my very long Yap trip report-April 2006

[almitywife]

Trip Report – Yap, Micronesia - Part 1!

Hubby wanted to see Mantas and after a few false starts in Queensland we decided to go to Yap.

To get to Yap was a bit of a journey;

Flight details were:
Sydney to Cairns: 7hr layover in a very deserted “international” airport
Cairns to Guam: 32hr layover in a very fun town – loved Guam!
Guam to Palau: the most miserable 5hr layover I have ever experienced
Palau to Yap: quick flight to get where we needed to be
Yap to Guam: 8 days later starting our journey home with a 12hr layover in Guam
Guam to Cairns: arrived in Australia at midnight and a 12hr layover in Cairns
Cairns to Sydney: home again – now to plan our next trip!

Most of the flight times were past midnight and we eventually arrived in Yap at 3.30am!


Advise to those planning a trip to Yap - fly directly to Manila and then a flight to Yap and save yourself a lot of travel time plus arrive in Yap at a very reasonable 7pm. The flight from Guam to Yap is usually a little over an hour but because we are forced to fly to Palau first the trip took almost 9 hours from Guam.


Things we didn’t know when we booked:
Time your trip with a full moon in Yap – we were just lucky that we did but we had no idea at the time that this was the best thing for mantas!

If you haven’t got your nitrox cert, get it for this trip! During our trip nitrox was free, but we were the only 2 using it on our boat other than the guide, and as all the dives were at a consistent 20mtr depth it was greatly appreciated.

If you into or want to get into photography or video, contact the photo professional at Yap (and fellow SB’er) Mike Veitch for a 2 day course!

I also suggest carrying a safety sausage. I usually don’t carry one but there was a lot of boat traffic plus a strong surface current so for peace of mind keep one on you for just in case.

Yap Divers will do everything for you or as little as you like. Each morning we would get down to the shop early to set up but it seems most people preferred to have the guides collect their gear and set it up. Heheheh, in fact, we even saw some people ring the front desk so a porter would go to their room to carry their camera down to the boat.

Mid way during our trip, a group from the Palau Wet Pixel Shootout arrived in Yap so on our last night we were given a presentation of their Palau trip – great shots!!!!


2 techno things I didn’t go for in Yap.
The week we where there the owners were setting up a huge projector screen on the boat/restaurant. The soccer World Cup was one of the things they planning on watching plus photo shootout presentations. Although a good idea, by the second night of movies I was getting a bit fed up with the sound blaring (killed off every conversation in the restaurant) plus I could no longer hear the water lapping outside our balcony. Next door was the Water Inn and a few of their guests where grumbling to me about the sound system blaring away also. It did seem to go no later than 11pm but I would like to hear that the novelty wears off and they keep it for only Friday and Saturday nights in future.

The other thing is that during our trip they installed fibre optics all along the boat/mast ect – so on our last night we were woken at 1am by blazing flashing colours of red, blues and greens. Again I hope the novelty of this wears off and they turn it off at a reasonable hour.


3 techno things I did go for in Yap!
Our mobile phones did not work!
No TV!!! Although you have a TV and DVD player in your room (DVD’s available at the front desk), there is no TV station on Yap.
They are building an internet/IT room and I like this idea. Otherwise next door is a very good internet café that charges $6USD per half hour.


Yap!
Fantastic! Loved it and very happy to go back!!!!

We stayed at: Manta Bay Hotel
We dived with: Yap Divers at Manta Bay Hotel
http://www.mantaray.com


Arriving in Yap:
We arrived at 3.30am at a chicken shed of a airport with very dim lighting and was already having fun despite the time and because of the chaos but they do seem to be building newer airport facilities.

The staff of Manta Bay Hotel has this part down pat. Our names on a list, a bus waiting for us, plenty of staff to take our bags in a separate truck. You are given your room number when you get on the bus and during the trip to the hotel you are given a run down on the hotel operation and can ask any questions you might have, including the dive schedule for that day. Once at the hotel you are shown your room and the bags are delivered.

Our Room:
The room we had was fantastic! (room 214-ocean view). The best dive trip room we’ve had in all our years of dive trips. Huge room with two queen sized beds. The beds are firm and comfortable and a quick look under the sheets shows me that the owners have spent money on these brand new furnishings. Brand new air conditioner is running but quickly turned off to enjoy the ocean breeze coming thru our balcony windows and the shower is huge and spotlessly clean, although can be a bit slippery but placing a hand towel on the shower floor stoped any near falls.

