A Work Trip to Guam

At the end of April, I (Paul) had a work trip to Guam, meeting with the health department and delivering some training. It takes a very long time to get to Guam from Atlanta. I had a 16 hour flight to Seoul, a 6 hour layover, and then a 5 hour flight to Guam. I also lost a day in the process due to the international date line - so I left on a Friday night, and arrived on a Sunday afternoon.

While my time in Guam was mostly for work, I did have some time in the mornings and evening to explore, and we also had a tour from the health department staff, so I thought it was worth a blog post!

My travel for this trip worked out in the end, but had some snags along the way. The first issue was in Atlanta, Delta couldn't give me a boarding pass for my Korean Air connecting flight, and said I would need to get it in Seoul. We landed at 3:50am, but the Korean air counter didn't open until 7:30am, so I was stuck in an arrival area with just a bathroom, the closed counter, and a small waiting area. Rather than just waiting around for 3.5 hours, I decided to just try to get through security. Magically, they let me through security with just my passport and an itinerary. I can't imagine any US airport letting someone through without a boarding pass! It was still very early but I got a coffee from "A Twosome Place" and waited for the post-security transfer counter to open at 6:40. I sat with a group of other passengers waiting for the counter, including two guys from Atlanta who were going to Kuala Lumpur for work. After getting my boarding pass, I visited a few of the shops around the airport, although about 90% of the stuff was duty free cosmetics and perfume. It was still early morning, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have some Korean food. I was having a little bit of sadness that I'd flown all the way to Seoul and couldn't leave the airport! So I had some bone broth soup with banchan (Korean sides) that was actually quite good - 10/10 for airport food!

I then boarded my flight for Guam. There were quite a few families with children on board, since Guam is a vacation destination for Koreans. The flight attendants even announced that there were a lot of children, handed out activity books and Pororo-themed headsets to all of the kids, and ear plugs to all of the passengers without kids. :)

Inside the Seoul airport.

Now that's what I call airport food!

And some bibimbap on the airplane.

Guam is very much in the middle of the ocean.

Arriving in Guam, I had to fill out a customs form (even though it's still the USA). Stepping outside to get a taxi, the heat was immediately apparent, as it was about 90 degrees in the mid-afternoon. That evening I walked around the tourist area near my hotel (Tumon Bay). The area was still recovering from the huge drop in visitors from COVID, and was a little shabby in some places, but had nice sidewalks and some high-end stores. Most of the people walking around were Japanese and Korean tourists. I grabbed a spam musubi snack for dinner from an ABC store, watched sunset from the beach, and went to bed by 8PM.

With jetlag, I was up by 3AM, so I went to the gym, then got some coffee in my hotel lobby when it opened at 6am, and went for a little sunrise walk. I came across a couple of neat sights I wasn't expecting, including an ancestral monument and a small cave. There also was an impressive chapel perched above the bay.

The view from my hotel included Guam's only amusement park, which is tiny.

My hotel's lobby was giving 1970s Atlanta. It was nice though!

The tourist area of Guam.

Dinner time!

Sunset on the beach.

Guam vibes.

Some chickens running around in the morning.

The ancestral site.

Looking across the bay.

The water was really clear.

A little cave, which was fenced off and had a sign about its historical use.

Some fun murals.

Another huge mural.

My colleagues picked me up at 7:40am, and we spent the day in meetings, breaking for lunch at Siam Thai. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by an ocean front park with a small statue of liberty replica, and also picked up some pastries from MayFlour, a cute little bakery and cafe.

I watched sunset from the beach, which was beautiful. I'd end up doing this each evening of the trip. I then met up with colleagues for dinner at Primo Pizzakaya. It was very good, our pizza had guava and there were some inventive side dishes. We also had a toasted mochi dessert. 

Our meeting site.

Doing some trainings!

Thai curry for lunch.

Ocean views on a sunny day.

The new Don Donki was the talk of the town. It didn't open until the day I left though.

Cute little cafe.

Awesome sunset views.

Rowers at sunset.

Yummy pizza.

Toasted mochi.

The next day I woke up early again, went to the gym again, and went for a morning walk again. We stopped at Brewed Awakenings for some coffee before going to our meetings, and had a lunch break at Uomaru Honten Japanese restaurant.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I bet you can guess what I did next. Yes, sunset on the beach! :)  One of my colleagues wanted to go to a show, so that evening we went to TaoTao Tasi, which included dancing, singing, fire juggling, and more. I was chosen to come up on stage, which was both fun and mortifying. We had a late "dinner" of ice cream taiyaki at Boongs.

Early morning on the beach.

This little area of trees and rocks next to my hotel was peaceful and awesome.

Look at that water!

Brewed Awakenings.

Katsu curry for lunch.

Another great sunset.

A ghost crab!

Some rain off the coast at sunset.

Dancing at the show.

Yes, there was fire.

Not a bad dinner.

The next morning it was raining. I once again went to the gym, but skipped the walk due to the rain. We stopped by MayFlour again for some coffee before our day of meetings. The afternoon included a tour with the environmental health director, Tom. We stopped by Payless grocery story for some snacks and drinks, then set off around the southern part of the island, traveling counter-clockwise. We stopped by some viewpoints, parts of the War in the Pacific national historic park, the port, the Valle Esmeralda De Flores (power plant cooling intake), and some tide pools.

That evening we got dinner at the Wednesday market (chamorro night market). It was hot at first, then very nice when the sun went down. The weather was beautiful each evening!

A rainy morning.

Training time!

Viewing some historic sites.

The color of the cooling plant intake makes it a tourist attraction.

And there are some critters in there!

An overview of a bay.

View from an old Spanish site.

Swimming lagoons.

A little tide pool. I love tide pools!

View of the ocean and tide pools.

Another great beach view.

Lots of food to share at the night market.

First sunset not from the beach - but it was still a gorgeous view from the night market!

The next morning I woke up early and arrived at the airport for my 6:55am flight. On the way home rather than connecting through Seoul, I would have an overnight in Honolulu. While the flight left on Thursday morning, it crossed the dateline, so I arrived early on a Wednesday evening. After getting to my hotel, I had black tonkatsu ramen for dinner at Camado ramen, walked around for a bit, and had some ice cream at Mosa before heading to bed.

The next day I had some time in the morning to walk around for a bit, and had some coffee and pastries at Kona Coffee Purveyors. I had visited this place back in 2018 and in 2019 and loved it. Now the word has gotten out - there was a line out the door at 7:15AM! I waited about 20 minutes and it was worth the wait for an excellent black sesame iced coffee and kouign amann. I walked around waikiki for a while, enjoying the morning weather, before heading to my hotel to pack up. My last stop was lunch at Marugame udon.

Yummy ramen for dinner.

Walking around Waikiki.

Beach views at night.

Of course I stopped by Honolulu cookie!

Ube and coconut ice cream.

The line at Kona Coffee.

Worth it!

A huge banyan tree.

Gotta love those beach views.

Crystal clear water.

Last meal of the trip.

Honolulu's airport is open-air.

And that wrapped up my trip. Guam is a really interesting place that I would probably never have visited if it weren't for a work trip. I'm glad I got the chance, plus a few bonus hours in Hawaii!