What is GUAM like?

20 comments

1. Do you OFTEN capitalize words RANDOMLY?

2. r/AskAGuamian

3. I don’t know tbh

4. Who knows, it’s halfway around the world and super expensive to visit. This is like asking the French what French Guiana is like, the overwhelming majority of us have never been there.

5. I suspect you’ll not get many real answers unless you find some military folks that have been stationed there.

   Guam is not a common destination for Americans that aren’t stationed there.

6. I’ve met a lot of people from Guam in the Army. The ones I know are very American – I wouldn’t be able to distinguish them from mainlanders.
   No idea what the island itself is like.

7. It’s hot, humid, and has plenty of WWII sites/artifacts around. I spent a total of three weeks there TDY in the mid-’90s as a B-52 crewmember. Back then, the main portions of the economy were tourism (mainly Japanese) and the US military.

   Many of the Japanese tourists visit battle sites and leave prepared food for the spirits of the Japanese soldiers still entombed or in graves in/around caves. Scuba diving on shipwrecks is very popular, but can be deadly if not done properly and in teams.

   We were instructed to not walk into the jungle or in the water on the reefs. For the former, people can go only a few dozen yards in and be lost; for the latter, unexpected waves can drag you across the reefs, and your meaty scrubbed skeleton might be found.

8. I love it. I spent some time working there and it’s probably the best ” foreign” country I’ve stayed at.
   It’s like the consideration of the Japanese and the kindness of the Hawaiis.

9. Green and leafy, unusably dirty, until you’ve helped a druid out with his potion

10. Go to a military subreddit or, specifically, the navy subreddit.

11. I’ve met some folks from there who were incredibly nice. It was at a convention in Atlanta when I was in high school for a club I was in and some of the students had made some homemade shell necklaces that they were giving out. I still have mine

12. I lived on Guam from 2015-2018. It’s a tropical hot and humid island. There aren’t seasons as you’d think of them in most places. Really just a dry season and a wet season. Lots of WW2 stuff there as it was occupied by Japan during the war and was retaken by force. Lots of little hikes or “boonie stomps” as they are called. I hiked most of them and there were some great ones such as making ways through the jungle and jumping off a 18 ft waterfall. Also really cheap and plentiful scuba diving around the island as well as snorkeling as the water is very clear. I enjoyed my time there.

13. There are no birds.

14. I know a couple of people who grew up there. Tiny, suffocating to be on and limited opportunities. They wanted to gtfo to the mainland for future/jobs. They were “locals” but American and not military. Sure beautiful tho.

15. Unfortunately many Americans don’t even know Guam is part of our country.

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    Along with the other four inhabited territories, of course (American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands).

16. One of the better Pacific islands I’ve had the pleasure to visit. I liked it better than Hawaii. Beautiful beaches, great locals and there weren’t many tourists.

17. Not been myself but have known a lot of military who’ve been stationed there and a number of born and bred Guamanians who left (via the military).

    My impression is that it’s “okay.” It doesn’t seem to inspire a lot of passion from people who’ve lived there, either positive or negative. It has nice beaches, some interesting historical sites, etc, but common refrains I’ve heard are that it’s extremely expensive, very small, and extremely isolated. So, nice enough but you wouldn’t want to live there for too long.

    Because it’s so small it does seem to foster a small town atmosphere of everyone knowing everyone. I’ve been present when people who both lived in or were from Guam met and they quickly found points of commonality.

18. Lots of beauty pageants.

19. I’ve never been, but I watched a news story or doc about their snake problem. A century ago or so, cargo ships unintentionally brought invasive snakes that have killed most of the island’s native birds and that the snakes were responsible for causing lots of power outages. The snake thing doesn’t make me want to go there.

20. Small.