Each room is themed after a marine animal, we had Chromodoris but there is eagle ray, hammerhead shark ect. The room theme is complete with prints on the wall, matching bed covers and shower curtains all matching the theme.


Dive Facilities:
Next morning we go downstairs with our dive gear and again you can see that the owners of this place aren’t skimping on anything. Outside the dive shop are 3 beautiful Bali huts with plenty of seating. Inside are camera tables with lockup storage – 2 different table heights is a nice touch as hubby is 6ft tall. We have also been issued each a storage area for our dive gear – both shelf and hanging areas complete with hangers.

They have 3 big tiled wash tubs set up with fresh water and underwater lighting and 2 camera rinse tubs plus 2 showers near the tubs to rinse yourself off.

Outside the dive shop is a huge whiteboard and Jan (Belgium guy), the shop manager, already has you listed down for a boat and dive. There are double boat dives in the morning, followed by a 3rd dive in the afternoon if you are interested and then either a dusk/mandarin fish dive or a night dive. Shark feed dives are available but a minium of 10 people are needed.

If you need to hire gear – they have an excellently organized setup for that also.

Tanks – 32% nitrox from a membrane system and air available, I would hate to count how many tanks they own and they have a fulltime staff member filling tanks all day.


The Restaurant:
The restaurant is a big 3 levelled Indonesian boat moored just 20mtrs from the hotel lobby – the food is great! No need to go elsewhere, in fact the week we were there people ate elsewhere and were sick that night. The hotel has its own micro-brewery (Stone Money Brewery) with 2 types of beer on tap and a full bar. Oh, and if not in the mood to leave your room, room service is available.


Front Desk & Tours:
The front desk has a souvenir shop next to it for shirts, jewellery, hats ect and they have a fridge so you can get bottles of water or soft drinks without having to go to the restaurant. BTW, the hotel filters the water so the tap water is safe to drink and if you want a mini fridge in your room – just ask and they will deliver one we were told.

They also have a tour schedule available for kayaking, village trips ect for you to book.

The Pool:
During some down time check out the infinity pool with the manta tile mosaics. Drinks served to you while lazing on the comfy deck chairs is a nice way to spend your non diving day before your flight home.

 

[almitywife]

Part 2!


The Diving – The Mantas!
There are about 7 dive boats, all but one are for no more than 10 divers (our boat never had more than 7 divers) and there is a bigger boat for about 20 divers – all roomy and comfortable. I HATE boats, haven’t been on a boat dive in years because of sea sickness and while testing out a new “rapid relief band” zappy wrist thing I wasn’t sick once!

High tide was about 7am for us so we were diving for Mantas between 7am-8am. The ride out to Mi’l Channel was about 10 or 15mins and there were 3 cleaning stations to try out.

The dive guides give you a brief and was very clear about the respect to be given to all the mantas – I would hate to think what they would do to anyone that harassed a manta.

The dives were at a consistent 20mtrs+ depth so watch your air and deco. Make sure you discuss your air signals with the guide before you jump in as they are use to PSI and us aussies use bar.

On our first dive we went to 2 of the cleaning stations and no mantas but at the 3rd we were blessed to see 2 of them swim past us within touching distance – but DON’T touch the mantas!!

Viz was kinda a little bit crappy but that’s what you get for the situation sometimes. The mantas are in the channel for the cleaning station and nutrients, it was high tide and full moon week but we were still getting 15-20mtr viz. The channel has a sandy coral rubble bottom with vertical coral walls.

The waiting is the boring part – you kneeling there and watching and waiting – not much other fish life to be seen and then you see the outline of a manta. On our first dive we saw 2 of them and they flew right overhead.

I guzzled thru my air so was pointed out the boat and reef for my safety stops. Oh, and if you surface at the wrong boat – don’t worry, they will give you a lift to the right one.

You have about an hour surface interval – during which you are handed a warm towel, ice water or hot tea and yummy yummy cake to nibble on.

Discussion about the 2nd dive was made and we decided to dive for more mantas again. This time bingo – we cant decide if it was the same 3 or 4 mantas going thru twice or 10 mantas but they came thru magically! When the dive is finished, we back on the boat and making our way back to the hotel.


The Diving – Mandarin Dive:
The dive site is about 3mins by boat away. I suggest at least 2 dives to see the mandarin fish. One to figure out what the hell is happening and the second one to enjoy them… and more dives if you want to photograph the little buggers!

