Rota Vacation.....Part 1
I wrote a 'journal' about our little vacation......
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
This morning, Paul and I woke up in the Rota Hotel....thank goodness. After yesterday, I wasn't sure we'd even get to come. Let me start at the beginning......
Yesterday (Monday, June 12, '06), Paul and I woke up at 4am, so we could be ready to go when Emie came to pick us up. Our flight left at 8am, so we had everything ready to go. Emie arrived at our house about 6am, we loaded up and were on our way to the airport. Emie dropped us off and we got in line to check in. I opened my backpack to pull out our travel vouchers....they weren't there!!! At first Paul thought I was kidding. I had double checked at home to make sure they were there....the envelope was in my bag. We were lucky enough to be able to reschedule our flight (with no extra cost) for that evening. I had to call Emie to come back to get us. I was so upset that the travel vouchers weren't in my bag I wanted to cry. Paul told me he remembered me taking them out and laying them beside my bag, but I distinctly remember placing them in my bag.....there is no question in my mind about that. Well, Emie came back and got us and we waited until 5 for Emie to come and take us to the airport.....again! This time we had the vouchers and then...."Your passport?" "What?" We needed proof of our U.S. citizenship in order to enter Rota; another stumbling block for our trip. Paul was told we didn't need a passport in order to visit the other islands (Rota, Tinian, Saipan). The only 'proof' we have on us at this point is our U.S. military IDs and social security cards (I thought that would be enough). One of the ladies working for Continental offered to call Rota to see if we could still travel with only our military IDs. The duty officer for immigration on Rota said we could board the plane. Our next problem would be re-entering Guam. Well, the immigration officers there (at the Guam airport) said we'd just have to convince the officer on duty.....which may take a while. At this point, I was looking at this entire situation as a sign we shouldn't go to Rota. We were pretty sure we couldn't get our $518 back and after more conversation with the people working for Continental we decided to go.
We rode on, what everyone refers to as a puddle jumper. Yes, it was prop job and I wasn't looking forward to it (no, I don't like to fly!). The flight was, however, the shortest I'd ever been on....26 minutes. I was very surprised when the captain announced we'd be landing in 6 minutes, it seemed like we had only just taken off. We got through immigration with no problems. The guy said as we approached...."you're the ones." We were the only U.S. citizens on the flight....everyone else was Japanese. We got through customs very quickly and within 15 minutes we were on our way to the Rota Hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, we were lead into the hotel restaurant for a drink (they had ice cold fruit punch waiting) and a brief overview of the hotel(hours of the restaurant, front desk and where to go incase of an emergency, etc). Then, we were shown to our room. We were on the 2nd floor Room 205. We had 2 twin beds, a small (and I do mean small)table, a small fridge and other hotel ammenities....only no TV and no radio!. I have a hard time sleeping without music. Paul and I played 2 games of Skip-Bo and then we decided to go to sleep. By the way, our beds were really hard and the pillows are so firm even I don't like them.
Well, that's it for day 1 of our trip. I'll post pictures and the rest of our trip in the next couple of days....I have to go back to work tomorrow, so it's time for bed.
more later......
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
This morning, Paul and I woke up in the Rota Hotel....thank goodness. After yesterday, I wasn't sure we'd even get to come. Let me start at the beginning......
Yesterday (Monday, June 12, '06), Paul and I woke up at 4am, so we could be ready to go when Emie came to pick us up. Our flight left at 8am, so we had everything ready to go. Emie arrived at our house about 6am, we loaded up and were on our way to the airport. Emie dropped us off and we got in line to check in. I opened my backpack to pull out our travel vouchers....they weren't there!!! At first Paul thought I was kidding. I had double checked at home to make sure they were there....the envelope was in my bag. We were lucky enough to be able to reschedule our flight (with no extra cost) for that evening. I had to call Emie to come back to get us. I was so upset that the travel vouchers weren't in my bag I wanted to cry. Paul told me he remembered me taking them out and laying them beside my bag, but I distinctly remember placing them in my bag.....there is no question in my mind about that. Well, Emie came back and got us and we waited until 5 for Emie to come and take us to the airport.....again! This time we had the vouchers and then...."Your passport?" "What?" We needed proof of our U.S. citizenship in order to enter Rota; another stumbling block for our trip. Paul was told we didn't need a passport in order to visit the other islands (Rota, Tinian, Saipan). The only 'proof' we have on us at this point is our U.S. military IDs and social security cards (I thought that would be enough). One of the ladies working for Continental offered to call Rota to see if we could still travel with only our military IDs. The duty officer for immigration on Rota said we could board the plane. Our next problem would be re-entering Guam. Well, the immigration officers there (at the Guam airport) said we'd just have to convince the officer on duty.....which may take a while. At this point, I was looking at this entire situation as a sign we shouldn't go to Rota. We were pretty sure we couldn't get our $518 back and after more conversation with the people working for Continental we decided to go.
We rode on, what everyone refers to as a puddle jumper. Yes, it was prop job and I wasn't looking forward to it (no, I don't like to fly!). The flight was, however, the shortest I'd ever been on....26 minutes. I was very surprised when the captain announced we'd be landing in 6 minutes, it seemed like we had only just taken off. We got through immigration with no problems. The guy said as we approached...."you're the ones." We were the only U.S. citizens on the flight....everyone else was Japanese. We got through customs very quickly and within 15 minutes we were on our way to the Rota Hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, we were lead into the hotel restaurant for a drink (they had ice cold fruit punch waiting) and a brief overview of the hotel(hours of the restaurant, front desk and where to go incase of an emergency, etc). Then, we were shown to our room. We were on the 2nd floor Room 205. We had 2 twin beds, a small (and I do mean small)table, a small fridge and other hotel ammenities....only no TV and no radio!. I have a hard time sleeping without music. Paul and I played 2 games of Skip-Bo and then we decided to go to sleep. By the way, our beds were really hard and the pillows are so firm even I don't like them.
Well, that's it for day 1 of our trip. I'll post pictures and the rest of our trip in the next couple of days....I have to go back to work tomorrow, so it's time for bed.
more later......