Why Saipan

When we told people where we were going on our fall break holiday, Saipan was probably not one of the locations they would have ever guessed.  Besides the fact that not too many people knew about it, it took 3 planes and about a day to get there.  However, we had a few reasons for putting it on our list of places to visit.

Saipan Sunset

1.  Off the beaten path, but still an American territory.

I can honestly say, I've never heard anyone say they couldn't wait to go on vacation to a tropical beach on the shores of...Saipan.   As one of the islands of the CNMI or Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, it still is a territory of the United States, but it's definitely something different.  We didn't know what to expect.  Right away I noticed a large number of Chinese tourists.  I then found out that according to a Chinese travel website Mafengwo Saipan is the number one Pacific Island to visit for the Chinese.  It even beat out number two Palau and number three Fiji!  Local businesses kept offering Brian and I the "local discount" because we didn't look like tourists.  Hey, we'll take it!

Right across the street from our hotel were some very high end shops.  All the shops you would expect to see on Rodeo Drive were there:  Tiffany, Prada, Gucci, LV, just to name just a few.  If you know me, you'd know that I didn't step in there at all.  I did all my shopping at the ABC Store and the I ❤ Saipan store.

Along with the high-end shopping there's also this grand hotel-casino in the middle of Garapan.  Its bright, white, gold facade was almost gaudy.  The expansive lobby was adorned by a giant gold and crystal dragon chandelier.  The image here, just shows it's head.  Not pictured is the whole crystal body of the dragon that runs the length of the lobby.  The place looks only half-built from the outside, but it was still open for business.  I was told that Saipan is in the middle of some overseas employment issues, so getting construction back on track is proving to be a challenge, not just for this property, but for many others.  The damage from typhoon Yutu only exacerbates the problem of properties that look half-built.

One funny and interesting observation, the Chinese tourists LOVED driving brightly colored American muscle cars; pink, yellow, orange! You name it!  They also loved taking pictures with them, anywhere and everywhere.  Check out all these pink Mustangs lined up when we arrived at one of the observation points on the island.  This is where you're thankful for remote car keys that help you find your car.

2.  Clear Waters, tropical weather and beautiful beaches

If this is not enough reason to get you here, I don't know what is.  Seriously, there is so much blue water!  If you don't want to play around the beaches of Saipan you can always take a ferry just 10 minutes out to the small island of Managaha.  What a beautiful tropical paradise.  You can walk around the entire island in 15 minutes (even less since I just walk slow).  There are white sand beaches with amazing snorkeling.  Lots of boats leave from here to take you parasailing or on a crazy banana boat ride.

Banana Boating away from Managaha Island

We ate at the one restaurant on the island and I ordered some Shanghai lumpia! Yay! I got me some Filipino food!  Obviously, they gave us the "Local" discount.

We spent most of the time on the beach snorkeling.  There was so much fish to follow around.

The highlight here was the boat ride over.  Basically, we just drove to the dock in Garapan.  There are many private operations that will take you over to the island for $20 and you just let them know what time you want to be picked up from the island.  As we were driving over to the island, we asked about the Japanese Zero warplane wreck.  Our driver said he knew exactly where it was and it was on the way to the island.  We paid him a little extra to stop over the wreck so we can snorkel around for a bit.

The water was so clear you can see the plane beneath us even while we were still on the boat.  It had to be over 15 meters below.

This brings me to reason number 3.

3.  Diving - Deep diving and Wreck dives

Saipan and the Mariana Islands are located near the Mariana Trench which happens to be the deepest part of the ocean.  If Mount Everest were dropped into the deepest part of this trench, also known as The Challenger Deep, then the mountain's peak would still be a mile under water!  This means there is plenty of opportunity for deep dives here in Saipan.  Too bad, we're not big fans of deep dives.  We've been to 100 feet, but honestly, there is enough for us to see at 60 feet that we don't need to go much deeper than that.

