Summer vacation to Guam & Saipan

Our journey began at 5:30am on Saturday.  We got to the airport and headed for Nagoya, Japan where we would catch our connection to Guam later that night.  We left the airport once in Japan because we had a 10 hour layover.  We converted some money at the airport into yen, which was a huge mistake because we were completely ripped off thanks to the exchange rate.  We converted 200,000 won which only gave us about 11,000 yen.  We then went to buy train tickets so that we could get to the shrine, but a one-way pass cost us 740 yen, that’s practically an $8 one way trip!  We made an American friend in the train station who thought we looked lost and confused and she helped us find the right train to take since she has been living in Japan for 7 years.  We even got job offers to go work at the school she is planning on opening, but I don’t think we’ll be accepting that any time soon….  We got to Nagoya, found our way to the shrine, and we’re horribly disappointed.  It was a few buildings spread out that didn’t have any signs to tell us their importance, and you couldn’t go into any of them.  It was also hotter than hell, and I haven’t sweated that much since Calcutta, India.  We wandered around the whole shrine for an hour and then decided that we hadn’t eaten since 6:30am and it was time for lunch.
We walked around the entire area of Nagoya surrounding the shrine and train station looking for somewhere to eat.  You’d think that in Japan they would have sushi restaurants on every corner, but not the case in Nagoya.  We searched for 3 hours and could not find anything that was open, well except for 2 strip clubs.  How could nothing be open on a Saturday?!  Is Saturday the Sabbath for the Japanese?  I don’t know, but we were so hot and hungry from walking around that we ended up going back to the airport where we actually found a sushi restaurant.  Although our day was a complete bust, that sushi was the best sushi we had ever eaten.  The slices of fish were HUGE in comparison to what you get in Korea or at home.  We then rested in the cool, air conditioned airport, had a great wifi connection, and waited for 8:30pm to come when we would leave for Guam.  Needless to say we won’t be returning to Japan any time soon since it left such a bad impression on us and because it’s just too expensive to visit.

We didn’t get into Guam until 1:15am.  As I mentioned in the last post, one of my Dad’s coworkers, Mary, is from Guam.  Mary still has family that lives in Guam, so she put me in contact with her sister, Antoinette.  She had volunteered Antoinette to come pick us up at the airport Sunday night, but we decided that since we arrived at such an ungodly hour, we were not going to call Antoinette to come get us.  We even booked a hotel within a mile from the airport so that we would have a cheap taxi ride.  HA!  Our 1 mile taxi cost us $17!!!  The shortest, most expensive cab ride of my life!  We can get a cab into Seoul (which is a good 25 minutes away) for that price.  We got to the hotel, checked in and asked about shuttles to the beach.  We were told that there are shuttles to the beach, but that they cost $10 roundtrip and that we might have to wait 20-30 minutes for one.  We thought that didn’t sound too bad since apparently a 3-mile taxi would probably cost us about $50.  When we woke up the next morning we called to the front desk and they said it was about an hour wait until the next shuttle.  Not exactly a 20-30 minutes, but we weren’t going to pay for a taxi so we waited.  We went to Ypao beach, spent the day soaking up the sun, snorkeling, and relaxing.  At 5:30pm, we went to call for the shuttle.  We found 2 pay phones on the beach, but of course they didn’t work so we had to walk all the way to the Hilton.  Called from there and were told that the shuttle would come to pick us up at 6:30pm.  We sat in the parking lot waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  Kyle had read that Guam has a pretty big meth problem so we were starting to wonder about the group of locals who were sitting near us smoking something out of a pipe.  It eventually started to get dark, and people were now arriving at the beach, but just sitting in their cars.  One guy sat in his car watching us for 30 minutes and then drove by us and asked us if we needed a ride, we kindly declined his offer.  Then all of the streetlights in the parking lot went out and we decided that we should move to the main road.  It was now 8pm.  We went into a bakery that was on the corner and asked to use their phone.  We called the hotel again and complained about having been forgotten and abandoned for 2 hours and told them that they needed to send someone down to pick us up now.  I was able to pick up some wifi as we continued waiting and had received a message from Danny saying, “Hey girl, what’s up?  We need to talk.”  I didn’t think too much of it and thought I’d contact him when we had more reliable internet.  The hotel was very apologetic about forgetting us and we were able to get a free ride to the airport out of it, but we found out that the women who booked our shuttle earlier never wrote down that they had taken us to the beach so they had no record of us.  Ugh.

