Kiribati–Travel

If you believe the official motto of the KIRIBATI tourist bureau, Kiribati is “For Travelers, Not Tourists.” And why not believe? “Kiribati is for travelers,” says KiribatiTourism.gov.ki,
“those who have a passion for exploring and discovering, people who like an adventure off the tourist trail to places where few have been before, and people who want to understand a country–not just see it. Kiribati will challenge your view of how life should be and show you a less complicated way of living where family and community come first.” Now that’s a sales pitch! Is it true…? Wikitravel’s Kiribati page agrees: “Kiribati is most emphatically not another Tahiti, Hawaii, etc. where you can go to relax and have nothing to worry about. It has few visitors, and they have to be prepared to ‘rough it.’ That said, there aren’t many countries where the people are more friendly.” VirtualTourist.com’s entry on Kiribati gives you many ideas of what to do while you’re adventuring in Kiribati: for example, “Glenn57” suggests to visit the atoll of Abaiang, (“You see people employed with coconuts–harvesting them, cutting them open, drying them,”) while “ollyf” says you definitely should go to the outer islands (“I stayed with a family in Bikewa village on Butaritari island and I was looked after very well, including a song and dance performance to welcome me!”) On the other hand, JoAnn94024 cautions you not to go biking on North Tarawa (“Good news–atolls are flat so it makes riding easy. Bad news–you come to a channel of water to cross about every mile or less.”) She also mentions the aggressive i-Kiribati drivers. Itchin’ to bike around North Tawara…? Don’t do it!

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