Saipan Trip - Day 2

On Friday, we woke up and ate a buffet breakfast at a restaurant with an ocean view. The breakfast was okay, but not worth the $18 price tag they put on it. (Luckily we had the Lady's Plan.) After breakfast, we headed down to the beach for some snorkeling.

At first sight, the beach looked disappointing. There wasn't much sand at the beach; the coast was very rocky there. We had to slowly climb our way into the water, so that we wouldn't fall and break our heads open. However, once we made it in, we could see immediately that it was worth it. Take a look at this picture:

My wife and I had been snorkeling before in Hawaii and the Maldives, but we don't remember ever seeing as many fish in one place as we did in Saipan. There were schools everywhere, even close to the coast where the water was only a few centimeters deep. We spent hours swimming and looking at the various fish.

Here I am with a few of the friends I made while snorkeling.

We snorkeled for the rest of the morning. At lunchtime, we ate a "Nature Beach BBQ" meal - just chicken, pork chops, weiners, a potato, a kabob with onions, scallops, and a rice ball, all barbequed. It was good, though, and we enjoyed the ocean view while eating.

After that, we did some more snorkeling, then headed back up the hill to go back to Mandi Asian Spa.

This is a shot of the jacuzzi. Immediately to the right is the wading pool, which was not too cold. You can see the ocean view in the background.

My wife loved the mist sauna there; she literally spent hours in that thing during our stay. I tried to go in there with her, but saunas are not my cup of tea. She says that sweating makes her feel good. But me, I don't need a sauna to sweat, and in Saipan, I was sweating enough. And when I sweat, I don't feel good. So that didn't work.

That night, we thought about eating at the restaurant at the resort where we were staying. One quick look at the menu changed our minds; the prices were too high! It was about $50 a meal per person. So we took the free shuttle to the DFS Galleria in Garapan, which is basically Saipan's downtown. We ate at - of all places - Capricciosa! If you don't live in Japan, Capricciosa is an Italian restaurant chain here, a bit similar to Olive Garden. Capricciosa must get a lot of business from all the Japanese tourists that visit Saipan. (They certainly got ours!)

Once we were full on pasta, we went to the DFS Galleria to look around. We didn't buy anything (not at those prices), but I did get a good picture of the world-famous (?) Saipan-da!

This memory will remain with me forever.