20 TRUTHS Living on GUAM (Do Tourists Know?)

good morning people right now it is a Monday Morning Fresh and early here just before uh 10 o'clock in the morning because right now it is Labor Day here on Guam yes I'm still on Guam I've been here now for about two and a half months and I don't know how much longer I'm going to be here and today I'm here at Assan Beach I believe that's how you pronounce it it's just another Beach here on Guam but this beach is actually very famous for some history such as bombings and you know war and things like that and actually that's why these Waters right along here right behind me are well known for snorkeling and scuba diving but anyways today's point is to talk about Guam to give you a better understanding of Guam from what I perceive during my time here and that's why you can see the title of this video is 20 truths of Guam and these aren't the only truths right there's much more there's a lot that I can't cover a lot that I don't know but the whole point of this video this kind of walk and talk here on Guam is to tell you about the things that I've kind of come to understand come to witness things that I've kind of seen uncover during my time here now one thing I want to know is even though I've been here for two and a half months on Guam I got here after the typhoon you know typhoon marar that really really dangerous really powerful typhoon that landed on Guam or it's just a pass through Guam was in May of 2023 I got here in June of 2023. so I am seeing a lot of Guam after the typhoon and from what I understand is that the typhoon actually revealed a lot about Guam a lot of his struggles a lot of his negatives and much much more well as you guys might be able to tell it is raining I just got soaked rain just came out of nowhere it's actually super super cloudy right now can't even see take a look at that just like foggy cloudy looking uh the radar said there was no rain I don't know where it came from so right now I'm trying to wait it out so it looks like maybe it's going to be I don't know 30 minutes or something into this big huge Cloud passes over so I'll see you guys in just about 30 minutes or so now when I speak on these 20 truths here I think a lot of people will side with me a lot of people will agree and then of course there's going to be that group of people that are just going to say this is just a negative video about Guam and the reality of this video isn't to make it seem negative to make Guam seem like a bad place the reality of this video is just to make people aware of how it really is here you know when you visit a new place you don't truly understand it fully until you've spent a lot of time there and you've gone to places and you've talked to people that you wouldn't normally do or talk to when you were just visiting a place as a tourist for like one week or so so with that said let's get into the 20 truths of bomb that you should know all right these aren't in any particular order this is just the order I put them in I quickly threw the list together in about 10 minutes so I didn't think too hard about it these are just things that were on top of my mind and I have been on the top of my mind for two and a half months so let's get started number one is nature when it comes to the nature on the island on Guam it is single-handedly the best part about Guam I think Guam has so much natural beauty from the jungle to the beaches to the caves to the mountains small mountains little Hills whatever you want to call them that are in the South there is just so much to offer in terms of nature here on Guam all right number two is about Taurus some people might think oh maybe when tourists come to Guam they visit everywhere there are some tourists that like to go everywhere around the island they go to different points and stuff like that but the truth is I believe most tourists stay in one area that would be tumon that would be tamuning and maybe some other places but this is like the main place where all the tourist shops are you know you're shopping your your beachfront your hotels and everything like that even where I am now this is ipal Beach it is a very popular tourist location because it's very accessible by foot from where all the hotels are so I believe that's where most tourists are staying and they don't go to the other areas the other Villages you know the very far ones away because they need a car to get there they need to take a taxi and it could be costly and take some time so a lot of them will stay just in the tourist Zone which there's nothing really wrong with that but the truth is a lot of tourists don't know what's outside of that area they don't know the real Guam outside of there is weather the truth about that is that the weather is crazy here sometimes like today I started the video it was nice and sunny there was no rain and all of a sudden out of nowhere this big Cloud comes out and just downpours and covers the island in Rain not the whole island because a lot of times when it does rain here it's just part of the island and not everywhere but right now it's nice and sunny behind me you have a little bit of a breeze but just behind the camera there are some dark clouds so the weather changes quite often and very quickly because of being an island you know it's small and so there's a lot of weather changing around here especially at this time of the year in the summer as it is typhoon season although people may assume while Guam is an island so it must be beautiful all the time no sometimes it rains and