Korean Job Discussion Forums

[moosehead]

one of my students brought me a trinket back from there which shows nice water, pretty beaches, etc

not much comes up on the web, seems is amer territory, that's all

anyone been? how expensive was it ? how many hours to fly there?

a quiet beach interests me but don't want something too boring

thanks!
moosehead

[crazy_arcade]

isn't Saipan notorious for crime?

[Grin]

My sister was a councilor at a school there for 2 years and just returned to the US.
You�ll have to get a flight into Guam and catch an island hopper from there. I think they run twice a day (they�re all old 1970�s prop planes where you sit 5 feet from the pilot and he arranges you based on your weight).
It�s a really popular place for Japanese tourists and as a result it�s not so cheep. She said the winter was hot but bearable and the summer was like slowly dying in a sauna. From her 2 year experience she felt that:
Saipan has the most amazing sunsets
The beaches suck.
If you scuba dive there�s some of the best around if you get on a charter.
The food sucks
There�s some pretty cool and obscure WWII history on the island if you�re that.

[cmr]

I went there myself and unlike Grin's sister, I flew there directly from Seoul. I agree that it's a place mainly for Japanese tourists and it's not that cheap, but it was a nice place anyway. It's a rather small island. The beaches were not that bad, though. Maybe it depends at which hotel you are staying. The water was hot! Snorkelling was nice; especially, there is a smaller island where you can go for a day-trip and we really liked it. One good thing about Saipan is that everywhere people speak English! I can't remember which night, but once a week there is a night market and they have nice things to see, to buy and to eat. We had rain about eveyrday, but it was always something between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. I had never seen and still haven't seen any other place with such a perfectly scheduled weather! I didn't think the food was bad. One evening, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. God, their T-bone steak was awesome! Of course, it's not a local dish, but after being too long in Korea I kind of miss having a nice T-bone steak in my plate.

Just like crazy_arcade, I heard about the crime scene, but didn't see anything like it when I was there. Perhaps I was lucky; perhaps those stories are just that: stories!

[Geckoman]