KiribatiMapJuly 9, 2014 Kiribati is a strange country. A paltry 33 atolls with a total land area of 811 square kilometers scattered over 3.5 million square kilometers of ocean. The republic’s government got tired of having a 24-hour time difference between its eastern and western parts, which meant that only four work days a week coincided for the two halves of the country. So Kiribati thought, to hell with the straight vertical line: ![]() Curiously enough, many time zone maps ignore this lovely squiggle and continue to draw a straight line to this day. Early in the morning, my plane lands on the island of Kiritimati, the largest coral atoll in the world, which incidentally also accounts for four-fifths of the country’s total land area (642 square kilometers). ![]() Passengers’ luggage is searched upon arrival here—a rare occurrence. They can’t afford an X-ray machine, so they search by hand. ![]() The island is chock-full of recognizable place names: London, Paris, Canada, Poland, Cook Island, etc. You can see Paris from London, but you have to drive about forty kilometers to get from one village to the other. ![]() The people live poorly, but at least they can enjoy palm tree-studded views. ![]() The houses vary depending on their owners’ level of relative wealth. Those with very little money fashion walls out of cloth or straw. ![]() The next level is walls made of corrugated metal scraps. ![]() After that come buildings with a more or less defined shape and corrugated fiber cement roofs. These houses have distinctive windows, which open in a manner similar to gun ports on a sailing ship. ![]() The sturdiest structures of all are government buildings, such as this post office. ![]() Generally speaking, a building on Kiribati doesn’t need any walls at all. That’s why all gathering places for large groups have only a roof (like in American Samoa). ![]() Here’s one of such festivities taking place right now. ![]() A girl. ![]() A teenager. ![]() A woman. ![]() Three kinds of mimicry surprised me in Kiribati. The first is a red flower with yellow petals in the middle, creating the illusion of a flower with a yellow pistil. ![]() The second is a plant whose leaves turn red closer to the stem, creating the illusion of a flower. Apparently this was the only way to attract insects to the sad stamens. ![]() And the third kind of mimicry was observed in the island’s main village, London, on market day. This is a second-hand shop. All the clothing is simply dumped in a pile on the ground; customers crawl through it and dig out what they like. It’s impossible to tell the shoppers apart from the merchandise. ![]() A license plate. ![]() A traffic sign. ![]() The main road. ![]() A secondary road. ![]() The local cemetery is interesting. Three dates are listed on each headstone: birth, death and burial. ![]() Poor people simply have a rectangle laid out with stones from the beach. ![]() Wealthy people have an airy gazebo. ![]() There are big mesh containers for aluminum can disposal in some places. ![]() A crab farm. ![]() It’s time to continue onwards. ![]() The waiting area at the airport. ![]() The airplane gains altitude. ![]() Climbing higher and higher. ![]() Leaving Kiribati, the most useless country in the world, down below. ![]() |
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Kiribati
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