where I won't travel in the pacific and remaining options

cook islands NO, Nauru NO, Niue NO, Guam NO, Palau No, Pitcairn NO ,Samoa NO, American samoa NO ,Solomon islands NO,Tokalau NO,Tonga NO, tuvalu NO, Vanuatu No.

remainings options.

Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Northern Marianna Islands, federated states of micronesia

alright, I know, I always come back to the same questions, but please understand, I try to make up my mind, as I don't have a conference paid to fly overthere or live as pensioner or work for a state administration .
I know the level of LP questions is mostly about where to stay, to have drink a good beer, find a girl etc...
sorry not to be that conformist.

I am mostly interested in beatiful nature spot, no tourist, and simple encounting with real non mercantile locals, well maybe I should avoid pacific, write it if you believe so.

Note that new guinea isn't optional any more due to price'level consideration.

so, I have 4 options left. and 2 weeks to visit them (or not) I like to select 2 states/places. can somone help to choose and explain its choice.
Note that I am now strongly orientated to federated states of micronesia and kiribati which seem to be emblematic to the idea of pacific islands in european mind, but might be wrong.
the last & the least of my comments is is it worth to go there as frecnh polynesia, new caledonian and next door vanuatu (all using french language) seems to be the nicest places in the aera, if I refer to LP forum

thanks for your help (sorry to be back again, Raro & Lazlo)

Very glad to see you've narrowed things down. I haven't been to the four island groups you mentioned, so I can't give you any personal recommendations. All are, of course, pretty far from French Polynesia, so again, you're main challenge is to find the best flight routing for the areas you pick. Oe can get from Fr. Polyn. to New Caledonia fairly easily, I think, on a French-oriented airline, not sure which one does that route but pretty sure it is a direct flight. From NC you can probably get to Vanuatu the easiest, then Kiribati. Those micronesian groups (Mi, North. Marianas, and FSM) will take a bit more planning flight-wise.
I did go to Guam, and met a lot of nice people from CNMI (N. Marianas). It is the only group of the four that has the larger land mass, hills etc.

So, I think you are well on your way to getting what you want, glad to see it!

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>One can get from Fr. Polyn. to New Caledonia fairly easily, I think, on a French-oriented airline, not sure which one does that route<hr></blockquote>It's Aircalin. It also flies from NC to Vanuatu.

To get to Kiribati, one would have to go via Fiji (Aircalin flies there from NC, too).

To get to the FSM (more interesting than Kiribati, ASFAIK), one would have to go via Hawaii.

BTW, only maybe 40% of Vanuatu uses French, the rest use English.

I would have to say asking "Where to find a girl?" would be one particular question that isn't conformist for a Pacific branch poster. ;)

Our Airline (formerly Air Nauru) has a weekly flight leaving Brisbane Thursday night, flying to Tarawa, Kiribati, via Honiara and Nauru, and returning Friday via the same route. This airline is relatively stabel at present.
You could link to other Pacific Islands either in Honiara (Fiji, Vanuatu, PNG) or Brisbane (Most places).

Sorry, meant to include the link for Our Airline

no tourists? well.....if you go to the fsm you could do Kosrae and Pohnpei. Quite different, next door to one another. not easy to get to, but nevermind.chuuk is for wreck diving only. Yap is wonderful, but further away. Nobody really goes to the Marshalls, not a lot there. And don't turn that around to mean untouristed- there are reasons that people go to one island and not another. The Northern Mariannas have a lot of tourists since it is so close to Japan. Kiribati don't know about but you can't get back and forth to the FSM very easily. So, if you want to visit two islands, those would be my suggestions.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>there are reasons that people go to one island and not another<hr></blockquote>VERY true!
Some untouristed places are of course undiscovered gems, but many are NOT.
All of the very few people I met who have visited the Marshalls were adamant they were the last island group to be visited n Micronesia.

