There are also a few small motels on Tarawa, and I was advised that this was the best of them – Mary’s Motel at Bairiki, near the causeway to Betio. It has six rooms with air-conditioning and hot water (sometimes), for AU$77 per night. It has the only other restaurant on the island apart from the one at the Otintaai Hotel and the Chinese restaurants. I didn’t eat there because the look of the place from the outside turned me off, but I heard later that the food at Mary’s Motel was better than at the Otintaai Hotel.