sharkbait98
Registered
This is a long post but I think it is important to post current reviews for divers so they get a real idea about destinations.
TRIP REPORT POHNPEI AND YAP MICRONESIA MAY 2010
FLIGHT
Let me start this trip report by saying that this is truly a magical place. It's worth the 43 hrs of travel time that it took me to get to Pohnpei.
We flew Continental and our flight path was Buffalo, Newark, Narita (Tokyo), and then to Guam. We took Continental Micronesia from Guam to Pohnpei via Truk, then from Pohnpei to Guam via Truk, then Guam to Yap and back to Guam. All our flights to and from Buffalo (including all Continental Micronesia) were all on time, no baggage problems, and had great flight attendants. These were the best flight attendants we have ever had on all our travels. The food was your typical airline food, but it must be hard to cater to such diversity in cultures and tastes.
POHNPEI
Wow, what a Gem. This place is tropical and untouched by the rat race. It is unbelievably green and the people are amazingly friendly. We stayed here for 10 days.
HOTEL
We stayed at The Village (splashpage). When we landed at the airport there was somebody waiting for us to transfer us to the hotel and they even stopped at the store for us so we could pick up some items. Upon arriving at the hotel they dropped us off at the front office so we could register. They took our luggage to our "house". We had a two queen beds (we had two couples) and a large bathroom and plenty of shelving space for all four of us to unpack. We had a couple of requests, an extra chair and a couple of extra pillows that were gladly provided.
The people at this resort are the real gem. EVERYBODY there was amazing, from the owners right down to the maids. I was so impressed with the happiness of the staff, mind you, look where they live. LOL.
You have to go to the website and take a look at this place. The view while eating breakfast is breath taking. The whole resort is beautiful. Flora and fauna abound. I am glad I had the chance to visit this gem.
Another added bonus, on the days you are not diving you can get a free ride into town with Lover at 9:30AM and tour around and work out where he can pick you up again to bring you back to the resort. Sweet deal for those who don't want to dive all day every day like us!
DIVING
The first day they picked us and our gear up in the little truck and took us to the dive shop which is down this little road out the back of the resort. We walked the rest of the days (by choice) as you go through this little (and I mean 4-5 dwellings) community and it was so pleasant to see the children and the animals there. Once our gear was down at the dock they would keep it there for the entire time you are diving. Not only did they keep the gear, they washed and hung it all. Such great service.
The guys we had while we were there were Stampson (our dive master) Jay and Cozmo. The guys on the boat work very hard. They set your tank up for all dives and they even have you take your bcd off in the water (ouch, mine is weight integrated) and they pick it up and put it in the boat so you don't have to climb up the ladder with it on. The boats are small but the most divers they had when we were there was 5. The dive masters are attentive and safe. They let you dive your profile, whether that is a 40 minute dive or a 100 minute dive, but are always keeping an eye on you to ensure nothing goes wrong.
Now, on to the main reason for going there. The diving was unbelievable. You know when you jump in after years of diving and it still has the ability to make you go "WOW" you know you have found pristine. The reefs here are VERY healthy and the fish life abounds. I have never seen so many different species of butterfly fish in my life. We had grey reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, bumphead parrot fish, napoleon wrasses, octopus, morays, schooling barracudas, moorish idols, turtles, angels, triggers, butterfly, not to mention the unfathomable different species of little fish (ya, not going to name them all). Oh ya, did I mention the mantas? We are on the boat and ask the dive master, what is that white thing in the water over there? He replies "just a manta"! We are all overboard with masks and cameras, who needs a snorkel LOL.. and there they are. I did end up going back to the boat to get my snorkel and was I glad I did. We had 10, yes 10 mantas doing barrel rolls right in front of us over and over and over again. I mean we were snorkeling with them for over 30 minutes and they were not being shy. So after struggling with my leaky snorkel on of our group asks the dive master if we can throw on a tank and he says sure. So back on the boat and suit up. Back roll into the manta feeding frenzy. The mantas felt so comfortable with us that while I was filming them barrel rolling it rolled right into me. WOW.. life altering.
