I think gas prices on Guam are the highest in the United States.  The picture of Mobil Gas prices on the island of Guam was taken about 2 weeks ago, and I have a feeling the island is going to see another gas price increase.  Currently for Unleaded gas it costs $4.31 per gallon and for Super Unleaded the price is $4.44 per gallon.  Although Guam isn’t a big island the high gas prices have been hurting the people who try to budget on their gas consumption.  If you know of anywhere else in the United States where the gas prices are higher I’d be interested to hear about it.  Just post in the comments or send me an email.

I had the chance to visit a breathtaking beach on the eastern coast of Guam called Taga’chang Beach. The beach is located in a small cove surrounded by cliffs on all sides and only accessible from a small winding road paved along the cliff line. When I arrived at Taga’chang Beach it was completely empty with no one in sight, giving me the feeling I was stranded on a deserted island. Climbing up the rocks on one side of the beach to the edge of the water I could see fish as big as 2 feet long swimming in the shallow crystal clear water. The water was so shallow inside the reef you couldn’t really swim in the water unless you walked out to the edge of the reef and swam outside of the reef in the ocean.  This of course looked a little dangerous because of the waves beating on the reef and the strong current of the ocean.  Most of the eastern coast of Guam is rugged cliff line and the area around Taga’chang Beach makes for some great hiking along the rocky coastline of Guam for some great views.

Paseo Stadium is where Guam’s major league baseball teams play during the weekends. Paseo Stadium is located in the village of Hagatna in Paseo Park. Paseo Park is a great place to go during the weekends because there are a lot of things to do around the park. Also located in the park is Chamorro Village, the surf spot in Hagatna Boat Basin, the beach, and playground sets for kids. During the weekends at night you can find locals hanging around the park getting a bite to eat at Chamorro Village, watching the baseball games, fishing, or just getting together with friends.

Just when I was able to get some sleep the island of Guam got hit by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake at 7:51am this morning! According to the news reports the center of the earthquake was located 125 miles west-southwest of Hagatna and at a depth of 54.4 miles.

The earthquake was fairly strong as I’m pretty hard to wake up once I’m in a deep sleep. The earthquake lasted between 5-10 seconds from what I can remember and it shook everything in my room pretty hard. I was debating whether to run out into the street when it didn’t stop after a few seconds, but being the sleepy head that I am decided to lay in bed and just hope it stopped without getting much stronger.

The buildings on Guam are all made of reinforced concrete and are built to withstand a good beating due to the fact Guam is located in an area on the globe that receives many typhoons. Because of this, and the fact there aren’t many high-rise buildings on the island, there was no reported damage to any buildings. I’m pretty sure if an earthquake of this magnitude hit a major city in some other part of the world there would have been some damage created from the earthquake.

Here’s some links to news reports of the earthquake I found online:

http://www.kcra.com/weather/16219476/detail.html
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=331956
http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080510/NEWS01/80510005/1002/NEWS01

With the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China just 3 months away I started doing some research online to see if it would be possible for me to make it to the Olympics. It would be a great opportunity for me to travel to China and cover as much of the Olympics as possible for Traveling Project.

Well, within a few hours of my research I noticed that hotel prices in Beijing around the time of the Olympic Games cost between 6x to 10x as much compared to the regular rates. Hotels in Beijing that would normally cost approximately $50 per night are around $500 during the Olympics! I’m pretty sure all other types of accommodations are inflated as well during the Olympic Games. Below is a screenshot I took of the rates for one of the hotels in Beijing:

Seeing the inflated prices pretty much killed the possibility for me of going to China during the Olympics. When I started doing my research I was already hesitant of even considering traveling to China for the Olympics because of the short time frame I had to prepare for the trip, but I thought to myself, “What the heck, if the prices are reasonable then I might as well go for it”. Well they weren’t, so no Olympic Games in China for me. You can be pretty sure wherever the Olympics are going to be 4 years from now I’ll be there to cover it for Traveling Project.  You can quote me on this!