Links from travel to cuisine
In 2018, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the RMI and Taiwan, the two sides signed a reciprocal agreement on visa-free travel, under which citizens traveling between the two countries can stay up to 90 days without a visa. Taiwan’s foreign affairs minister, Jaushieh Joseph Wu, was the first person from Taiwan to enter the RMI visa-free under this agreement.
ROC citizens can use the opportunity of visa-free travel to explore the natural settings and culture of the various islands in the RMI and to enjoy the local cuisine and handicrafts.
Kattil advises that the Marshall Islands offer world-class diving, as well as excellent deep-sea fishing and spear fishing. Another can’t-miss is the Marshallese counterpart to Taiwan’s stinky tofu: rukwal (a.k.a. bwiro), a local dish made from fermented breadfruit.
Coconuts, from which large quantities of coconut pulp and coconut oil are produced, are an important economic resource for the Marshall Islands, and local people call the coconut palm the “tree of life.” Other major food sources include breadfruit trees and pandanus trees (thatch screwpine, Pandanus tectorius). Marshallese have traditionally used pandanus in many ways, making canoes from the tree trunks, weaving sails and skirts from the leaves, and even turning the pulp of the ripe fruit into a preserve that can be stored for 50 years. The ambassador has observed small pandanus trees along Taiwan Provincial Highway 8 (the Central Cross-Island Highway), which are in fact a species known as fragrant screwpine (Pandanus odorifer). The Amis indigenous people of Taiwan make pouches from its leaves that they fill with millet to make alivongvong. The two trees are utilized in different ways but with equal usefulness.
Besides visiting Majuro, the RMI capital, Kattil recommends visiting Arno Atoll. There are two hotels on Arno, but no mains electricity or Internet, and there one can enjoy not only the beautiful sky, sea, and white sand beach scenery, but also “authentic Marshallese living.” The lifestyle of rising with the sun to work and resting at sunset is still practiced by local residents. They live as they did a century ago, even cooking meals outdoors over open fires. Afterwards, you can visit nearby Milli Atoll, which was a battlefield in World War II and where you can dive among the remains of wrecked fighter planes and warships.
Travelers should also not fail to visit Bikini Atoll, listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage Site for its history as a nuclear bomb test site in the 1940s and 1950s. Kattil notes that rising sea levels caused by climate change will sooner or later inundate the concrete dome on Enewetak Atoll (another major test site) that covers the crater in which waste materials from the bomb tests are buried. Infiltration of seawater may damage the structure and lead to the release of radiation. This is another reason why the RMI regards the issue of combating climate change with such urgency.
Ambassador Kattil believes that if her homeland and Taiwan continue to promote interactions and visits between governments, sister cities, and schools at all levels, “these two island countries can know and understand each other better, creating the basis for solid and enduring friendship.”
Ambassador Kattil visits a traditional house of Taiwan’s Truku indigenous people. Pointing to the structure of the roof and the layout of the kitchen, she says that these are very similar to traditional houses in the Marshall Islands. The main difference is that the Marshallese used coconut palms for their roofs.
Ambassador Kattil tours Taroko Gorge National Park with family members.