Now a word on location. The dive sites are not close. Most of the dive sites are 35 - 50 minutes away but worth every bump. The boats have big motors so they can get there as quickly as possible.
We did the 1.5hr long trip to And Atoll and was worth all the bumps too. Talk about amazing visibility, coral life and fish. If you do go to this destination pay to go there, its worth every penny. You eat lunch on the atoll and the guys even went up the trees to get us coconuts so we could try the milk. Awesome day.
FOOD
The food at the resort is good and plentiful. The pricing is good value for the volume of food you get. The dinner entree with salad and soup is too much for me to eat so I would get an appetizer and my husband would get the entree. I would eat his salad and my appetizer and he would eat the rest. The lunch hamburgers are to die for. I am not a big burger person, but the cheese burger with swiss cheese? It was so good and so big. Breakfast was a large fare too. I gained weight at this place. On the diving days they would pack us a lunch (included in the three tank / day pricing we had) that consisted of a very meaty sandwich of our choosing with cheese, if wanted, and a fruit of either oranges or apples and a pop or juice of your choice. The sandwiches were buns or bread and were always really fresh.
DAY TOUR
On the last day there we did the Nan Madol tour and a waterfall tour, both with The Village. Both were worth the time. Google Nan Madol and you will see what I mean. We had lunch on a deserted beach with white sand. It was amazing.
OVERALL
This place is amazing. I would recommend ANYBODY to stay here. Dive as much or as little as you want. Go for walks into the little village. It is safe and CLEAN. I have never been to any island that was this picturesque or clean. If you only get once chance to visit that side of the world, go there!
YAP
Yap was also an amazing place. It was very safe and scenic. We stayed here for 8 days and had a great time. It is definately a place to visit.
HOTEL
We stayed at the Hilltop Motel. We rented the two bedrooms for our group. It had air conditioners in both bedrooms and the living room, a fully stocked kitchen, two bedrooms and a full bathroom. We had a balcony that was shared with the other tenant. It was basic but clean. The maid would come every day and make our beds, change our towels and do our dishes. The hotel was about a 15 minute walk (or a $1 cab ride for all four of us) to downtown. All this for $100 / night for all four of us. Oh ya, did I mention they transferred us to and from the airport? What a great place. I would gladly send ANYBODY there. I found this little gem on Manta Ray Diving in Yap Micronesia with Beyond The Reef Dive Center . We dove with them. more on them later. The people that run this hotel are courteous and always willing to help you with anything.
A little side note. If you go there make sure you ask the hotel about Drops For Life. They sell 5 gallon jugs of water for $2, and trust me, your going to drink allot of water. We ate some nights in our motel and some nights out. We did go to Manta Bay resort for dinner and had pizza. It was ok, but nothing too special. We ate at O’Keefes once and I had the curry chicken, it was good and plentiful.
DIVING
We dove with Beyond the Reef (Manta Ray Diving in Yap Micronesia with Beyond The Reef Dive Center). I reserved us the hotel and the diving before we left with Jesse. What an awesome guy. This is a diving outfit. They only had four people on the boat (that was us LOL) and we basically got to choose which sites we went to. Our dive master was JP and the boat captain was Joe. All three guys were incredible. If you have a question about anything Yap related, they know the answer. If you need something, Jesse can either get it, or tell you where to get it. I would dive with this outfit anytime. They are a safe and accommodating outfit.
Now, onto the diving. Mantas? Only saw three of them, but the reef more than made up for it. WOW, the reef was incredible. I don't know why Yap is only marketed using Mantas. The hard coral was so healthy. We also had black and white tip reef sharks, mantis shrimps, gobies with blind shrimps everywhere, lionfish, all kinds of trigger fish including titans, pipefish, angels, cuttle fish, all kinds of morays, allot of different nudies, bumphead parrots, napoleon wrasses, trunkfish, clowns, and did I mention the 20 - 30 grey reef sharks at Vertigo? Swimming within 3 feet of me? WOW.... what else can one say besides, wow. There are allot of other fish to say the least, and many different coral formations but the trip report would have to be 10 pages long LOL.
