Flaming O's

It was quite a weekend on Pohnpei, with the International Tuna Commission on island and the arrival of a French Navy ship, there were a lot of new faces on the island. Janhabi, Jen, Rohaizad and I decided to use them as an excuse to go out clubbing on Saturday night.

It isn't easy to go clubbing on Pohnpei. For one thing, there is only one club: Club Flamingo, which we refer to as the Flaming O. The next challenge is finding something to until midnight when the place starts hopping.

We decided to start out at the movie theater because they just started showing the film "Walk the Line." That kept us occupied until about 10:00 pm.

Our next stop was the Rusty Anchor, a bar which most people call the Crusty Anchor. It is located in an abandoned hotel, which makes it spooky. To get to the bar, you have to walk through an abandoned lobby and restaurant. But the bar is a nice outdoor one with a breathtaking view of Sokehs Bay, although at night the view is limited to a lot of darkness. The walls are covered with graffiti from floor to ceiling, so there is always reading material available.

A few strange men were playing pool and sitting at the bar, but I didn't see what was going on, because Rohaizad and I sat with our backs to them, so Jen and Janhabi could scope them out! Just kidding. But everyone seemed to be comfortably settled into their groups, so we left after an hour or so.

Our next stop was Players, a club located in the corner of a huge warehouse. It has all the charm of the lounge at an Interstate Motor Lodge, but it was clean and nicely decorated, so we got some drinks and had a seat. A keyboard player was in the corner trying his best to deafen us all. Jen got a come-on from one of those ancient expat men who you only see at the bars (PLEASE don't let me end up like that!!!).

Since we couldn't talk and it was around midnight, we headed out to Flaming O's. But we were the first people there. Jen and Rohaizad took over the DJ booth and gave us a half-hour of 80's music before the professional took over and gave us the same music I hear every time I'm there: "A Thousand Miles," "Playing with the Queen of Hearts," etc.

By the time we left at 2:00 am the place was crowded. Janhabi got invited to dance by a local guy, and we had a good time dancing and watching folks. Between every song there is always a long pause, like 30 seconds or so. We used to try to get people to stay on the dance floor to maintain momentum, but that's a losing battle, so now we return to our table with everyone else.

It was a pretty mellow clubbing night. We didn't see any fights and only one person passed out at Players. But it's fun to do every once in a while, since I'm not a big clubber anyways, its enough for me.