I was one of the first to reach immigration and the asked me what the purpose of my trip was. I said vacation. Travelling alone? Yes, I said. Immigration has no concerns with this and waved me through after marking something on my immigration/customs form. Customs wanted to have a word with me. An older man, my age I guess, was the customs official and put on gloves as he started to go through my bags. He weaved in small talk with questions that could incriminate but as they are want to do, but I must admit he did seem genuinely nice. He asked me why I was visiting Guam and I said to get divorced and that it was the closest port from Beijing that I could do it. I left out the part that it was the only place I could do it relatively quickly without relocating back to the US for at least three months or going through the Chinese courts. When he heard my real vacation reason he said “sorry” with some actual empathy and that was that.

It was after midnight but it was warm and humid like Hawaii. I rented a car and the agent walked me to it and inspected it with a flashlight in the parking lot making sure that I saw any scapes or lack of scrapes. It felt very much like the first time I had rented a car back in 1990. I got in the rental and with my directions on my phone drove to the hotel which was closeby and on the water. It being dark, I made a couple of wrong turns. Dogs chased me and my rental out of a what looked like a cement factory. Eventually I did find my hotel, a former Marriott, and I checked in. WiFi would be an extra $20 a day which outraged me since I thought it came free with the room and the room wasn’t that cheap. It outraged me in such a way that my rage would linger and I would tell the story of $20 daily WiFi charge many times, including here. I declined the WiFi and was happy the next day when I was able to buy an data sim card for the duration of my trip. A trip that would last eight nights and one that I originally imagined I would be alone with my demons.