the ABCstores
which are also found in Hawaii. There are no bargains here but lots of folks
were looking for decent toothpaste and other consumables. There is also a food
court here with about 8 outlets. Ok you can laugh at me: I had a burrito
supreme at Taco Bell, my first in so long I can’t recall. Ed got a big Asian
assortment from the Imperial Court. One of the clerks in the mall asked how we
all came in. We told her by ship and she said earlier this week, a 2000
passenger ship was in port and she thought they all came to the mall!
Free WiFi
Most people
immediately logged onto the free WiFi which was even stronger than the ship
(which isn’t saying much) AND all theprevious free WiFi sites we have tried. I
think at least a third of the ship’s crew were in the seats in the mall area
making phone calls home and catching up on other WiFi related actions.
I looked for
shoes without much luck. It’s very hard for me to find shoes I can wear.
ROSS
Has a big
store here and the line to check out was the entire length of the store and
this is a BIG store. We visited in line with ship’s friends and finally left
and they were still in line (we didn’t buy anything).
We took our
time and when we returned to the ship, we were not exhausted as we usually are.
Returning to
the ship
A man behind
us remarked on the intense security here. It is not uncommon to have security
in and out of the port area. But they also came on the bus to look around.
(We’ve had this before in other ports and in those instances, we were often
required to show our immigration pass and cruise card but not this time). Then
when we are discharged from the bus there are signs warning us of sniffer dogs
(though I saw none), our bags were visually searched and questioned, and we had
to be wanded before moving on toward the ship where we went through the ship’s
usually routine: your cruise card is examined at two separate stops and you
must go through a metal detector just like an airport. Just before the metal
detector was a Homeland Security officer with whom Ed had a brief conversation
as the line was backed up. When we had to wait, it was in the shadow of the
ship and with brisk winds so it was quite comfortable.
Dinner
Was a catch
up on the tour and most everyone wound up at a shop to stock up on “necessities”.
No one seemed wild about the tour they took but it did get them around the
island a little.
Entertainment
The Cruise
Director has had his work cut out for him. The act tonight was to be two
singers who were first runner up on Britain’s Got Talent (or a show like that).
There was a problem with them getting to the ship in Rabaul related to airline
issues. It seems they were scheduled to meet the ship in Guam and this time
(reason unstated) the airline wouldn’t let them board. So the Polynesian couple
were a quick substitute. The mass exodus when they were opening was actually
embarrassing. I’m sympathetic to the dilemma but I did not want to endure this
duo one more time.
We are
headed to Kaoshung Taiwan which is 1000 nautical miles away so we have some
wonderful days at sea ahead.
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