For media in our region, when you are invited to apply for a bursary to travel, you take advantage of an opportunity your publisher (ahem) might not have the budget to send you on.
Skyler Obispo, our senior reporter, just returned from covering the investment summit hosted by Hawaii’s East West Center one of 10 journalists from the Pacific invited to apply to do so. And one of only three from the North Pacific. You can read his exclusive coverage of the summit in this paper.
If you have been to Hawaii and are from Guam you may have stayed at the Ala Moana Hotel, as the Guam delegation did, Skyler said. It’s popular with people from the islands and the Ala Moana mall is just a hop away.
That’s where I stayed when I went to Hawaii on business. Sure enough, you could’ve held a Guam Chamber of Commerce meeting, there were so many of us from Guam at the hotel.
I figured out that Hawaii’s bus system was a deal — or a steal — at $2.50 a ride, and I rode the bus to all my meetings in the business district and to wherever else I needed to be. Skyler said the price of a bus ride has risen to a whopping $3 a ride.
There are times when I wish we had such an efficient public transit system in Guam.
One thing I could have done without was the pictures on the buses of people suffering from meth addiction, and graphic photos of their gums and glazed eyes. I began to avoid looking at fellow riders and developed the same uneasiness as riding the subway in New York. (I did once. After that I took cabs in New York everywhere.)
Hawaii people told me I needed to be out of the business district by 6 p.m., because that’s when the homeless population begins to appear on the streets.
Skyler got to see them too. Now of course we have addicts and homeless in Guam, just like everywhere else.
The last time my husband and I were in Hawaii together we split our time between staying with my cousin and my sister-in-law and family. Our transport was a mix of riding with them to various delights, borrowing cars and hiring our own for two days.
We drove round the island and revisited some of the places my husband knew from living in Hawaii, and to the North Shore and its famous food trucks — complete that day with homeless people sleeping in the middle of the road. And to the Byodo-In Temple, and the Kualoa Ranch where Jurassic Park was filmed. Of course we found Trader Joe’s.
Honolulu is big and apart from shopping, it offers something for everyone. You just must find your place and we did. Ours had a bar with an outside terrace, a bookshop, a boutique and the best beigels for breakfast. I can hardly bring myself to share how much we enjoyed Kailua.
Of course, Hawaii has gotten more expensive, and it has the Kamaaina rate and now an additional “green fee,” and less people from Guam travel there for medical care, since the Philippines is just a few hours away. If you are heading for the mainland, it’s worth every penny not to go through Hawaii and schlep your luggage through the airport.
I never met a Pacific Island I haven’t enjoyed. Hawaii is worth a visit, even if Guam wins as a destination and place to live. mbj
— Maureen N. Maratita is the publisher at Glimpses Media. Glimpses Media includes the Marianas Business Journal, Guam Business Magazine, The Guam Guide, Wave 105.1 FM, Power98 and Route99.