rains and rains and doesn't stop and then sometimes you have stretches you know weeks where it doesn't rain at all and sunny and it's beautiful so the truth is that the weather can change very frequently number four is that no one knows how to drive because the rules of the road don't exist There are rules of course because there needs to be rules every everywhere but nobody follows them most of the speed limits are 35 in my opinion they're probably too slow for most of the areas for the Taurus area sure right maybe inside of a neighborhood sure but on the main roads like 35 is way too slow so sometimes you have people going 35 sometimes you have people going 45 45 is kind of average I think and then you have people going 70 and then there's a lot of crashes and a lot of people get killed because a lot of people are driving just crazy right and a lot of people don't know how to drive maybe they don't even have a license maybe they've never driven before it's their first time they're a new driver it's so hard to tell because when you are on the road with other drivers it gets scary sometimes especially during the rain so whatever rules there are most people aren't obeying them all right number five is that the Torah Zone like I just talked about is super developed it is super perfect looking right because the goal is to make the area where the Taurus go look perfect so that way you know these tourists are telling more people to come to Guam that way there's no like imperfections and people aren't judging Guam so having this tour Zone like up today always and you know being recovered very quickly from the typhoon it allows this area to just look perfect and in my opinion it seems like they try to make it look like California or they try to make it look like Florida because of the architecture and just the style of it in terms of being next to the beach that's just my opinion now and I would say if somebody said Is it true it kind of looks like the U.S well yeah because it is a territory of the U.S so they're going to make it look just as close to it as they can and let me tell you outside of the Taurus area it looks completely different all right number six is that the government here says one thing and does another thing and I think most people will agree I think there's a lot of people here that have questions for the government that maybe don't agree with what they do but you know the government always says they're going to do this and then it doesn't happen or it doesn't happen for a very long time and that's one of the things that people probably don't know if they're just tourists they probably think oh maybe the government's good and the government helps the people but I think a lot of people struggle thanks to the government not helping so much and it's not just here of course it's everywhere in the world the government just sometimes doesn't do the things the way they should do not saying that I can do it better or that somebody else can do it better but it's just one of the things you see after being here for so long for instance you know after the typhoon happened I'm pretty sure the government made a lot of statements and stuff saying how they're going to recover and I do this and that and then you know the government gave orders to all these companies to fix certain things well the thing is I don't think the government how I was up with what they're supposed to do because there's a lot that is lacking and the truth is the island is still recovering from the typhoon and you know no matter what type of storm it is typhoon hurricane tornado earthquake you know it's a very long-term process in terms of recovery but here I think things are just recovering a lot slower than maybe they should with that said I would say that the government probably isn't what it should be all right number seven is about the energy on the island people may think because it is a U.S territory you know the U.S is a really wealthy Nation with good resources and stuff like that well the truth is here there isn't enough energy in the island or on the island you know being produced and stored to serve everybody so the truth is now which is September as I'm filming this there are power outages quite often not due to the storm not due to weather just that there isn't enough power in circulation so they need to turn off some stuff to regenerate some power and to get a circulation going and I don't know exactly how it goes but the truth is is that energy source on the island is lacking and I think that's why they're actually building a nuclear power plant here if I'm not mistaken basically the Island's energy source is insufficient for the demand that is here on the island so the next thing is that there just aren't enough people to complete certain jobs that are being worked on whether it's construction of a building it's fixing a road whatever it is sometimes it takes forever to get something done because there aren't enough people working and with that comes the next one the unemployment rate is so high in 2019 the unemployment rate was 6.1 or something in 2019 which is high a little bit maybe but it's not as bad as what it is now because as of 2023 I believe it's over 17 which is insane and a lot of that is due to the pandemic of course because a lot of companies went out of business and people lost their jobs and now people are living without a job so it's a super serious situation and that without all these people working jobs take longer and things get postponed so basically nothing follows schedule and