Thanks everyone

one question not directly related to my journey.

what are the reasonsd of the creation of all those independant micro states.
I read everything on wikipedia, but don't get the reasons, states like Kiribati can't afford a plane.....which means that I will most probably withdrawn kiribati from my list (on top of it tourists don't seem to be welcome and kiribati doesn't offer much, doest it, compare to others)
or tuvalu for instead (not on my list anymore) could disappear in the future under water! and most others states don't have economie (I love the idea of tonga who sold geo spacial place for satellite!), therefore what was the original idea?
to make short a long story/question Kiribati or FSM what would be your choice? in term of nicest interesting place to be visited or none of both?

Thanks again

Most of the international barriers result from 19th century European colonisation, and are often very inappropriate, eg the border between Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands - Bougainville is ethnically related to the Western Solomons rather than PNG.

thanks Ozziegiraffe

your answer also applies for africa, south america etc.. my question was broader and mostly related to post ww2 independances states which aren't economically neither maybe ecologically viviable. not sur about this last word as I don't use dictionary.
there is here in europe an interesting case, Kossovo which wants to be independant (not talking about the political aspect) but don't have energy to supply electricity, no raw materail, no agriculture or industry, 75% jobless people (but strong crual mafia) and wants to become independant...how are they going to live, who is going to pay and what would be in the end the positive impact.
Therefore my comment;independant states cost always more than autonomia states which have bigger near and weak budget experience. why did they want those micro states in the pacific in the mid 70ies

I am curious as to why you have ruled out the islands you have ruled out- and come up with what I at least consider to be a rather odd selection.

and some of the recent micro states are a result of former trust territories after WWII wheeling and dealing with their former protectors to maximize the finances.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr> am mostly interested in beatiful nature spot, no tourist, and simple encounting with real non mercantile locals, well maybe I should avoid pacific, write it if you believe so.<hr></blockquote>

very few places left in the world- and certainly some of the smaller islands of the pacific are more appropriate that about any other place I can think of.

Kiribati - if you are looking for unspoiled Pacific Islands, you should definitely AVOID Tarawa. Sure it is untouristed, but this has much to do with the cost and inconvenience of geting there, and the fact that there is very little to recommend it. Culturally very interesting, but a sociologist would find it equally interesting as an exeample of degradation of a traditional island society. Pollution / contamination of the lagoon is one of the more pressing problems - population density on Sth Tarawa exceeds that of Hong Kong (although the absolute numbers are obviously much lower).

I believe that the main "gateway" islands in the Marshalls are similar.

I presume you have deleted Samoa & Tonga because they are Polynesian? I would definitely leave Samoa on my list - if you want to escape the relatively small number of tourists that get there, take yourself over to Savaii for a few days.

Vanuatu would also be good - relative straightforward, regular and reliable air connections, but the Melanesian culture is very different to that of Polynesia.

I don't know how you would get to FSM from that part of the world though - you'd probably need to get to Guam, which you may be able to do from Fiji.

As people have said on this and your previous post, when you only have a limited time, air connections are going to be your biggest problem - it can easily take you 2 or 3 or more days to move between island groups simply because there are no directly connecting flights - you will often end up with a couple of days in Fiji or similar while you wait for a connection, and, although I have no experience with "Our Airline", in its old guise of "Air Nauru", the weekly flights were frequently cancelled, leaving people stuck in their transit port for maybe 10 days!

And I'm not sure where you got that bizarrely wrong impression of what we talk about on the Pacific Branch - whilst a beer or a G&T is a very pleasant way to end a day, those looking for lots of girls and lots of drinks tend not to head down this way!

Good Luck with your choices - I sometimes wonder whether we're helping or just adding to you confusion?

Rob

thanks 5Waldos & bendigo.

bendigo your comment "I sometimes wonder whether we're helping or just adding to you confusion?" is correct, but through all all them expect to build my own opinion.

anyway, now polluted Kiribati is out my list, at least one more.

therefore I have left: Marshall Islands, Northern Marianna Islands, federated states of micronesia

one of those must not stay on my and 2 if I keep Samoa as recommended.

