Things to Do in Pohnpei

Nan Madol ruins by kayak

Paddle the narrow canals of Nan Madol at sunrise and you'll glide past coral-block walls slick with sea lettuce while egrets burst off the tombs. The tide sucks noisily beneath your kayak, echoing inside half-submerged chambers erected 800 years ago for Saudeleur kings. Morning light paints the lagoon the color of jade. You can still catch wood smoke from the nearby village mixing with the iodine tang of exposed reef.

Sokehs Ridge hike

The trail starts behind an elementary school and climbs through sword grass that slashes bare calves. Higher up, the breeze drifts wild ginger. From the old Japanese gun emplacements you stare straight down at peacock-blue reef curls and the thin white stitch of the airport runway. Clouds drift through Akatsuke-leaved trees, brush your face with cool mist, then dissolve into panoramic sun.

Kepidauen Palikir waterfall swim

A ten-minute jungle detour delivers you to a 30-metre ribbon of water that crashes into a green bowl loud with cicadas. The pool is deep enough for cannonballs and tastes faintly of moss. Sunbeams dance on the surface while fruit bats squeak overhead. On weekday mornings you'll likely share the spot only with a couple of teenagers skipping school.

Nett Point mangrove kayak

Slip through tunnels of red mangrove and you scatter schools of silver fry that flick past like thrown coins. The water is glass-black, mirroring cathedral roots and the odd purple crab frozen mid-climb. Where the channel meets the open lagoon you'll hear the hush of waves outside the reef while your paddle drips like slow rain on a drum.

Dolihni sakau market

Under a single fluorescent tube, old men pound pepper root with a rhythm that rattles the tin shed. The smell is peppery-earthy, peppery-sweet; the final muddy bowl arrives in a halved coconut shell that numbs your lips. Tourists may sit cross-legged and try one shell. Three shells and your ears hum with the generator.

Downtown Kolonia, walking distance to harbour sakau bars and the photogenic Spanish wall, rooms tend to be clean but you'll wake to roosters and church bells.

Sokehs shoreline, breezy family-run lodges where you fall asleep to reef crash and the smell of grilling parrotfish, a short scramble to the ridge trailhead.

Palikir upland, surprisingly cool nights among citrus trees, handy to the national government offices and secretariat cafeteria lunches.

Madolenihmw side, sleep in thatched cabins over a mangrove channel. Morning tide slaps the stilts and someone is already paddling out to net shrimp.

Nett mangrove edge, eco homesteads run by biologists who offer kayaks and night plankton tours, mosquitoes included.

Airport strip, functional motels popular with consultants; 5 am check-ins are painless, though you'll eat fried rice for dinner every night.