you will feel the island time here people do things slow life is kind of slow here now the next thing I have to say is that the construction here the construction is just crazy you know sometimes they're working on a road they're improving it they're fixing it whatever they're doing it takes forever it creates traffic to be even worse and mostly talking about road work right because in mainland United States I remember a lot of the road work on main roads and stuff it's done at night time because then it's not messing with the traffic and all that and it's just a better time to work because it's cooler out well here it seems that all the construction takes place at peak hours during the day when people are driving so the traffic gets even worse and that's another bad thing about it maybe it's because they don't have enough people working in construction maybe they don't want to pay the people the extra wages to work overnight I don't know what it is but it is super annoying the next one is maybe the importation and exportation of things or products right so shipping something buying something online shopping online the problem is because the island is so remote it takes things a very long time to get here has to go through so many processes and it's real pain in the head and especially pain in the head or pain in the neck or whatever you want to say but I believe the US has some sort of laws where like certain things must be shipped through U.S ports in order to come to the territory which makes things uh more difficult and things take longer rather than maybe getting most of the products from Asia as is closer to Asia than it is to mainly in the United States so the shipping and all of that is just a headache sometimes it's just easier to buy something in person as it's already there and ready at your fingertips but the problem with that is it's more expensive and shipping also is very expensive another thing about Guam is that actually the local people that live here you know they may find like difficult some of them may be living very good you know depending on their situation but the bottom line is I think most of the people here are very friendly the ones that I've talked to the ones that I've encountered everyone seems to be very friendly uh there are some shady people and stuff that you can't really trust but the majority of people I think here on Guam are nice and even if they're from you know another Island they're from another part of Micronesia say or they're from here they're from Philippines they're from the US everybody seems to get along okay from my understanding oh God I'm trying to sweat the sun has come out right now but the next thing I want to talk about is the homeless situation tourists they might not think there are really homeless people here but the truth is there's so many homeless people and I've been experiencing it a lot lately and it's so annoying it's unfortunate for them of course but I think a lot of people choose to be homeless because of how expensive expensive it is to live here and such I like to go to the skate park and there is a homeless group that have kind of set up for there and they're there all the time they stink they're smoking they're loud they're annoying sometimes they cause trouble and unfortunately there are parts of the island if you venture outside of the tourist areas where you will see these homeless people living some of them are creating tents in like the jungle and and all these places and it seems that the government or the place they're not really doing anything to stop them from disturbing other people sometimes which is very unfortunate now another thing I really want to talk about is the pollution now the reason why I mentioned pollution is because pollution is a serious factor in today's world especially when you live near water like the ocean well here there is so much pollution happening I don't know about pollution into the water but I'm really talking about throwing trash or dumping or legal dumping here on the island after the typhoon happened there was a lot of debris that needed to be moved away and a lot of people didn't know what to do with it because the government took a while to figure out a situation to where it can be moved and it can be processed so people just started dumping it and you will drive in some places and you will see there is stuff dumped in the middle of the jungle on the side of the road like in waterways a lot of people have trash they just don't even throw their trash away they throw it on the ground you can see trash everywhere and it's such a bad thing it's such a negative side of the island that makes it look a little bit ugly in areas and I wish people would stop that and they would pick up after themselves I don't know who's doing it if it is the local people the island people if it is the American people living here who really knows but the truth is is that there is quite a bit of pollution happening on the island and with pollution one of the things I want to mention is that the cars so basically when somebody gets in a car crash or something happens to somebody's car it breaks down and they can't afford to fix it or whatever they just leave it they leave it on the side of the road they leave it somewhere sometimes it's flipped over and nobody removes it the government doesn't remove it no company removes it there's no junkyard to bring it to I don't understand now if it had happens in the Taurus area it's moved immediately that way it doesn't negatively affect the image of the