Saipan Day 6 Managaha Island

S.A.I.P.A.N DAY 6

Our last day in Saipan. We thought about doing a dive in Lau Lau after we heard that you can meet turtles there 💓. But when we tried to book yesterday, we found out for the first time that you can't board a plane for at least 12 hours after the last dive. The tiny bubbles in our body from the oxygen tank may expand due to the reduction in pressure with altitude and would cause intense pain💦. So Managaha Island it is.

We booked our trip for parasailing+round trip to Managaha (includes snorkeling equipment). They let us do the paragliding while driving us to the island. It was XW's first experience and it was a thrilling ride especially for him. I remember my first one in Sabah includes submerging the passengers into the sea for a brief moment before speeding up and flying us up into the sky again. Here they only submerged our feet before pulling us up again. Yuan lai Sabah's marine sports were overall more daring/exciting/cincai.

 Managaha Island

They dropped us at the pier, reaffirmed the pick up time for the return trip and left.

So this is where all the people were. It's similar to Redang Marine Island. There're shops and restaurants. And the tourists normally stay at the main island and come here for a day trip.

There's two snorkeling spots by the beach. Not much fishes. The swimming hole at Forbidden Island had more. No corals too though the water is clear. Redang Marine Island definitely had a lot more colorful pretty fishes.

We snorkeled, had an ice-cream & fries break, had our second snorkeling session and it's time to leave.

Taxis to airports can be asked from the hotel.

Look what I bought at the airport. Anna Sui perfume.

First ever perfume I bought for myself!

Goodbye Saipan, the first US area I ever visited.

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Sea horse: Managaha round trip + parasailing = USD60 per person

Saipan Day 5 Forbidden Island, Massage & Food

S.A.I.P.A.N DAY FIVE

Forbidden Island was so SO PURTYYYY. We booked our half day Forbidden Trek tour with Marianas Trekking. This is also another place which requires strenuous effort to reach - 40 mins of trekking. The reviews of Forbidden Island are like 'the place is so beautiful but never again'. I guess no one expects to be sweating themselves out trekking when they're having their vacation at an island resort. Also definitely not a suitable activity to bring along old parents/young children. The main attraction is a tide pool with lots of fishes to snorkel in. And a secluded tide pool hidden in a small cave (pic above)*ohmygodohmygod*

In the morning, we got worried when there was still no sight of the Marianas Trekking's driver 15mins past the pick-up time. Turned out the staff had mixed up our room number and when the driver arrived earlier and called the wrong room number, he went back after getting no answer. They realized their mistake and the driver came again and brought us to their shop. After that we switched into a 4WD and our guide, Nicole drove us to the Forbidden Island (or as close as she could anyway because we could only get there by trekking).

Btw never the outdoorsy person so I didn't know the difference between hike and trek:
"The main difference between the two is that hiking is mainly a leisure activity which is done by walking on well-made trails and man-made roads. However, trekking is more rigorous, and a more challenging activity. It tests one's physical ability, endurance, and even their mental or psychological capacity." www.differencebetween.info

Our trek was not that rigorous and fortunately did not reach the level where we have to put our psychological capacity to test. However, there wasn't any man-made trails and there were some steep, slippery areas where we had to use our hands to steady ourselves.

View after we emerged from the forest trek. That's the Forbidden Island. Island is an exaggeration. I'd say it's more like a humongous rock or small hill XD.

We were apparently the first people to come here today because there were still lots of spider webs in the trekking path back in the forest *internal screaming*. Nicole led the way and moved the spider webs out of the forest path so that we don't get them in our faces. This was a mind blowing experience for me. Like she doesn't just swipes and destroys the web, she plucks the web and sticks it at a safer place out of the way. クモのお家の引越し~~ I did not know that was possible (and nor do I hope the day will ever ever come when I have to do it).

At first glance it looks like XW is putting his arms around me *awwww*. But upon closer inspection he's just resting his arm on my backpack -.- 

We weren't sure if we would be able to join this tour at first because we only had crocs and no proper sports shoes. But it turned out crocs were good enough and Marianas Trekking provided us water bottles, backpacks and hats. For this tour, it was just XW & me, another couple and our guide, Nicole. Marianas Trekking was a bigger, more organized, proper tour shop compared to the ones we used for other activities in Saipan. One part I thought they could improve on was we could have saved more than 40mins if they had brought us directly to Forbidden Island instead of bringing us to their shop which is based at Mariana Resort, north of the hotel we're staying at, only to go all the way down south to Forbidden Island. Then I would have been able to have more precious sleep XD.