If you go diving there, then you should go with Beyond the Reef. We saw the Manta Bay resort boat a couple of times, and yes, it is more comfortable than ours, BUT, they seemed to go to Mil Channel every day, day in, day out. Don't get me wrong, it’s a nice dive but I don't want to go to the same place everyday when there are so many different reefs and sites to see. The best part about booking with Jesse is no deposit. He was accurate in all his descriptions. On our last dive day he got a bigger boat and took us down to the south of the island (for a single tank which I wouldn't do because of the cost) and took us to a great dive. It was our last dive there and he wanted to show his appreciation for us booking with him. He also did a day tour for us on the house. This is what a dive operation should be run like. GOOD JOB JESSE !!!
DAY TOUR
Jesse asked us if we wanted to go down to the Village View resort for a BBQ. He said we could get a cab. We asked about scooters and he reserved us two from a local place for a whopping $22 each scooter for 24 hrs. We drove down there on the scooters at a whopping 15 miles per hour, which is the speed limit there. Actually I think once we got out of town it was about 25 miles per hour. Anyway, Jesse gave us directions to the Village View and he said we would be responsible for beer if we wanted it. We asked if he could get a cooler full of ice and if we gave him the drinks before we went would he chill and transport. He said no problem. We get to the village and he tells us to go for a tour around while the BBQ is cooking. We found this really cool village with the BIG stone money there. It was awesome. We go back to the BBQ and all of a sudden these women show up with all kinds of salads and local (I want to call them potatoes but they aren't) vegetables in different kinds of sauces. We managed to eat enough to get stuffed. BBQ chicken .. yum. Jesse offered fish but most of us are not keen on fish so we went with the chicken. Then we drove back to our hotel and the scooter place told us just to give the keys to the hotel people and they would pick up the scooters the next day.
OVERALL
I, once again, would HIGHLY recommend Beyond the Reef and the Hilltop for your stay in Yap. If you don't care about the fancy resort and want some bang for your buck, then go with my recommendations. It cost us $338 per couple for the hotel and our diving was like $1500 per couple, that was three boat dives per day and one night dive for 6 days. Awesome.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at sharkbait98@gmail.com
TRIP REPORT POHNPEI AND YAP MICRONESIA MAY 2010
FLIGHT
Let me start this trip report by saying that this is truly a magical place. It's worth the 43 hrs of travel time that it took me to get to Pohnpei.
We flew Continental and our flight path was Buffalo, Newark, Narita (Tokyo), and then to Guam. We took Continental Micronesia from Guam to Pohnpei via Truk, then from Pohnpei to Guam via Truk, then Guam to Yap and back to Guam. All our flights to and from Buffalo (including all Continental Micronesia) were all on time, no baggage problems, and had great flight attendants. These were the best flight attendants we have ever had on all our travels. The food was your typical airline food, but it must be hard to cater to such diversity in cultures and tastes.
POHNPEI
Wow, what a Gem. This place is tropical and untouched by the rat race. It is unbelievably green and the people are amazingly friendly. We stayed here for 10 days.
HOTEL
We stayed at The Village (splashpage). When we landed at the airport there was somebody waiting for us to transfer us to the hotel and they even stopped at the store for us so we could pick up some items. Upon arriving at the hotel they dropped us off at the front office so we could register. They took our luggage to our "house". We had a two queen beds (we had two couples) and a large bathroom and plenty of shelving space for all four of us to unpack. We had a couple of requests, an extra chair and a couple of extra pillows that were gladly provided.
The people at this resort are the real gem. EVERYBODY there was amazing, from the owners right down to the maids. I was so impressed with the happiness of the staff, mind you, look where they live. LOL.
You have to go to the website and take a look at this place. The view while eating breakfast is breath taking. The whole resort is beautiful. Flora and fauna abound. I am glad I had the chance to visit this gem.
Another added bonus, on the days you are not diving you can get a free ride into town with Lover at 9:30AM and tour around and work out where he can pick you up again to bring you back to the resort. Sweet deal for those who don't want to dive all day every day like us!