Taurus area which is a super bad thing there's just so many broken and abandoned cars all over this island all different Villages and it's just crazy another big topic that I want to talk about that many people who are talking about and many people would be questioning about or want to know more about is the abundance of stray dogs sometimes you see stray dogs everywhere in all different Villages not as much in the tourist areas again as they kind of keep them away in the non-torus areas you see stray dogs everywhere you know maybe a lot of people had dogs before and they couldn't afford to take care of them so they let them go outside and be on their own I don't know what the situation is but a big problem with them is that they wander into your yard they cause problems and even sometimes I shouldn't say sometimes because it's everyday yeah people are hitting them with their cars I don't know if it's on accident don't know if it's on purpose whatever it is but about every day I see one dog killed on the road and it's very sad super sad but it's a problem that needs to be solved and needs to be worked on and I don't know if anyone is working on it to make it better or to improve it but something needs to be done fast now another thing that kind of annoys me and actually I know he's probably all the people is that if you are a military here on the island you have access to cheaper things groceries and stuff like that like I understand it's because you're military they have their own like area and whatnot but the problem is for the local people that live here they can't access that because they're not part of military so their items are more expensive because of the export tax and all of that so for instance say maybe a bag of Doritos maybe it's six dollars at the supermarket for everybody but on base at the supermarket the military base it could be two dollars it's really crazy the difference of prices now I don't know how accurate that is and for other items or certain products but it is kind of annoying how expensive things are and that is because of the presence of military more military more the prices are going up which leads me into the next one the cost of living here on the island so the cost of living here on the island is much higher than what the working wages you know and I mean if you take the working wage per hour and you kind of total it all up monthly for your bills and stuff usually your bills are going to be higher so here the minimum wage is like 9.25 an hour I think 9.25 that is super super low for such an expensive place there are so many states in the United States that are should say cheaper than here with such a higher weight which is crazy so a lot of people here are making a very low minimum wage and can't afford to you know support themselves to support them their family and stuff like that right and so even like a one bedroom I think runs at like fifteen hundred dollars maybe a little bit less depending on where you are but I think that's like an average price so it is super expensive for people to live here especially when they're not paid well at all and that's really driven by the military more military the more the cost of living goes up because military people get like what stipends or something to pay for their rent and pay for their living and another serious one that annoys me so much is that when you go outside the tourist areas you go to more local streets more local neighborhoods The Villages and stuff like that the roads are terrible depending on what car you have it is a nightmare driving on them roads such as where I'm staying which is in the northern part of the Island the roads are so bad that sometimes I feel like the wheels are just going to go flying off the car because there's so many holes and the more it rains the more the road gets worse the thing that I hate the most about it is that the villages the mirrors for these Villages instead of improving the roads in one go with the best way possible they just kind of fill in the holes with some dirt and say okay it's good and then next time it rains the holes empty up again empty out and there's a big hole because all of dirt has flooded elsewhere so they don't actually fix the roads in the way they're supposed to by re-grading them and putting down a new road and stuff they only do that in the tourist areas there are some potholes in the tourist areas of course but it's nothing like it is in The Villages and not only with the roads but also the lighting for the roads there are so many neighborhoods so many roads where it's so dark that you can't see anything when you're driving down the road you just need to rely on your lights from the car I hope they're very bright right and a lot of this could be made maybe the storm knocked out a lot of lights the typhoon and stuff but they need to re-light these neighborhoods make the streets more make the intersections more lit up that way it's safer for driving so as I have said as I have mentioned Guam is a very beautiful island it is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have been in terms of scenery and nature and things like that but the interior the infrastructure and things like that it's just it's just mind-blowing how it is knowing that it is a U.S territory and now maybe other U.S territories are like this as I haven't really been to any other ones but it's very unfortunate because I think the way life is here makes the people you know not trust the government even more and more it's super unfortunate that such a beautiful