You need to be in the water at dusk so the first time we were sitting there; watching coral heads for movement and watching it get darker. After about 10 minutes hubby and I looked at each other with a “what the” look as we thought we had missed the whole event then suddenly you start seeing movement and notice the mandarin fish swimming around the coral, so be patient is my only advise for Mandarin Fish.


The Diving – after the Mantas:
So after about 6 dives with the mantas you start wondering what else is there – and “down south” is where you head for clearer water and much more fish life.

Yap Caverns, Lionfish Wall, Gilmaan Wall, O’Keefe’s Passage and Magic Kingdom – all very nice dives so please check out http://www.mantaray.com for more info on their dive sites. Hubby wishes we had more diving days (of course) as he would have liked to have re-dived these sites.


Cost:
We arranged our trip thru Samantha Jackman at Dive Adventures in Sydney (thanks Sam!).

Total per person was approximately $3,200AUD per person

Our packaged included flights, all Yap breakfast & dinners, all airport transfers and 10 dives each in Yap. Also included a day and a half hotel in Guam, 7 nights Ocean View room in Yap and a hotel day room in Guam on our return to Australia.

I booked our Sydney to Cairns return flights myself thru Qantas and this cost included in the $3,200pp.

Extra Cost:
The only thing we paid for in Yap was our lunches, approx $10USD per person per day and food and entertainment in Guam.
During our layover in Cairns we paid $140AUD for a fibro dog box with two very uncomfortable beds at the Cairns Colonial – won’t be going back there again!


Yap Shopping:
There isn’t any, but there is a grocery store about 150yards from the hotel for some comfort foods, Gatorade, stuff like that. No fresh fruit and veggies so get yourself a fruit platter at the hotel restaurant.


Getting around Guam:
Loved the town – it was fun; we played tourist and just had a look around.

Met up with fellow SB’er Chris Bangs at MDA Diving (http://www.mdaguam.com). Chris was very gracious with his time and very professional – gave us a tour of the facilities and introduced us to the staff at MDA, introduced us to their travel people (hopefully save some money booking thru them next time) and gave us a lot of his time on the day. Next time we will give Guam more time so we can do some diving there! Thanks Chris!!

Hop the shopping bus that looks like a San Francisco cable car – it does a nice loop of the town so you can see some of the sights and hit some shops. Grab a map and hook up your shopping trolley bus with a tour of some of the local sights like Lovers Point – much, much cheaper than a tour.

Also go to Galleria! We didn’t buy anything but hubby was sculling free $1,000 cognac nips and soon after seen chasing the Godiva boy for some chocolate freebies. The shopping at DFS in the main shopping drag is amazing, Tiffany’s, Channel, Louis Vutton, YSL, Rolex, Prada all next door to each other – go see how the other half lives!

If you are going to travel the island – hire a car and not a taxi. The taxis are incredibly overpriced so if you can drive on the right side of the do yourself a favour and hire a car for about $40US.



Im glad we:
Went to Yap!!! The mantas were beautiful and we will like to go back in a few years time with Almitychild.
Prepaid our meal package – it definitely made checking out a much more pleasurable experience as the aussie dollar dropped during our stay.
Had some time in Guam – it was a fun town that we really enjoyed visiting.
Met Mike Veitch!!! Hubby did his photo course and already shooting better photos and has a greater understanding of his camera and strobes. Mike is a total cutie also!!!! thanks Mike!

i hope to have some photos of the dives and facilities later this week![/COLOR]

Edit: got some photos off hubby! photos of hubby were taking by MIKE VEITCH! thanks Mike!!

 

[El Orans]

Nice! Now... where are the pix?

 

[Mike Veitch]

Great and thorough report!!!

Thanks for that and it was great meeting you!!

 

[jonix]

great trip rep almity

 

[scubapolly]

Great report AW. Now I guess I have to add Yap to my list of want to go to places

 

[clgsamson]

thanks for sharing Ms Almity

 

[chip104]

That's one of the best trip reps I've read almity! But we need more incriminating pics of mikey!

 

[riguerin]

Bonzer trip report, almitywife ! Can't wait to go someday.

 

[almitywife]

That's one of the best trip reps I've read almity! But we need more incriminating pics of mikey!

i have photos of big manly man Mikey diving in just shorts and a tee... and then phoning dial-a-wetsuit from the boat and having his 5mm dive suit delievered to him!

mike big girly man!