DIVING
The first day they picked us and our gear up in the little truck and took us to the dive shop which is down this little road out the back of the resort. We walked the rest of the days (by choice) as you go through this little (and I mean 4-5 dwellings) community and it was so pleasant to see the children and the animals there. Once our gear was down at the dock they would keep it there for the entire time you are diving. Not only did they keep the gear, they washed and hung it all. Such great service.
The guys we had while we were there were Stampson (our dive master) Jay and Cozmo. The guys on the boat work very hard. They set your tank up for all dives and they even have you take your bcd off in the water (ouch, mine is weight integrated) and they pick it up and put it in the boat so you don't have to climb up the ladder with it on. The boats are small but the most divers they had when we were there was 5. The dive masters are attentive and safe. They let you dive your profile, whether that is a 40 minute dive or a 100 minute dive, but are always keeping an eye on you to ensure nothing goes wrong.
Now, on to the main reason for going there. The diving was unbelievable. You know when you jump in after years of diving and it still has the ability to make you go "WOW" you know you have found pristine. The reefs here are VERY healthy and the fish life abounds. I have never seen so many different species of butterfly fish in my life. We had grey reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, bumphead parrot fish, napoleon wrasses, octopus, morays, schooling barracudas, moorish idols, turtles, angels, triggers, butterfly, not to mention the unfathomable different species of little fish (ya, not going to name them all). Oh ya, did I mention the mantas? We are on the boat and ask the dive master, what is that white thing in the water over there? He replies "just a manta"! We are all overboard with masks and cameras, who needs a snorkel LOL.. and there they are. I did end up going back to the boat to get my snorkel and was I glad I did. We had 10, yes 10 mantas doing barrel rolls right in front of us over and over and over again. I mean we were snorkeling with them for over 30 minutes and they were not being shy. So after struggling with my leaky snorkel on of our group asks the dive master if we can throw on a tank and he says sure. So back on the boat and suit up. Back roll into the manta feeding frenzy. The mantas felt so comfortable with us that while I was filming them barrel rolling it rolled right into me. WOW.. life altering.
Now a word on location. The dive sites are not close. Most of the dive sites are 35 - 50 minutes away but worth every bump. The boats have big motors so they can get there as quickly as possible.
We did the 1.5hr long trip to And Atoll and was worth all the bumps too. Talk about amazing visibility, coral life and fish. If you do go to this destination pay to go there, its worth every penny. You eat lunch on the atoll and the guys even went up the trees to get us coconuts so we could try the milk. Awesome day.
FOOD
The food at the resort is good and plentiful. The pricing is good value for the volume of food you get. The dinner entree with salad and soup is too much for me to eat so I would get an appetizer and my husband would get the entree. I would eat his salad and my appetizer and he would eat the rest. The lunch hamburgers are to die for. I am not a big burger person, but the cheese burger with swiss cheese? It was so good and so big. Breakfast was a large fare too. I gained weight at this place. On the diving days they would pack us a lunch (included in the three tank / day pricing we had) that consisted of a very meaty sandwich of our choosing with cheese, if wanted, and a fruit of either oranges or apples and a pop or juice of your choice. The sandwiches were buns or bread and were always really fresh.
DAY TOUR
On the last day there we did the Nan Madol tour and a waterfall tour, both with The Village. Both were worth the time. Google Nan Madol and you will see what I mean. We had lunch on a deserted beach with white sand. It was amazing.
OVERALL
This place is amazing. I would recommend ANYBODY to stay here. Dive as much or as little as you want. Go for walks into the little village. It is safe and CLEAN. I have never been to any island that was this picturesque or clean. If you only get once chance to visit that side of the world, go there!
YAP
Yap was also an amazing place. It was very safe and scenic. We stayed here for 8 days and had a great time. It is definately a place to visit.
HOTEL
We stayed at the Hilltop Motel. We rented the two bedrooms for our group. It had air conditioners in both bedrooms and the living room, a fully stocked kitchen, two bedrooms and a full bathroom. We had a balcony that was shared with the other tenant. It was basic but clean. The maid would come every day and make our beds, change our towels and do our dishes. The hotel was about a 15 minute walk (or a $1 cab ride for all four of us) to downtown. All this for $100 / night for all four of us. Oh ya, did I mention they transferred us to and from the airport? What a great place. I would gladly send ANYBODY there. I found this little gem on Manta Ray Diving in Yap Micronesia with Beyond The Reef Dive Center . We dove with them. more on them later. The people that run this hotel are courteous and always willing to help you with anything.