place like this kind of goes to waste in a way you know and maybe that is this past typhoon has really uncovered a lot of things really shown people the true colors and whatnot but when it comes to tourism we're often blinded by what is really there and I hope this video uh won't be too negative for somebody that you know will tell them oh don't come here no no no no if you're a Taurus and you're watching this you should definitely come here and visit because it is a very beautiful place uh your tourist dollars count your Taurus dollars matter of course and I think it is a very convenient place to come to if you are living close by such as in Southeast Asia Guam is only you know a few hours of a flight from many countries in Southeast Asia which makes it a very interesting and cool destination to go to especially if you've never been to mainland United States this gives you a piece of the United States and you know for me as a U.S citizen it's very nice that I can travel around southeast Asia and then come here to Guam and not have to worry about any sort of Visa situations how long I'm going to stay and stuff like that so this is like a really cool place to go and just take a break from traveling you know internationally and worrying about all those things that you have to worry about when you travel like conversions of money and visas and hotels and and just things language you know this is like a place that really helps me de-stress from travel right before getting ready to travel again which I'm hoping I'm going to travel very soon again but the truth is I think if somebody wants to say moved to Guam or they're thinking about moving to Guam and my experience my personal opinion after just a couple months is that it's a place you really have to think about you have to think about do you have enough money is it going to last you long enough are you going to be happy with your situation when you live here depending on where you you're going to live and so on for me I just don't think I could live here very long term as it's difficult you know even with some health care and stuff it's better to go to a hospital off the island as maybe the healthcare isn't as good here from what I've heard and you know the crime rate here kind of high in some areas sometimes and you know there's not a very big police presence you don't see any people getting pulled over for violations of speeding or traffic things and and just other situations that is a little bit different than living in another place like Asia southeast Asia like the US and don't get me wrong there's so much crime in the U.S so I know I said in the beginning of this video that the name of this video is the 20 truths about living on Guam or something like that well maybe they're not just truths maybe it seems like they're mostly just you know things I hate or things I don't like but the reality is they are things that I think most people would bring to discussion when they are asked about Guam or how they really feel about it right now these are just my opinions like I said this is just from my experience maybe I'm perceiving it in a wrong way or I'm perceiving it as too negative I don't know but this is just how life seems here from my point of view now there are plenty of other things like I said there's plenty of other things that I do enjoy about Guam so maybe I'll make another video soon that just talks about the positive it just talks about why I like being here or why I spend time here and so on but these are just things I hope you can look at and and think to yourself like hmm I wonder why I wonder why there are these problems or I wonder why nothing is being done or maybe this video will help you speak to somebody uh here like the government or or something and try to get something done because the truth is I won't be here for a while or I won't be here forever so to me it's not worth me trying to contact the government or trying to contact a place to fix some certain situation and I do hope things improve in the future but it looks like life might get more difficult as global politics uh geopolitics you know with Wars and occupying areas are getting much more tough it seems like life is going to be more difficult with higher U.S military presence here so who knows how the future will go let's just hope everything improves all right guys well I think that's going to be it for this video here this kind of like walk and talk um I thought I would voice my opinion after living here for several months and so on but I would love to hear from you guys if you're local if you're a tourist if you have opinions about this I know a lot of these points kind of build on one another and maybe it's not exactly 20 or maybe it's a little bit more than 20. but I would love to hear your input about it leave it in the comments we can get a little discussion going but yeah that's going to be it for this little rant uh I'm actually gonna go cool off maybe go to the beach or something but I will see you guys soon in another video hopefully from Guam peace

Channel: Matt Reardon

Views: 43,439

Keywords: mattreardonvlogs, mattreardonvlogs guam, guam vlog, island of guam, guam, where is guam, hafa adai, moving to guam, living on guam, visiting guam, guam after typhoon, tumon bay, tamuning, guam beaches, us territory, guam people, food in guam, guam visit, southern of guam, nature of guam, what is guam, cost of living guam, healthcare guam, hotels guam

Id: pHs4Cew7Inc

Length: 27min 45sec (1665 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023