{"country":{"title":"Kiribati","name":"Kiribati","slug":"kiribati","flag":"🇰🇮","subtitle":"","summary":"","prose":["Kiribati is a long, narrow chain of islands stretching mostly from north to south. One of our favorite—and honestly one of the only—activities was simply walking up and down the main road to see what the locals were up to. The streets were always bustling with trucks, motorbikes, and taxis carrying people and construction materials back and forth. There are many foreign countries, especially Japan and China, investing in these Pacific Island nations in exchange for strategic influence and access.","Kids lined the roads asking for high fives and would even run barefoot alongside us. Other children stood in the ocean catching small fish with their hands while hoping for bigger ones on their fishing lines. One evening, we were invited to play soccer with a group of kids while walking back to our hotel. The only thing you really had to watch out for were the packs of aggressive street dogs at night. Come to think of it—where were all the adults?","It was also here that Max ordered spaghetti bolognese for dinner and received something closer to Chef Boyardee on a plate. His grilled cheese sandwich even came stuffed with coleslaw."],"pop":"133k","lang":"Gilbertese, English","adv":1,"vis":0.01,"rar":98,"daysOnGround":4,"mapsUrl":"https://maps.app.goo.gl/SRkiReeNmBasBRwC7","countedDate":"28 Jul 2025","countryNo":120,"firstArrival":{"date":"2025-07-26","airport":"TRW","from":"MAJ","carrier":"RON","num":"42","duration":"59m"},"hero":"1753732958753-Q6N7YH745JCA04X4HWMB/maxandhailey_travel_kiribati-pacific-island-countries+-+3+(2).jpeg","art":"kiribati"},"ui":{"words":{},"copy":{"recap":"The best activity on Tarawa — honestly one of the only ones — was walking the main road to see what the locals were up to. Trucks and motorbikes rolled past all day, kids lined the road for high fives or ran barefoot alongside us, and one evening a soccer game pulled us in on the walk home. The kitchen kept us humble: Max's spaghetti bolognese came out closer to Chef Boyardee, and his grilled cheese arrived stuffed with coleslaw. We still wonder where all the adults were."},"facts":[{"idx":"All 4","h":"The only country in every hemisphere","p":"Kiribati straddles both the equator and the 180th meridian — the only nation on Earth with territory in the northern, southern, eastern and western hemispheres.","chip":"{stats.nights} nights in the diary"},{"idx":"UTC+14","h":"First to tomorrow","p":"In 1995 Kiribati bent the International Date Line around its easternmost atolls, inventing the UTC+14 time zone — so its Line Islands are the first inhabited place on Earth to greet every new day.","chip":null},{"idx":"13 letters","h":"Say 'Kiribas'","p":"Gilbertese spells everything with just 13 letters — no s among them — so 'Gilberts' became 'Kiribati', pronounced roughly 'Kiribas'. Christmas Island, likewise, became 'Kiritimati'.","chip":null},{"idx":"≈ 388 km²","h":"The world's largest atoll","p":"Kiritimati holds more dry land than any other coral atoll on Earth — on its own it accounts for nearly half the entire country's land.","chip":null},{"idx":"810 km² of land","h":"A nation wider than a continent's flight","p":"Kiribati's 33 atolls add up to about 810 square kilometres of land — scattered across 3.5 million square kilometres of Pacific, a spread wider than the flight from New York to Los Angeles.","chip":null},{"idx":"408,250 km²","h":"An ocean park the size of California","p":"The Phoenix Islands Protected Area fenced off 408,250 square kilometres of ocean around eight barely touched atolls — one of the largest marine protected areas ever declared, nearly the size of 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Gentlest window: May, Jul-Nov. Wettest stretch peaks around Mar.","months":[["Jan",28.0,6.83,"mixed","showers"],["Feb",27.9,5.54,"mixed","partly"],["Mar",27.8,7.08,"mixed","showers"],["Apr",27.9,5.69,"mixed","partly"],["May",28.1,3.31,"good","partly"],["Jun",28.2,4.52,"mixed","partly"],["Jul",28.2,3.84,"good","partly"],["Aug",28.2,3.44,"good","partly"],["Sep",28.3,3.07,"good","partly"],["Oct",28.1,3.05,"good","partly"],["Nov",28.2,3.17,"good","partly"],["Dec",28.1,6.72,"mixed","showers"]],"phrases":[{"label":"Hello","text":"Mauri"},{"label":"Thank you","text":"Ko rabwa"},{"label":"One more drink","text":"Teuana riki"}]},"stories":[],"metros":[]}