I will fly either to australia perth or Sydney or Manilla ( don't know if from indonesia would be better to reach those places.

note bendigo, I don't have anything against beer, girls or beaujolais nouveau that I celebrated yesterday with 30 friends... maybe too much too!

one additional comment FSM sounds very nice and exotic here.

thanks

You are starting in Germany? I would fly to Manila, then go to Yap, then perhaps to the Northern Marianas (although I never went there- and we lived in Micronesia for 4 years. Never appealed). Still not sure why Palau is on your out list- it is beautiful. And I know of nobody who puts the Marshalls very high on their list of places to visit. Or from Yap go over to Pohnpei and or Kosrae. Or if you really want untouristed, from Yap Proper, go to the outer islands either by field ship or the missionary plane. Ulithi Atoll is not very far but very remote.

And the FSM is actually 4 island groups- Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. Each quite different.

thanks 5Waldos

I had choiced Palau, but didn't get much feed back, so I thought better to put it apart (but politically, which means culturaly ,it had given me a pretty good impression) and also seems easy to reach, and from them the northern marianas too (but no info)

note I try to have the broader impression from the pacific area, just as if you were in europe ( I know someone wrote , you can't compare - I agree to a certain extend- , but the mental logic remains anyway) you wish to approach, the latin culture, the german one in addition with slavic or scandinavian in a 5 weeks trip to europe.
I would select; switzerland, italy, czech republic and France for a different reason ( France because is the most complicate and cosmopolite from all the others & because you have to cope with the language aspect...-)

apatride,

As I indicated, my understanding is that the main gateway atolls in the Marshalls suffer from similar overcrowding and pollution issues as Tarawa. I believe this is why they are not on very many people's lists of "places in the Pacific you must go", and therefore wonder, as does 5Waldos, why they remain on your list?

Rob

oups!
sorry
I meant Northern Marianas.
as recommended by 5Waldos.
therefore
Northern Marianas info welcome.
Thanks

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>I am mostly interested in beatiful nature spot, no tourist, and simple encounting with real non mercantile locals<hr></blockquote>

There you go, Lazslo! A travel partner. Sounds like they are on the same path as you.

I didn't recommend that Northern Marianas- or didn't mean to. I would recommend Yap and Palau. Two beautiful and different places. Especially if you get to the outer islands of Yap, and outside of Koror, both on the water and on other islands in Palau.

Somehow this thread seems to have gotten strange- you seem to be ruling out places we would probably recommend, and keeping in places that nobody would really recommend. Still not sure how you got to the choices you did. I fear you are going to be disappointed if you were to go, for example. the the Northern Marianas (Saipan and Tinian? is that what you were thinking?) and the Marshalles. Certainly would be my choice of destinations.

I am still extremely confused on what it is you want exactly, Apatride. Correct me if my assumptions (and the information I have gotten thus far) are misguided.

All Pacific island countries have been ruled out except for Marshall Islands, FSM, Northern Mariana Islands.
You have a time limit of two weeks.
You are on a budget.
You want beautiful scenery.
You do not want any other tourists.
You do not want any locals who are after tourist dollars.

I think you are going to have to opt for some of the more popular, and hence easier to get to and less expensive island groups as time and budget restraints are going to put you in this position regardless.
You are going to have to have some tourist infrastructure if you are to get and stay their conveniently.

Why will you not consider some of the beautiful, accessable, reasonably inexpensive, mildly touristed island groups? Why on earth would you rule out Samoa? Or Tonga? or Fiji? Are you under the impression that places are as touristed as Thailand or Mexico? If this is the case, than you are wrong.

In Samoa you will have little company in the "off the path" resorts esp. in the low season. Samoa and Tonga are inexpensive and quite easy to get to and get around in. Ditto for Fiji. We hear all the time on this branch of folks who go to Fiji and totally escape mad tourism. What about the Solomons? They sound very good for what you want. You are going to have to have SOME degree of infrastructure.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>well maybe I should avoid pacific<hr></blockquote>

I am beginning to believe this may be your best option in light of your EXTREMELY confining and anal agenda.

Sorry, but it seems you've been watching too many episodes of "Gilligan's Island".

hth

Don't rule out Suwarrow in the North(ish) Cooks - isolated, no tourists, no infrastructure (except maybe the remains of Tom Neale's old hut).

But the cost and time limit is going to beat the hell out of you!

