As others see us

From Robert Burns, you might remember. The last stanza of the poem To A Louse he saw crawling on a lady's head in church:

O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!

The lice are in Garapan, of course. I thought of the line when I saw more bad Saipan exposure at tripadvisor:

We (family of 5) just visited Saipan a couple of weeks ago. Like you, we live in Japan. We stayed at the Hyatt and found it to be very nice. There were some kids at the pool, but that's about the only place. However, the area outside of the hotel is very, very shabby, almost third-world like. Very cheap looking karaoke places and hostess bars. Japan has these kinds of areas, but the ones in Saipan were much more sleazy. Since JAL stopped flying about a year or two ago, the economy has apparently taken a nose dive. As we drove around the island one day, it seemed that at least half or more of the places of business were closed up. There are certainly some interesting historical places and the Hyatt is very nice. But, I think that if you're looking for some nice nightlife, you're going to be very disappointed.

I wasn't going to mention it, but there's a story today about a new resort. There's been a lot of talk about lipstick on pigs lately. Sadly, if tourists won't leave their hotels, that's my reaction.