Greetings Friends and Family from Saipan. 

The top photo is of a Japanese bunker or command center.  The Japanese also owned Saipan after WW I and the U.S. took the island back during WW II. The island above Saipan, Tinian, is where the Enola Gay left from to bring the atomic bombs to Japan to end the war.  Saipan had U.S. invasion forces on each side of the island and again, like Guam, the forces had a hard time. Jim is standing at Bonzai Cliff where Japanese civilians and service people committed suicide by jumping off the cliff rather than surrender to the evil Americans. The third photo is of the memorial of the Pacific where those who fought in the war are remembered. It is also a National Park with an informative museum and excellent film. The photo below is of the land sucide cliff again where the Japanese committed suicide sometimes whole families, rather than surrender.

We stayed in the center of the western side of the island at a hotel called Fiesta.  There were lots of good restaurants near us.  We feasted on Japanese, Korean, Fillipino and Thai food. Susan also enjoyed diving in the island’s beautiful waters.  The special dive called the Grotto was quite an experience.  There were 116 steep steps to climb down with all your gear and then you had to watch the surge of the waves to get to the large rock to jump 10 feet into the Ghrotto.  There were openings to swim through out of the caves.  But then after diving, you still had to climb back up with all your gear. Jim went on a submarine ride to see a sunken plane.

Since we were on the west of the island we enjoyed beautiful sunsets, weather permitting.  In the bay there were 7 prepositioned Navy ships ready for action if they were 

needed. One large ship had 11 decks and was filled with tanks and other landing craft.  Susan dove with three sailors from a destroyer in the Ghrotto. We enjoyed our stay on Saipan.  The people are very friendly and the island is not only smaller but at a slower pace than Guam.  The speed limit on the whole island is 35 miles per hour. Lots of beautiful empty beaches until Sunday when all the locals go to the beach for the day.  We think you should add both Guam and Saipan to your travel lists.

Our next stop is Yap, in the Federation of Micronesia. Until our next post, remember to be good to yourselves.

Cheers,

Susan and Jim