Rob

And I meant to say that the Marshalles and N.Marianas would NOT be my choice of destinations. Sorry for any confusion. I agree with Islandboi- I no longer know what you are looking for. In two weeks your chances of really getting a sense of the culture of any one island is limited. The island cultures are not as apparent as many in the west. It takes time. And in addition, the islands run on island time so everything is much slower. And finally- these islands are a long way from each other and often take several days of travel to get between them. It takes an over night in Guam to get from eastern to western states of the FSM. And Yap and Kosrae do not have daily flights (don't remember about Chuuk- suspect no there either).

The islands are wonderful and I wouldn't want to discourage you. But someplace this has gone off in the wrong direction.

To add to the confusion, one more piece of advice:

Why don't you go the Marquesas Island of Ua Huka? You'll see tourists once a month for one day only when the Aranui3 is offshore. Ua Huka is beautiful and the locals are not after your money, but the cost of living is not really low. The island has hidden and deserted beaches you can reach on foot or on horseback only. It is away from the sailing route of almost everybody and was therefore discovered by Non-Polynesians almost 200 years later than Tahuata. Book your flight to Paris-Los Angeles-Papeete-NukuHiva-UaHuka well in advance and not during any French or local vacation or festival.

http://uahuka2007.blogspot.com/<BR><BR>The beautiful Marquesas are difficult to reach, they are not cheap, and their inhabitants are certainly no barefoot yokels.

Niue is another choice with just a handful of tourists and not many inhabitants either. A good place to ride a bicycle because it is a makatea. You have to fly via Auckland to get there.

Guys, did you ever look at Apatride's profile?

First Name: there
Last Name: somewhere
Username: Apatride
Bio: gar nichts
Country: Yemen
Website: http://<BR>Message Posts: 682
Joined: Wed March 16, 2005 9:54 AM
Last Visited On: Mon November 19, 2007 3:41 AM
Average Posts Per Day: 0.70

BTW, "bio: gar nichts" is German and translates to "nothing at all".

So what else do you expect than a trollish posting? It's a waste of time to answer. I was so happy already that Samoa got ruled out on his/her list. So please do not encourage him/her now to come here ... Thanks.

However I agree with the recommendation of Suwarrow. But only during the hurricane season then, when the friendly people there left for shelter.

Agreed, wksamoa.

I think we were gobsmacked.

Suwarrow, by all means!!

Yep, and in February

Lashings of (and to) the coconut Palms, just like the Frisbies!

Now we get carried away ....

Well, Suwarrow does have "beatiful nature spot, no tourist, and simple encounting with real non mercantile locals". [The "locals" are mostly coconut crabs and birds]

I think she could even be worse than a troll - simply plain dumb.

I am surprised no one has suggested Pitcairn and maybe Palmyra Atoll yet...

Islandboi, you took her seriously a bit too long... :p

You are all too mean.....correct maybe but too mean.....if true- why? to what possible end? How about Tobie, or Tobi Ana- now find that on your maps guys!

5Waldos, I not only found them quite a while ago, but been dreaming of getting there with some luck.

Actually, they are quite close to islands I visit regularly, and I've even met some locals who have made the crossing (illegally, of course!).
I guess Tobi and Ana might be cheaper to reach from this part of the world than via Koror - but I have some reservations about how welcome I might be if arriving from the South... any thoughts? ;-)

But then if I only went as far as Helen Reef there may not be anyone around to ask questions, right? :-)

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>I think she could even be worse than a troll - simply plain dumb.<hr></blockquote>

Maybe - but what makes you think that this person is female? I did not find any clue about it (that is why I wrote 'his/her' in my posting above).

I even imagine her to be eine Blondine! ;-)

Hmm... sollen wir jetzt auch ein paar Blondinenwitze hier posten?

Es soll eigentlich einige mit Inseln geben!