The Grotto

There is a beautiful place in Saipan called the Grotto.  We went there to snorkel, but the rock formations and caves there are just amazing.  The way the light plays with the openings of the surrounding rock was mesmerizing.  While we were there, a free-diver dressed as a white mermaid was deep in the water having a photo shoot.  It was incredible how she stayed underwater for so long with just one breathe.  File that under "You don't see that everyday."  Along with all the snorkelers, there were many divers as well.  They made their way to the hole that leads towards the ocean where they descended even further.  The dive here can go as deep as 150 feet if you want.  The different rock formations, caves, and canyons are what makes this dive very popular.  We were satisfied just snorkeling here.  Be careful around here! The footing is slippery and wet.  Also, waves from the ocean come into the grotto and can knock you around a bit.

We did do some diving in Saipan to check out a wreck and some turtles.  We chose to go with Aqua Connections (using our local discount, of course!).  We dove Oleai Reef and the Ship Wreck.  The first dive, Oleai, felt like we were in an aquarium with a cool landscape of coral.  Here, we came across a nest of green sea turtles.  We saw at least five turtles on this dive.

The shipwreck was pretty cool to swim around, too.  Here we saw schools and schools of fish, I felt like we needed a crossing guard.  We also saw another turtle, a blowfish and a huge stonefish.  The visibility was absolutely amazing and the water temperature had to be in the 80s.

Mrs. Puff the blowfish

Stonefish

4.  World War II History

The real reason we came to Saipan was in honor of Brian's dad.  It was exactly 75 years ago, back in 1944 when his command was ordered to storm the beaches to take Saipan from the Japanese in WWII.  He was injured in the war and earned his purple heart here.  He never talked much about his time in the war.  We came here to learn more about this history and we brought his purple heart with us.  Below is the letter that his mother, Brian's grandmother, received during the war.

There are many historical sites in Saipan.  During our short time there we were able to see the last Japanese Command post, Suicide Cliff and Banzai Cliff.  The last two sites were so named because after it was clear that the Americans have won the battle, Japanese civilians, including women and children, were encouraged to commit suicide to avoid capture and honor the emperor.  It's surreal to imagine the horrific scenes as we stood there on those peaceful cliffs with amazing views of the island and ocean.

Looking out over Banzai Cliff

Finally, a visit to Saipan would not be complete without a visit to the American War Memorial Park.  This listed the names of the 3,250 Americans that died in battle.  In the visitor center, we watched a short video about the battle of Saipan and perused through the displays depicting different aspects of the war.  These included recorded first-hand accounts, actual diaries written by soldiers and citizens, and military items and pictures.

Learning about this history and being on the island where Brian's dad fought for our country was very special for our family.  Getting to Saipan isn't the easiest and it's a long flight, but it was something Brian has wanted to do and I'm so glad we did.

Papa's Purple Heart

Return of the Flame Trees

Japan has her cherry blossoms. Australia has her Jacaranda.  Saipan has her Flame Trees.

We arrived in Saipan just in time for their annual Flame Tree festival.  Multiple artisan tents and a stage were set up beachside.  Cultural performances, food, shops and art were all in display for the community to share.  The only thing missing was the star of the show, the Flame Trees.

This time of year, the flame trees are usually in full bloom.  The video above shows them in all their glory just a few years ago.  Their bright red flowers make the mountains of the Northern Mariana Islands look like they're on fire.  However, on October 25th 2018, the island of Saipan and neighboring island, Tinian, suffered a direct hit from Typhoon Yutu.  It was the worst storm to hit US soil since 1935.  The damage and the aftermath weren't highly covered by US mainstream media unfortunately because many mainlanders don't even realize that these islands are part of the US.

Along with over 3000 homes destroyed and $200M damage, many of the flame trees were laid bare.  In fact, the first thing I noticed about Saipan upon leaving the airport was the amount of damage still visible from the typhoon that happened over 6 months ago.  They are still cleaning up.  We drove by one tree that had a large corregated tin sheet from someone's rooftop wrapped and tangled around the top limbs of a tree.  There was so much damage.

I had to look hard, but after driving around the island I was able to see a few flame tree flowers in bloom.  Seeing these flowers and watching the islanders celebrate the Flame Tree festival was promising.  Just like the blossoms of the flame trees, the community will rebuild and continue to grow.