Tinian

I had an adventurous weekend to say the least. Friday night, we went snorkeling on Pau Pau beach on Saipan; happy hour at the Hyatt with some docs, and then we went to go get a car at the hospital- couldn't find it- got "security" (a dude in a polo shirt without a flashlight - it's dark at 7 here) to help us out- found it- went to dinner, then out to Godfathers for some people watching, and then crashed. Saturday, we were supposed to go on a hike to forbidden island. It's apparently steep and treacherous when slippery, and it rained, so we didn't go, but were basically swept away to a howley (sp? aka "white people") restaurant Wild Bills for a few hours of bullshitting. Afterwards, Miss M and I decided to go kayaking to Managaha (another really small island off of Saipan. about 1.5 miles away). It was the most beautiful and nauseating thing I've done in Saipan so far. Definitely sea sick, I puked on the way back. Three times. Seriously, as soon as I could get out of the boat, I flung onto all fours and heaved. But we got a mango smoothy, went out for Indian and crashed again knowing that we had plans to go to Tinian (another island of the CNMI, about 23 miles south of Saipan) in the AM.

We were supposed to meet up with another doc, and her husband to take the ferry to Tinian at 9:30. We were running late since the ATM near their house wasn't working, and they ran down to the car so we could speed off to the port. We got there, and Doc N didn't have an ID so we couldn't get on the boat. Her husband raced home to grab her id as they held the boat, and when he came back, they looked at it, and it was expired, so she couldn't get on anyway. They were pulling, "I'm a doctor at the hospital" kind of strings and cards, and the ferry folks wouldn't have it (I don't blame them). So, instead, we took the plane, which is faster, but twice as expensive. They brought their 10 year old son.

We got to the airport, and signed in. You don't need an ID to fly to Tinian. We waited and the pilot finally showed and we hopped into a 7 passenger plane. I sat up by the pilot. It was very cool. It's only a ten minute flight, which is enough for me to get my kicks, but it's quite beautiful up there. I took lots of pics and will put them up soon.

Sorry this is turning into a novel, but it gets better. We land, and the hospital there knew we were coming and because Docs from Saipan visit them every couple of months we were hooked up with a car. We took a tour of the hospital, which was so small and quiet and doing it's best, and then went to lunch at, I think, one of three places on island to eat. The mahi was good, and afterwards we decided to go get scooters.

Miss M and I are virgin scooter drivers/ riders but we were game and were assigned our own scooter. She drove. I took pics. We headed all the way up to the other end of the island, towards where they stored the two Atom Bombs dropped on Japan in WWII. Miss M and I took a corner a little quickly and wiped out. My first concern was her, then my camera hanging around my neck. I landed right on top of her, scraped my chin, hand and knee, and snapped my head back, but the camera was fine! I'm ok too, nothing other than scrapes, and having three docs on hand made things a little easier. It was really kind of hilarious. We continued on, saw the pits (it's cool and weird) and headed back to the scooter place so we could get the car, go to the hospital to clean our wounds (you can end up with some nasty shit here) and then to the beach. Funny thing is, it POURED on us on the way back. We were soaked and there was no where to find shelter until we weren't too far away from the scooter place. Nice thing is, that it never rains for too long here. We saddled up (I road with Florian after our spill) and returned our rides. We were a scooter gang.

We invaded the hospital ER, went to the beach to snorkel (rough, salty water, and ok sites to see, but a storm was coming it in making the water choppy and murky). We decided to head back to the plane to go home. By the time we arrived at the airport, about 30 ppl werewaiting to fly back to Saipan. It's a 7 passenger plane. We were told it would take 2 hours before we could leave, so we went to the Dyansty Hotel, which is a giant, marble-coated casino in the middle of Tinian. It makes no sense. It's ornate, elaborately staffed and decorated and empty. We had some dinner, and headed back to the airport, where we waited for another 40 minutes before they told us that there were no more flights or ferries leaving for Saipan that night. Sweet. Basically prepared with what we needed for the day, and having run into so many strange and funny moments already, we got back in the car and went back to the Dynasty to get two rooms for the night.

It was quite nice, $100 and as soon as we got into our room, I showered, put on a robe and ordered an ice cream sundae. An ice cream sundae, a 5:30 am wake up call (we were told to return at 6 am), bandaids, vaseline, ice, lotion, a club sandwich with fries, a fruit platter and gauze. All for $28. I think they were just excited to have someone staying there.

By 6am we were in the airport and waiting to see if we could get on the first flight- we were all set, hopped in and back home by 7:30. We flew home to change and to get to work, where I changed my bandages. I'm exhausted and useless at the moment. It was a hell of a weekend. I hope yours was a blast, too!