Pohnpei (formerly called Ponape) is located about halfway between Guam and Nauru, directly north of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia, and hosts its capital.
Back in 1999, I found the main town, Kolonia, to be something of a frontier town. The main street had a long, dusty, frontier-town character. It was very casual and laid back. The town still had relics of former colonialism visible – an old Spanish fort, a German tower.
The island’s airport and port are both here, on an island connected to the mainland by a causeway. The runway took up the entire length of this island, and landing here felt like it was fairly adventurous in itself. Getting here was a challenge – but at the time, Air Nauru flew here twice each week on its way from Nauru across to Guam and Manila. I think that route has long since disappeared.
The main island only has mangroves down to the shoreline, but is full of coconut palms, jungle waterfalls, swimming holes, a lagoon surrounded by an outer reef encircling the island, rugged mountains, and the ancient Nan Madol ruins. I hired a car to explore – there is a ring road around the island, but my memory is that at the time, the southern portion either didn’t link up or was not suitable for two-wheel drives, so a full loop wasn’t possible. My hotel arranged some local kids to guide me up Sokehs Rock, a prominently shaped rocky volcanic outcrop that overlooked the town and airport. It was so windy up there that these kids used their T-shirts as sails to lean into the wind and be blown back onto their feet. All this was a great adventure for a solo 24 year old traveller.
Back then (and probably still now?), Pohnpei didn’t have much of a developed tourist industry. I recall plenty of coconut products and Pohnpeian pepper was claimed to be the world’s best. I remember bringing home a packet of peppercorns as a souvenir.
I ate superb Japanese food, including a mangrove crab. The sashimi was great – Pohnpei is in a major tuna fishing area.
One evening, the owner of my hotel took me out to drink sakau. Sakau is basically the same as what is called kava in other Pacific islands. It is made from the root of a pepper shrub – ground and mixed with water. I though that it tasted like a mud milkshake. It can make your tongue and mouth feel tingly and a bit numb. If you have far too much, you can apparently lose control of your motor functions, even though your mind seems to work just fine. Driving around the island at night was said to be fraught with danger – there would be cars meandering all over the road at slow speed, presumably the result of too much sakau!
Beforehand, I recall being convinced to drive him a fair way around the island’s ring road to have the privilege of buying a few bottles from a local who made the stuff, then we afterwards headed on down to the causeway near the harbour, a popular sakau drinking venue. This was no ceremonial brew for the tourists – we sat in the back of the hotel owner’s van, looking out at the stars, the mangroves and the water.
Attribution: Flag icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com