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>wksamoa<hr></blockquote> Blendend!
Guys, did you ever look at Apatride's profile?
First Name: there
Last Name: somewhere
Username: Apatride
Bio: gar nichts
BTW, "bio: gar nichts" is German and translates to "nothing at all".
So what else do you expect than a trollish posting? It's a waste of time to answer. I was so happy already that Samoa got ruled out on his/her list. So please do not encourage him/her now to come here ... Thanks

Great we have a german post colony's nostalgic intellectual here with us on this thread including some intention's trial mind.
medical care question: should I definetly rule out Samoa or should I bring some medicine to a psycho contaminated man in distress?

thanks laszlo for the Blondinenwitze. you raised the TT level indeed! noch einige post-sowjetische kommentare wäre perfekt!

Thanks the others who try to help in a egocentric terrorism allegations.

Blond indeed, why not!

sorry that I only have 5 weeks holidays, appreciate all forms of wealth to stay longer, but maybe you " verunglimpfen" more than you help!

votre,

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>should I definetly rule out Samoa <hr></blockquote>

Yes. please do.

If only I could win the lottery this easily!

Laszlo- I missed my chance to visit them- a stupid shame in retrospect, although the ship nearly went down. I would think that the occassional passing boat stops by, but not often. One of the islands (might have been Helen's Reef) has, or had, about 3 inhabitants, and none of them quite normal. From Koror there is a field ship that goes out on occassion, quite irregularly. Not a lot of help I'm afraid.

I did Laszlo... I've been tired lately. The "trollometer" is not running to it's fullest Teutonic detecting level.

How many languages do you speak, Laszlo?

I decided to keep on my list:

Palau,FSM and Vanuatu in 3 weeks & Samoa, as I originally intended to, in order to look after ugly hidden Stasi guy for trial and insane behaviour.
normally those are easy to detect apart, if they are in west samoa protect by...well everybody knows what I mean.

thanks to the others

for the first time I encounter here selfish idiots and narcissitic morons, LP level is going down.

Achtung Ich komme!

We haven't had a post like this for a long time... It's been fun.

Send pictures when you've had your trip.

Yes! My dogs are looking forward for a nice bite ... :-)

5Waldos, I'm still nursing Micronesia plans for next spring - but a recent fare-hike (?) at Continental may put Yap out of reach, without which Palau alone would be less attractive to me.
Will keep looking - Continental's pricing policy seems very erratic anyway, with all sorts of wildly different fares popping up depending on where one looks.
It's great that at least Palau is no longer their monopoly thanks to Asian Spirit though.

As long as Asian Spirit keeps going- sorry that Yap has jumped in price. Haven't looked in a while- but Continental does go up and down. Where is the price now?

From Manila to Yap it's a totally insane more than 1200 USD for a 1 year RT, while from Koror to Yap the 55 minutes flight is still around 500 USD.

Just for comparision:
Earlier this year MNL-ROR-YAP RT valid for 1 year was available for ca. 700 USD.
That's when I set my eyes on it!

To be precise, MNL-YAP is still offered for 815 USD, but that's without a meaningful ROR stopover (other than a compulsory 23 hrs one), I think.
And at that price, they don't even give you a snack!

Good lord- used to be you could fly from california to manila for that much- stop in a couple of places and end up in Palau. And still use the Koror to Manila section at your leisure. That is completely out of control. I can't believe that will last. Where are you checking prices? Surely not from Manila???

Just last year one of the Asian airlines (blanking on which one) was offering round the world tickets for that much. I may be stuck in Colorado for the rest of my life- woe is me!!!

You can still probably get a cheap round the wrold ticket, but you can probably just make one stop---whatever the headquarters is of that airline!

I checked it both on Continental's own website (where these fares are already MUCH better than they used to offer earlier!!!) and also had a Filipino friend ask in Manila itself! :-(

Sure, RTWs can be cheaper, but the cheapest ones bypass the Pacific islands altogether, and ones with several stops there would be more like 2500 USD. Still not a bad deal compared to Continental's fares, of course!

Time to start up an airline I think. Palau to Yap and return. For those prices it would surely be worth while.

There must be something stopping Asian Spirit from doing just that though...

BTW, couldn't you call Continental toll-free to ask how much that island-hopper route costs from the North American end these days?
It may well be more competitive. Not that it would help me much (being on the other end), but it would be interesting to compare.