During our around the world trip we wanted to visit at least one place not overcrowded with tourists. We decided on Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia; the strangest country we have ever visited.

When booking our flights we told the travel agency that we would like to go to Pohnpei. “Pompeii in Italy?” they replied. Nope, we are going to the Pacific Ocean. This is how most people respond when we say that we are going to Pohnpei. No one has heard about the place, and many are not even aware that FSM (Federated States of Micronesia) is a country. After all there are only around 106 000 people living there, located in the Pacific Ocean 3 hours east of Guam by plane.

The capital is Palikir, located on the same island that we are going to, Pohnpei. Strangely enough Palikir is not the largest city in FSM, in fact it is far from the biggest. When FSM were constructing new buildings for official purposes they decided to make a new town for this. The buildings were constructed, but not much else. Therefore only 4645 people live here and there are very few shops and other facilities. We assume that this is the only capital in the world lacking both a bank and ATMs.

So, how many tourists visit FSM every year? Around 26 000. To put that in perspective, around 35 000 tourists visit North Korea each year… The majority of the tourists go to Chuuk, one of the other islands in FSM, due to the diving and surfing sites. The amount of people visiting Pohnpei is therefore quite small. We ask at the tourist information how many tourists are visiting them each year and they reply “a thousand and some”. The head of the tourist information also mentions that we are the first Norwegian couple that have visited since her sister and brother-in-law (who had Norwegian ancestors) went here – quite a lot of years ago…

So, why on earth should anyone go to such a place? Mainly, it is a very genuine experience without the noise of street vendors, travel agencies with “special offers” and everything else that goes along with places with heavy tourism. Also, there are no lines to see any sights and if you want to go to the beach you can have an entire island all to yourself!

Pohnpei is also an incredibly green island. Everything is green here! Even in the island’s main city, Kolonia, trees and plants are growing in between buildings and from the air it all looks like a big green blob. There are also numerous waterfalls, historical places from second world war and an incredible ancient city here.

The people in Pohnpei also deserves to be mentioned. We have never experienced a hospitality like this before. In a shop we ask for directions to the tourist information. We get an explanation, but the man also offers to take us there in his car. He closes his shop to drive us there and requires no money what so every for this gesture. This is how most people are in Pohnpei, happy to help and not doing it to make any money.

Much is different

The lack of tourism is strange in itself, but much else is also different in Pohnpei. Cars drive on right, but most cars are imported from Japan and configured for left hand side driving. There are also numerous potholes on the (one and only) main road going around the island, making it quite common to drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid them. When facing traffic the drivers simply try to get back on the right side as quickly as possible and hope that the incoming traffic slows down a bit. Natural speed bumps also exist in form of dogs, pigs and chickens. They walk around freely and rarely move.

Most land in Pohnpei is privately owned, meaning that to get to anything worth seeing you have to cross private property. This usually cost 2-3 USD, kind of working like an entrance fee for the attractions. Some places also require multiple properties to be crossed to get there and you need to pay to different houses as you go along. When we were visiting Nan Madol, an ancient ruin city, we paid the fee to the daughter of one of the five kings on the island!

Incredible nature

The scenery in FSM is incredible both about and below the source. Below the surface one can find both Stringrays, Manta rays and sharks.

One day we were out snorkelling we visited a cleaning station for Manta rays and were lucky enough to see one ourselves. Some divers also saw three Whitetip reef sharks, but they were too far below the surface for us to see. However, we did see Stingrays from the boat while visiting Temwen Island.

Peaceful, but not fully safe

An island society with 34 000 inhabitants cannot have many issues with crime and theft. Everyone knows everyone and are mostly nice. However, the law is more of a guideline than strictly enforced, especially on Saturday evenings. Going to the bar? Take the car. Going home from the bar? Would be a shame to leave the car behind… We are driving through Kolonia from Palikir Saturday evening and end up being a card driving ridiculously slow, almost at walking pace. The next day we ask the rental company what this was and are explained that the local relaxing drink of sakau is consumed in large quantities and makes driving… ehh… challenging. Therefore it is not recommended to walk along the road after dark in the evenings as some drivers may suddenly drive off the road.

Luckily this is the only “scary” events we have sen in Pohnpei, and the place seems very safe in general.

Far away

One of the reasons why so few people visit FSM is its location. We travelled from lima in Peru and were to fly to Pohnpei in FSM. To get there we had to make this route: Lima – Los Angeles – Guangzhou – Tokyo – Guam – Chuuk – Pohnpei. If you search for flights from Norway to Pohnpei, Skyscanner says that no flights exist. A flight does exist, and goes through the Pacific islands from Guam to Honolulu every second day in each direction. In other words: Don’t miss your flight! The prices are also quite ridiculous as United Airlines has monopoly on these flights.

After a week in paradise we unfortunately have to continue our journey. At the runway (that covers the entire island it is located on) the aircraft takes off, the ground turns blue under our feed and the green blob named Pohnpei disappears in the horizon.