Kiribati Things to Do Tips by glenn57

Kiribati consists of dozens of atolls. Each atoll consists of many long narrow islands arranged in a circle; by 'narrow', I mean usually less than 200 metres wide. The whole circle of islands in an atoll may be 50 km or 80 km long. Here is a view of Tarawa atoll from the air; this is the most populated atoll, and the one considered to be Kiribati's capital.

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Here is a closer-up view of Tarawa atoll, taken minutes before landing.

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Kiribati's modern parliament buildings are on Bairiki Island, north side, on Tarawa atoll. A photo of them appears at the top of my Kiribati intro. They are a stylized version of traditional Kiribati huts.

Just in front of them is this map of Kiribati. This gives you a good idea of the vastness of the area over which the islands are scattered - apparently they are scattered over an area of ocean as wide as the United States. Also, Kiribati straddles both sides of the equator, and both sides of the International Date Line.

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In December 1941, a few days after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese occupied 3 of the atolls of Kiribati. They remained until a US offensive in November 1943 - this was the Battle of Tarawa, and took place at Betio (the island at the extreme southwest of Tarawa atoll). The US won this battle, but at great loss of life (thousands of dead on both sides).

You can still see many remnants of the Japanese military occupation. You can see eight-inch guns, anti-aircraft guns, the remains of some tanks, and many bunkers.

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In general, you see very little economic activity happening in Kiribati. But take a trip to Betio harbour and you'll see some activity. This is where the boats go to the outer atolls. It's also where many fishing vessels come in. Kiribati makes a fair amount of its revenue from concessions to Japanese fishing vessels to fish its waters.

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Do this during the day only (see my danger tip). Tarawa's population is most heavily concentrated at Betio, which is at the far southwest emd of Tarawa. This is also where the WW2 battle took place between the US and Japanese.

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Here's a photo of some typical houses. Houses are generally thatch over a concrete base.

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Here is the motu (tiny island on the reef) from the room I was staying in on Tarawa.

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Abaiang is a 4-hour boat ride (or 15 minute plane ride) from Tarawa. I really enjoyed it. It offers a more traditional and more rural Kiribati than Tarawa. There is one ring-road through Abaiang. You see people employed with coconuts - harvesting them, cutting them open, drying them, etc.

Electric power comes on only at night, for a few hours.

When I was there, there appeared to be only one other tourist on the atoll.

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This is the large Catholic church on Abaiang, made of limestone. It is of impressive size, given how few people live on Abaiang. It is in the village of Koinawa, not far from the school.

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