Colonia, Yap must be the calmest capital city I’ve ever been to anywhere in the world. Essentially just three or four streets that wrap around the lagoon and then wander off into the interior of the island, with cars but never really with traffic. Easily the busiest I ever saw […]
Tag: Islands
Yap Bai Men’s Houses
As one the most traditional of all the Federated States of Micronesia, Yap retains a lot of the customs that have started to fade out in other places. One of the most immediately visible of these are the faluw, or Men’s Houses, that showed up in every village I visited. Traditionally […]
Kayaking Palau
Kayaking Palau What to do when you find yourself on an island chain in the North Pacific and just really need to get away for a while? Grab a kayak, hitch a ride, and launch out for the Rock Islands of Palau: As the rats chewed through the fabric […]
Palau’s Jellyfish Lake: One Snorkel, Two Fins, Thousands of Jellyfish
In the “Most Surreal things I’ve ever done” department, Palau’s Jellyfish Lake is right up towards the top. Jumping in the water with thousands of jellyfish floating about would normally seem like a really bad idea. Those first few seconds, swimming into Palau’s Jellyfish Lake and its hordes of the […]
Traditional Yap Stone Money
Long before the Yuan was pegged to the Dollar was pegged to the Market and it was all pegged to the whims of Warren Buffett, Yap had its own sort of pegs: stuck into the center of their giant stone money. The Yapese are so proud of this tradition (and […]
Camping in Yap Micronesia: 10 Steps
10 Steps to Camping in Yap, Micronesia Looking for some small scale adventure in an out of the way place? Yap, Micronesia might be just the place. This barely-inhabited island country in the middle of the North Pacific is ripe for exploration, and best of all it can be done […]