The next day we left Guam for Saipan and ended up in Saipan at 11am.  (It’s only about a 30 minute flight).  Since had not had internet while in Guam, no one was sure exactly where we were.  As soon as we got to the hotel we found some wifi and Kyle checked his e-mail.  He had a message from his mom, Beth, that said, “Monica really needs to get in touch with Danny.”  Now I start to panic, because if Danny has asked Beth to reach us it’s a little more important than “Hey girl, we need to talk.”  I then checked my e-mail and find out that my grandfather had a heart attack while my family was visiting.  Fortunately our hotel was right on the beach, so Kyle went down to the beach while I talked to my family.  After I had gotten the latest update, I joined Kyle at the beach and we snorkeled to try and take my mind off things.  That night we went in search of dinner, but Saipan and Guam don’t really seem to believe in sidewalks.  Nobody walks anywhere, so we walked a few miles looking for food, but there were no restaurants, except a few Korean and Japanese places, but we refused to eat Korean while on vacation.  We walked by a place whose name sounded familiar because we’d seen it on a brochure for things to do in Saipan.  We went in, made friends with the owner, Aui, and arranged to go to Mañagaha Island the next day.  (We’d read about Mañagaha Island and apparently it is the #1 place to go in Saipan).  Aui even gave us a lift back to the hotel that night.

On Tuesday, I woke up checked my e-mail and had a message from my Mom saying that my grandfather had passed away peacefully in his sleep.  While I was very upset about this, I couldn’t help but think his choice of timing to go was about as good as any.  I had just skyped with him less than a week before, he had just spent the past 2 weeks with 2 of his grandsons, and he’d gotten the chance to see 2/3 of his daughters.  Feeling sad, but relieved that I had had the chance to speak with him a week before he passed away.  Rest in peace Grandpa.  We love you and miss you and hope that you find a great fishing spot with Uncle David up in heaven.


  We then left for Mañagaha Island. 

Once on the island we walked out to the main area where all of the Korean and Japanese tourists were.  There was about ½ a mile of sand from where the trees/shade were to where the ocean was, and there was not a single person sitting in the sand.  All of the Koreans and Japanese were clumped up in the shade.  Kyle and I, feeling like we were committing some taboo, put our stuff out in the sand and went snorkeling.  The area we were in was very crowded with Koreans and Japanese (aka the foreigners), and some snorkeling company gave them all fins for reasons known only to God.  They were killing the coral.  And I’m not exaggerating.  They were kicking the coral, walking on it, touching it, and destroying it.  They were so loud they scared away any fish one might actually see.  Kyle and I found this so disturbing that we relocated to a different area that was more rocky and free of destructive Asians.  (Yes, I have become quite racist since living in Korea, please bear with me).  Upon switching areas we were able to snorkel around antiaircraft guns, sunken Japanese docking boats, and other WWII wreckage.  It was pretty incredible.

Gun lying on the beach

We saw hundreds of fish and much to Kyle’s disappointment I saw a small reef shark and he didn’t.  We were also able to see coral that was bright and alive, polyps blooming like tiny, neon Christmas trees.

View of Saipan from Managaha Island

The next day we decided to rent a car, which Kyle bravely drove around the island.  (They drive on the same side of the road as US mainland does, so no worries there and there are only 3 main roads which also helps since we are both very directionally confused).  Anyway, we drove around the island and were able to see some amazing things we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Kyle’s grandfather was stationed in Saipan during or shortly after WWII and took some pictures that Kyle was interested in recreating.  We went to Lau Lau beach, which had an amazing coral reef, right off the beach, but would have probably made a better dive sight than snorkeling. 

Suicide Cliff

We went to Suicide Cliff, which has a very tragic tale.

Last Command Post

During WWII, the Japanese told the islanders, the Chomorros, that the US soldiers were going to come to the island and rape their women, torture them, and kill them.  Entire villages and families went up to the cliffs and jumped to their deaths.  Of course when the US soldiers arrived, they gave the Chomorros food and water.  Why there was a memorial to the Japanese under this cliff, Kyle and I will never understand.  We then went to the last command post, which had some long range artillery canons and a tank.  We also saw the Grotto, which is supposed to be one of the top dive sights in the world.

We had been told by the locals and online that you could only dive there if you were very experienced and if you had a guide because the current is so strong and it’s easy to get lost.  Maybe someday we’ll go back and dive in the Grotto.  I hear they have a resident shark that lives there and it’s supposed to be a good place to see sea turtles too.  We only walked around the water’s edge, but saw a Japanese group in the water that had a large number of small children with them.  Fortunately they were wearing life vests, but some of the Japanese in the water weren’t.  Kyle tried to see if I would change my mind and go snorkel there, but I said no and that I didn’t want to witness any Japanese children drowning when the current got strong and sucked them down into the cave.  [Kyle side note:  Thank you for being my conscience Monica.]  After this we went to Kalabera cave,  

you really needed to have your spelunking gear with you to see very much, but Kyle found a rock to crawl behind that had an area to explore around it.  From my spot on the opposite side of the rock I couldn’t see him, but I heard a big rockslide and nearly had a heart attack thinking he had plunged into the depths of the cave.  We then drove to Tank beach thinking that surely if it was called tank beach there would be a tank on the beach, but there was no tank and the local children laughed at us when we asked them where it was.  We then returned back to the hotel just in time to beat a huge storm that had been brewing for a while and we got ready to return back to Guam the next day, Thursday.

