Micronesia

Palikir — the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia (an independent nation of 607 islands in the western Pacific, population 115,000, in free association with the USA, covering four island states: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae) on Pohnpei island — with the Nan Madol ruins accessible by boat (the ancient megalithic city built on 92 artificial islands in the tidal flat offshore — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most significant pre-European stone architecture in Micronesia).

Nan Madol (the ancient city of Pohnpei — a complex of 92 artificial stone islands built in the tidal lagoon offshore, with walls of basalt prisms up to 7.5m high, the seat of the Saudeleur dynasty ruling Pohnpei from approximately 1100–1628 CE — is the largest pre-European urban complex in the Pacific. The origin of the 250 million tonnes of basalt prisms used in construction (quarried from a coastal site 5km away and transported by raft) and the social organisation required to build such a structure on a coral atoll are still debated by archaeologists.

Nan Madol (UNESCO World Heritage 2016 — the “Venice of the Pacific,” a city of canals and stone walls built by the Saudeleur dynasty, the royal tombs and ceremonial centres preserved as they were abandoned in 1628 when the dynasty was overthrown by Isokelekel, a Kosraean warrior who became the source of the nahnmwarki chiefly system still in use today) accessible by boat through the mangroves with a local guide, the most striking archaeological site in the Pacific after Easter Island.

The Nan Madol abandonment (approximately 1628 CE, when the Saudeleur dynasty was overthrown by Isokelekel, a warrior from Kosrae who arrived with 333 warriors and killed the last Saudeleur ruler in combat) ended 500 years of centralised rule over Pohnpei. The stone city was abandoned, the mangroves advanced over the outer sections, and only the central core of the royal precinct remains visible above water. The entire site is slowly sinking into the lagoon.

Chuuk (formerly Truk) Lagoon — fly by United Island Hopper. The lagoon that contains the largest concentration of WWII wrecks accessible to recreational divers anywhere in the world: 60+ Japanese warships and merchant vessels sunk in Operation Hailstone (17–18 February 1944 — the US naval attack that destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy base at Truk, considered the most important naval base in the Pacific) lying at 12–60m in warm, clear water, their holds still containing tanks, aircraft, trucks and personal effects.

Operation Hailstone (17–18 February 1944 — the US carrier task force attack on Truk Lagoon, sinking 12 Japanese warships, 32 merchant vessels and 249 aircraft in 2 days — destroyed the primary Japanese naval base in the western Pacific and accelerated the war’s end by 18 months. The wrecks include the aircraft carrier Fujikawa Maru with 6 Zero fighters in the hold, the Sankisan Maru with a cargo of torpedoes and artillery shells, and the Shinkoku Maru with operating theatres, medical equipment and the personal effects of the crew.

Two days of Chuuk Lagoon wreck diving — the Fujikawa Maru (the most-dived wreck, with Zero fighters in the forward hold, anti-aircraft guns on deck, a coral-encrusted bridge and great superstructure at 18m), the Shinkoku Maru (the fleet oiler with operating theatres and the most evocative personal effects — gas masks, boots, sake bottles, medicine jars — at 30–40m), and the Nippo Maru (the “museum ship” with a tank on the foredeck and field guns in the hold at 40m).

The Chuuk Lagoon wrecks (after 80 years underwater, the steel hulls are now marine habitats with coral growth — the Fujikawa Maru is covered with black coral, sea fans and soft corals that have transformed the ship into a reef, inhabited by lionfish, grouper, giant trevally and resident reef sharks. The wrecks are simultaneously war graves and marine parks, a duality that gives every dive a profound historical and aesthetic dimension.

Yap Island (the westernmost state of the FSM — famous for the rai, the largest currency in the world: stone discs up to 3.6m in diameter and weighing 4 tonnes, quarried from Palau 400km away and sailed back on bamboo rafts, used as currency for large transactions but rarely moved — the entire island is dotted with stone money banks, the discs too large to carry but their ownership tracked by community knowledge) and the Yap manta ray sanctuary (the finest manta ray snorkelling in Micronesia).

Yapese stone money (rai — large discs of aragonite limestone quarried in Palau and transported to Yap by outrigger canoe across 400km of open ocean, used as ceremonial currency for transactions involving land rights, bride wealth and political alliances — the largest pieces are 3.6m in diameter, too large to move, so ownership is tracked by community oral record: everyone knows who owns each stone, and ownership transfers by verbal agreement without moving the stone).

Kosrae (the easternmost FSM state — the least disturbed island in Micronesia, with 60% intact cloud forest, the best mangrove kayaking in the Pacific, the Lelu ruins (an ancient Kosraean stone city comparable to Nan Madol), the finest reef in all FSM for snorkelling and diving, and a traditional culture maintained largely intact through the island’s relative isolation — Kosrae receives fewer than 1,000 tourists per year and has the highest percentage of native-owned businesses in FSM).

Kosrae was the source of the warrior Isokelekel, who overthrew the Saudeleur dynasty at Pohnpei in 1628 with 333 warriors — the most significant military and political event in Micronesian history, which ended centralised rule and established the nahnmwarki chiefly system that still governs Pohnpei today. Kosrae’s isolation has preserved a traditional culture more intact than any other FSM state.

A final day on Kosrae: kayaking the mangrove channels (the most extensive intact mangrove system in the Pacific, accessible by wooden kayak through tunnels of mangrove root, with kingfishers, herons and the endemic Kosrae white-eye — one of the rarest birds in Micronesia) and the Walung village (accessible only by boat, the most traditional village in Kosrae, with no road access and a community of 200 living as their grandparents lived). Fly from Kosrae (KSA) via Pohnpei or Guam.

The Kosrae Island Resource Management Authority (KIRMA — the community organisation managing Kosrae’s marine and forest resources through traditional and scientific methods — has maintained coral reef coverage and fish biomass at levels documented as among the highest in Micronesia, using traditional tenure (fishing rights areas owned by clans) alongside scientific monitoring and enforcement by community rangers.