"Kiribati" a Kiribati Travel Page by glenn57

Kiribati was completely different than anywhere I had been before. It is composed of dozens of atolls, where each atoll contains several long narrow islands arranged in a ring; this ring can be 50 km or more long, but only 50 to 200 metres wide.

In Kiribati, the main atoll is Tarawa, which was the site of a major battle between the Japanese and Americans in WWII. There are still many burned-out tanks and some anti-aircraft guns to be seen around the atoll.

Kiribati has very little economy; the majority of people work for the government, so the bloated bureaucracy is the country's way of trickling money down into the hands of the people. The bloated bureaucracy is maintained by support payments by the Australian government.