In Guam, Antoinette picked us up from the airport and greeted us with leis.  She asked us if we needed to go anywhere, if we needed anything, and we said we were good and be fine just going to the hotel and heading to the beach.  She dropped us off at the hotel and arranged to come pick us up that night to take us to dinner.  The water was so low when we got to the beach that we decided to just sit in the pool, which overlooked the ocean.  Later, Antoinette and her husband, Tom, took us to a very nice dinner at the Fiesta hotel.  We had a great time and Antoinette and Tom seemed to enjoy hearing all about Korea and the crazy Kwon.  When they dropped us off back at the hotel we made plans to drive around the island on Friday.

On Friday, Antoinette and Tom drove us all around the island.  Without them we would have never seen as much as we did.  We learned that people in Guam never drive around the island unless they have family or company in town. We started out at Guam's miniature version of the Statue of Liberty since Kyle told Tom and Antoinette that he had never been to the real one.  Then we got to see the Governor's Office, this picture is taken near it next to a latte stone, used as building supports by the ancient Chamorros.

Next, we went to a naval museum and got to see one of only two, 2-man submarines left in the world, the other one is in Hawaii.
Then we saw Asan beach, which was completely destroyed during WWII.  We went to a few scenic outlook points and saw Cocos Island and other parts of Guam from afar. We drove by the landing spot of Ferdinand Magellan.  We also got to see an old, Spanish fort.  A local man set up a place to sell coconuts and bananas right in front of it.  The coconut was delicious.  

We had lunch at Jeff’s Pirate Cove, which was delicious.  We had some local food and Greek food.  Yumm.  Then we went to Talofofo Falls.  Tom and Antoinette said that it had been about 20 years since the last time they had been to the falls.  They were telling us how their daughter overheard them talking about going to the falls and she got upset because they had never taken her, but they were taking complete strangers.  There were a ton of wild pigs in the parking lot, and quite a few little piglets.  We got to ride a gondola to get to the falls.  We had been planning on swimming in the falls, but the water was kind of grimy, and the pamphlet we got said no swimming.  Tom asked a man that worked there about the no swimming, and he said that they really didn’t care, it was more for liability issues and that if we swam they wouldn’t stop us.  We decided to walk over the slippery and slimy, moss covered rocks and go sit behind the waterfall.  After that, Tom and Antoinette drove us back to our hotel and we showered and ate dinner at the hotel restaurant.  We were pretty exhausted after seeing everything.

On Saturday, Antoinette and Tom picked us up and took us to Cocos Island, which is right off the coast of Guam.  The island was way less crowded then Mañagaha Island had been, and even though we didn’t find any old WWII wreckage, we saw huge purple starfish, cute little clown fish, an eel, and several other tropical fish.  We stayed on the island for 4 hours and then drove back to Ypao beach, where Antoinette dropped us off so that we could snorkel some more.  We snorkeled right in front of the Hilton, less than 100 feet from where we had snorkeled on the first day.  We saw 2 lion fish hiding under a rock, they won for best fish seen during the whole trip, lots of other fish that followed us around, and clown fish that had a lot of fun trying to touch us, but then we would move and startle them and they would rush back to the security of their sea anemone.  It became a hilarious little game.  Then Antoinette picked us up from the beach, waited for us to shower and get ready, and took us to the mall so that we could watch Inception.  (If you haven’t seen it, go!  It was amazing; I was on the edge of my chair the entire movie).  Then Antoinette and Tom came to pick us up from the movies and we had to say our goodbyes when they dropped us off.  They were the sweetest people ever and made our trip that much better.  Antoinette even gave us some chocolate covered macadamia nuts…Mmmm…some Chamorro cookies (chocolate chips and macadamia nut cookies)…Mmmmm, and some hand sanitizer, which is super expensive in Korea.  Tom and Antoinette were so wonderful!!!  Thank you both for everything!  We had so much fun! 

The only picture I have of our wonderful hosts

We were so sad to leave Sunday morning at 5am and return to the super hot and humid Korea, but we enjoyed our vacation and it has given us the energy and mental refueling we needed to make it the next 144 days until winter vacation!  Thank goodness we only have to teach 3 hours a day this week instead of a full day.

Hope this finds you all well.  We miss you and love you all.  Love, K & M