A little side note. If you go there make sure you ask the hotel about Drops For Life. They sell 5 gallon jugs of water for $2, and trust me, your going to drink allot of water. We ate some nights in our motel and some nights out. We did go to Manta Bay resort for dinner and had pizza. It was ok, but nothing too special. We ate at O’Keefes once and I had the curry chicken, it was good and plentiful.
DIVING
We dove with Beyond the Reef (Manta Ray Diving in Yap Micronesia with Beyond The Reef Dive Center). I reserved us the hotel and the diving before we left with Jesse. What an awesome guy. This is a diving outfit. They only had four people on the boat (that was us LOL) and we basically got to choose which sites we went to. Our dive master was JP and the boat captain was Joe. All three guys were incredible. If you have a question about anything Yap related, they know the answer. If you need something, Jesse can either get it, or tell you where to get it. I would dive with this outfit anytime. They are a safe and accommodating outfit.
Now, onto the diving. Mantas? Only saw three of them, but the reef more than made up for it. WOW, the reef was incredible. I don't know why Yap is only marketed using Mantas. The hard coral was so healthy. We also had black and white tip reef sharks, mantis shrimps, gobies with blind shrimps everywhere, lionfish, all kinds of trigger fish including titans, pipefish, angels, cuttle fish, all kinds of morays, allot of different nudies, bumphead parrots, napoleon wrasses, trunkfish, clowns, and did I mention the 20 - 30 grey reef sharks at Vertigo? Swimming within 3 feet of me? WOW.... what else can one say besides, wow. There are allot of other fish to say the least, and many different coral formations but the trip report would have to be 10 pages long LOL.
If you go diving there, then you should go with Beyond the Reef. We saw the Manta Bay resort boat a couple of times, and yes, it is more comfortable than ours, BUT, they seemed to go to Mil Channel every day, day in, day out. Don't get me wrong, it’s a nice dive but I don't want to go to the same place everyday when there are so many different reefs and sites to see. The best part about booking with Jesse is no deposit. He was accurate in all his descriptions. On our last dive day he got a bigger boat and took us down to the south of the island (for a single tank which I wouldn't do because of the cost) and took us to a great dive. It was our last dive there and he wanted to show his appreciation for us booking with him. He also did a day tour for us on the house. This is what a dive operation should be run like. GOOD JOB JESSE !!!
DAY TOUR
Jesse asked us if we wanted to go down to the Village View resort for a BBQ. He said we could get a cab. We asked about scooters and he reserved us two from a local place for a whopping $22 each scooter for 24 hrs. We drove down there on the scooters at a whopping 15 miles per hour, which is the speed limit there. Actually I think once we got out of town it was about 25 miles per hour. Anyway, Jesse gave us directions to the Village View and he said we would be responsible for beer if we wanted it. We asked if he could get a cooler full of ice and if we gave him the drinks before we went would he chill and transport. He said no problem. We get to the village and he tells us to go for a tour around while the BBQ is cooking. We found this really cool village with the BIG stone money there. It was awesome. We go back to the BBQ and all of a sudden these women show up with all kinds of salads and local (I want to call them potatoes but they aren't) vegetables in different kinds of sauces. We managed to eat enough to get stuffed. BBQ chicken .. yum. Jesse offered fish but most of us are not keen on fish so we went with the chicken. Then we drove back to our hotel and the scooter place told us just to give the keys to the hotel people and they would pick up the scooters the next day.
OVERALL
I, once again, would HIGHLY recommend Beyond the Reef and the Hilltop for your stay in Yap. If you don't care about the fancy resort and want some bang for your buck, then go with my recommendations. It cost us $338 per couple for the hotel and our diving was like $1500 per couple, that was three boat dives per day and one night dive for 6 days. Awesome.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at sharkbait98@gmail.com
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pop etc but its only a little store. 
