Saipan, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands CNMI, U.S. Territory
Today we arrived in Saipan and were cleared to go ashore at 8 am.
During our planning stages, we didn’t find any tours that appealed to us and decided we would wing it once we arrived. A few days ago I found a place to rent cars and decided we would do that.
The walk into town was about 2 miles. The Port authorities decided at the last minute that they didn’t want people walking through the port so they offered complimentary shuttle services to town. We hopped on the bus and were taken to a closed shopping mall in the center of town. It is a holiday and many businesses and schools would be closed. I’m guessing because of the presence of military bases on these islands that this holiday is observed. Do we do this back home?
The car rental place was a few blocks away and renting a car was much less expensive than one of the ship tours.
We had a map and decided that Suicide Cliff was our first stop. This was one of many locations that civilians and military hurled themselves over to avoid capture. I have seen videos of families throwing their children off first and then themselves. The brainwashing that the Japanese did to their own people convinced them that they would be tortured mercilessly by American forces if they were captured. The military had no choice as there was no place to go. There was no honor in surrendering. Good thing our own government never engages in brainwashing.
The 2d pictures cannot show any depth. Just beyond the cactus is a drop of several hundred feet. There is a youtube video showing a woman jumping to her death from this very spot. The last photo shows a triangular shaped piece of land that is an American veterans cemetery. We did visit that on the way up but there wasn’t really anything to see.
We stopped at all of the sites at the northern end of the island. Great views but not much else to see. Our next stop is the top of Mt. Topachau. The drive was interesting and dangerous. The road to the top was washed out gravel at best. Cliff on both sides of part of the road. Careful attention is required.
Once at the top, there were some stairs and a small sidewalk. Signs described and showed what the marines did back in the 1940s. The landscape hasn’t changed much in 80 years. The airstrip shown in one of the pictures is now a highway.
We spent a good amount of time at the top taking in the view. From this point, every portion of the island can be seen. This is why it was so valuable.
We left the mountain top and headed south. There really wasn’t much left to see but we did find this structure that looked like it had been used to house a good sized gun.
We decided to find a place to sit down and have a drink near the car rental place. We did find a nice place. Only one other person was in the place and I recognized him from the ship. He was the cellar master and handled the wine.
Jacques has been working for HAL for 17 years and is from Cape Town, South Africa. He was on the 2020 world cruise and we spent a lot of time talking about that. The cruise was originally Ft. Lauderdale, around the world and back to Ft. Lauderdale. He told me that some time in March, the Captain got on the intercom and announced that tomorrow they all would be getting off of the ship. This of course started panic. Perth, Australia was where they all would disembark. How was one to get home? No one was working anywhere. I can only imagine what was happening on this ship.
We agreed that the whole world when nuts with the pandemic and this should have never happened the way it did. He said that his government outlawed flip-flops. What a great idea. This is the way covid spreads. The flipping motion sends the virus off of the flop and directly into one’s lungs. Sounds like brilliant government officials in South Africa. Maybe those in South Africa called our governor to share some of these great ideas. Maybe they decided to implement the “alcohol yes, exercise no” policy that was in place in Michigan. Or possibly the people standing in restaurants need masks. I remember when the governor discovered that the virus can only be transmitted while standing in a restaurant. While sitting at a table, a person is able to confuse the virus and keep it under control. No mask needed. Brilliant.
We agreed that we need more of these people in control of our lives since they obviously know much more than we do.
We finished our drinks and stopped to fuel up the car. 2 gallons of gas that we used translated into $12. When I pulled into the Mobile Gas station, an attendant pumped the gas. That hasn’t happened in decades. He asked if I was an officer and I said no. “How did you find our island? We are not even on some maps.” I told him about the cruise and he was fascinated. He directed me inside to pay with a credit card. The woman behind the counter said “Mr. Jeff, are you an officer?” Maybe there is the officer rate. She asked “Can I see your ID?” I pulled out my drivers license and I pointed at it and joked with her. “What a great looking guy”, I said. The young lady next to her said, “Bruce Willis. You look like Bruce Willis”. I laughed. Yippee Ki- Ay.
We dropped the car off and decided to walk back to the ship. Under 2 miles. We did take the wrong entrance to the port, walked right past security and went toward the ship. Shipping containers and a chain link fence block the entrance. We were able to talk to a security officer on the other …