We made it all the way down there finally 😊😊

Before we snorkeled at the main tide pool, Nicole offered to show us a secluded tide pool hidden in a small cave (which I had no idea about before). It's not mentioned in the tour package so she had no obligation to bring us there but she's just absolutely the best 😫!!

We had to climb over this hill

We get to jump through these rocks which doesn't tire me at all. A lot of fun compared to just walking endlessly in the humid mundane (in my opinion) forest. 

This is the entrance to the cave where you have to climb down. I would have never known 😮

and tadah~ 

My spirits soared at the sight. Doesn't it look amazing??

The water is so clear ~💙.  There are two tide pools here. This and another one just at the back of this pool.

The tide pool at the back. Isn't this super instagram worthy?? 

I hyperventilated at the sight. Swimming in these natural swimming holes made me felt like I was adventurous😈. Also, there was NOT a single soul besides us here (at the whole Forbidden Island area actually). Definitely one of the perks of the difficult accessibility. Normally a stunning place like this would be swarmed by tourists and I would probably stress myself out just trying to take a clean scenery picture without people. It felt so serene to be swimming and snorkeling in these pools overlooking the ocean. I wish I could have a secret spot like this where I could go chill in the weekends. 

Our guide, Nicole outdone herself once again. I really wanted to grab a photo here at the rear tide pool but none of us had waterproof cases. Thought about wading through the first pool while holding my phone above the surface but it was too deep and my lousy swimming skills were not sufficient to keep one hand above without sinking completely. While I was regretting over mistreating my Xperia in the past making it no longer waterproof, Nicole toss her own smartphone into her backpack and proceeded to swim through the pool while holding it above her. Even she herself was not confident about being capable of keeping it dry throughout the swim but she risked it anyway. With her own phone to foot! I mean this isn't even her permanent job. How could anyone be so kind and selfless T_____T ? 

Here's our awesome bright guide, Nicole from US, and her peculiar hobby of collecting floats. I sure did not expect our diving guide and trekking guide to be women. Women working in Saipan are freakin' strong.

After our swim in the cave, we climbed over this hill again to get back to the main open tide pool.

There's the iconic rectangular flat-top Forbidden Island.

And tadah~ the main tide pool

There were lots of fishiesss to my surprise. The waves inside were small and gentle making it a relaxing snorkeling session. The other couple did not seem very interested in snorkeling but then again, they are currently living in Guam so they are probably bored of it by now.

Green, clear water😍. Not all the beaches in Saipan had beautiful water like this though, only certain spots. The water at the beach by our hotel, Grandvrio Resort certainly looked nothing like this.

This whole trip made me feel like I was an explorer

After a total of an hour and a half down here, we started our way back.

Climbing back up into the forest trek.

Nicole drove us back to Marianas Trekking shop where we returned our trekking stuff and watched a slideshow of photos Nicole took with the shop's camera while waiting for our ride back to Garapan.

We had the driver dropped us at Spicy Thai Noodle Place, another place Rie recommended for lunch. 

For the rest of the noon, we couldn't summon the energy to do anything and we decided to go for a massage at Healing Stone, a massage parlour which Nicole recommended for the best & reasonably priced massages (USD20 for an hour!). Like Nicole mentioned, it seems like the reasonably-priced massages were something only the locals know. The massage menus available on their website only listed massages for > USD60 an hour. When I called to make a reservation (a must at least an hour beforehand according to Nicole), I made the mistake of asking the price to confirm it was USD20. The receptionist went like 'Oh, you're not local?' to which I was caught off guard and lied that XW's local and I was just visiting XD. The lady contemplated a little then said it's USD25 for me (prolly because I know the local price). 

The masseurs were Chinese and didn't communicated great in English. At one point they suspected me being Chinese and asked if I was one (in mandarin) to which I feigned ignorance (to avoid the mundane  conversation like where are you from blabla). The masseurs gossiped a lot to each other throughout the massage thinking we don't understand and I got slightly paranoia about how they would react if they found out that I do speak mandarin 😜💦.  

The aroma oil massage was awesome btw.

Dinner at Gentle Brook Cafe, another place Rie recommended for the tonkatsu sandwich and good steak at an affordable price. The chef/owner is Japanese and worked in some high class hotel before (Hilton perhaps?).

