nagoya-guam-yap-palau

If you remember in my last post, we had to fly from Nagoya due to an overbooking by the airlines. They also upgraded us to business from Nagoya to Guam.

In order to arrive at Nagoya by 9:30, we had to leave our house before 7 a.m.

The weather was overcast with some drizzles here and there.

We made it in time, checked in and went to their lounge. It was the 3rd time for me to visit an airline lounge, I forgot how much "stuff" there is to enjoy there.

Satoshi and I had beers (before 12 noon...gasp!), he also had miso soup and some musubi (he ate like he didn't have breakfast before arriving..). I had shrimp crackers and nuts.

They called our flight and we boarded for Guam...on board for lunch...I chose pasta...before my entree was served there was a nice salad (and champagne and wine...)

The pasta (very dry) and dessert (too sweet) weren't too good...Satoshi was bummed that the business class didn't have their own movie screens, but it was a comfortable 3 hours to Guam.

Once in Guam, the line for the foreigners into Guam was quite long, Satoshi was relieved that he didn't have to stand in that line and could follow me through the U.S. Citizen line.

After going through Immigration, it was back into the security check line to fly out for Palau. (After a 4 hour layover...)

While waiting for our flight to Palau, we walked the length of the airport several times, checked out their DFS (Duty Free) (several times), as well as the art along the walls and near the gates...

We had dinner at Burger King and were surprised at how "large" their small drinks were.

Boarding the flight to Palau we noticed that the plane was quite full...we didn't realize we had to stop over at...Yap.

The runway in Yap was so short...as soon as the plane touched down the pilot literally slammed on the brakes (it was actually quite scary). Since the airport was also really small, the plane had to be towed to the gate.

After the people going to Yap disembarked, the people sitting on the left side of the plane (plus us) had to move to the right side and wait while the plane was cleaned and searched.

Then, after the left side was done, the same was done to the right side....it was our first time to experience this type of anti-terrorism checks, but at least we were able to see Yap. (well, what little of it we could see from our window) I overheard two Palauans talking (not that I understood the Palau language) and it sounded like one of them went to Majuro and since the plane stopped 5 times along the way, they were searched 5 times...yipes!

This was the first time I saw so many people (even women) chewing on betel nuts...it was really gross to hear them and see them spitting red liquid into the sick bags. Satoshi was surprised too and asked me what they were doing.

Finally at 10:00 pm we arrived in Palau...though there was no time difference from Japan, it was surely a L-O-N-G day.