After the reunion of the family in Sydney we flew out early in the morning to Honiara the capital of the Soloman Islands. The small airport was a sign of things to come as you could see the infrastructure just was not there. The three boys took the first cab and we got an early taste of the hostilities on the island. Our driver pointed out all Chinese owned shops on the island and all the ones they burned during the last riot (we got the feeling they were not the favourite people on the island). We later learned that a lot the conflict came from the money being earned on the island was not staying there to re invest and was going overseas.
The next surprise was finding out the island we were on was Guadalcanal the scene of the biggest fighting between the Japanese and US during WWII. I am not the biggest history buff so I am not going to stand here and lie to you and say I knew that before watching The Pacific (which was in so many ways inferior to Band of Brothers). But since I had watched the series I had an idea of the significance of the tiny island in the South Pacific. We visited the US memorial which had views of the major battle fields and then drove out to see some old canons and planes left from the war. As for ranking other WWII sites I have visited this has to rank on the lower end but that is probably just my naivety on the happenings on the island. All I know is I was drenched in sweat in my tiny shorts and b-ball jersey and I couldn’t imagine running around in army fatigues.
Foggy
Foggy Travels 