The volume is crazy O.O 

This restaurant is not walk-able distance from Garapan and requires 12 mins by car. But they have pick up service from your hotel :). Their staff picked us up and for the return trip, the Jap wife sent us back and we had a good chat and learnt a lot more about Saipan and its politics.

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Marianas Trekking Package Tour: $130 for two
Healing Stone: $25 for 1 hour aroma oil massage
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Reached Parking Lot and Started Trekking: 9am plus
Reached Forbidden Island: 10am
Started Return Trek: 11:30am

Saipan Day 4 Diving at Grotto

S.A.I.P.A.N DAY FOUR

Grotto's water is amazingly blue (cobalt blue to be exact). To compare, have a look at the normal seawater below where we had our first dive as practice.

So yea, to dive at Grotto without a diving license, we first had to do a practice dive at a less challenging spot so that we can learn the basics and so that Rie can assess our skills and decide how much freedom she can afford us at Grotto. I love her efficiency. The lesson/briefing began once we settled into her car and by the time we reached the spot, we just put on our wet suits and gear and we're ready to dive.

A little bitty dissatisfaction would be her complete authority over the photo-taking experience. She already has a predetermined set of photo spots. When she ask you to pose, you can't really say no (her tone is pretty serious XD). Like this photo above. I think that's a shrine/tombstone which was a tad creepy for me and I would otherwise definitely avoid taking photo with before I dive into the unknown world for the first time. And you can't really ask her to take your photo at where you want. But she's doing this part for free whereas some other dive shops require an additional fee to help you take your photographs. So, no qualms.

Wet suits are so kakkoii (suai in chinese? can't find the right word in english).

The entry was beach entry type where you just waddle from the shore until your feet cannot reach the bottom. The depth wasn't that much (5m?) and the surface was constantly nearby. The only discomfort I had throughout the dive was my scorching dry throat which felt like the Sahara desert. I did not know I was supposed to swallow from time to time.

Cute fishies in a row

We aced our first dive with flying colors and Rie said we can do a more complicated course at Grotto. Yippie~

Here we are at Grotto!

 Can you see the people snorkeling in the cave?

Here's the infamous arduous steps one has to go through to climb down to Grotto. It's not as bad if you don't have to carry all the heavy diving equipment.

The entry requires courage as well. You have to jump down into the water from a rock while pressing your mask tight to your face or it might slip off from the impact. But you're instantly rewarded once you're in the water. It looked like a scene from FF7 (where Aeris gets stabbed by Sephiroth and Cloud puts her to rest at this really beautiful cobalt-blue lake and Aeris inevitably sinks to the bottom)

Grotto is connected to the outside sea through a few tunnels but it's prohibited to resurface outside for reasons I forgot. And they say the danger is that some divers without a guide would get lost after going out into the sea, unable to find their way back into Grotto.  

Prawns

 

In total, we went through 3 tunnels, which I didn't really noticed but XW did. Underwater, I lost what little sense direction I had to be begin with. Plus the tunnels weren't the narrow dark ones I imagined. From reviews, some people had advised against diving here for those who are afraid of narrow dark places but the tunnels were actually so huge that I didn't even realized I was going through them.

Would recommend Rie if any beginners without license are looking to dive at Grotto. Not sure how good she is in communicating in English though. But her no-nonsense attitude and confidence made me felt safe and I feel that if I do run into any trouble underwater, she would be capable of saving my life XD. Her choice of life is so fascinating and refreshing for me. Going out of Japan and coming to an island to open a diving shop. She mentioned it's hard to be a diver in Japan unless you come from a fishery family. I think I heard something similar before about how the Japan fishermen don't let strangers into their turf.

Grotto was breathlessly dazzling and silent. It's much deeper than our first dive and I remember thinking that 'wow, if I panic I could really die here'.  I hope I get to see visit more sacred places like these :)

Doing the safety stop where we pause a few minutes before ascending completely. I still did not know I was supposed to swallow from time to time so by the end of the dive, my throat was so uncomfortable it was hard to concentrate on anything else. The trip back up the stairs were even more strenuous than when we descended and the only thing that kept me going was the thought of finally getting rid of the freaking heavy oxygen tank off my back XD. Lol, in the end I'm not really sure if I enjoy diving or not. I've come to the conclusion that I won't probably be diving just for the sake of diving but if it's to experience awesome views like Grotto or to see ray fish/whales/fascinating sea creatures, I'd gladly lug those heavy equipment any day.

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Two Dives with Mei Dive : 100USD
First dive: Entry time about 2pm for 30~40 mins
Second dive: Entry time about 4pm for 30~40 mins