Saipan Day 6 - Obyan Bay and the Tank

Day 6 - January 3
Cafe at the Park is a restaurant recommended on TripAdvisor that we decided to try out for lunch today - and how happy we are that we did! It was phenomenal. The chicken kelaguen was especially delicious. This little spot quickly became a part of our Saipan routine. One of the servers was especially nice to us and helped us with directions to an old, sunken tank that got stuck in the sand during the American invasion of the island. With our directions, we headed south to the site of the tank. On our way to the sunken tank, we stopped at another tank memorial and old bunker. One of the great things about the historical World War II monuments on Saipan is that vegetation grows through the holes left from the fighting. Pretty flowers filling in the gaps of destruction.


Drink at Cafe at the Park - Jennika loved the blended ice coffee beverages

Tank vs. Moped

The drive along Beach Road

The swim to the tank was a nice little jaunt with minimal fauna and uniform flora. Seaweed. The tank itself was an oasis for the local fish and we saw various species of fish calling the tank home. Before we tired of the tank, we headed back to the scooters to try and find Obyan Bay, a top diving/snorkelling destination on Saipan.

View of the tank from shore

Tank pic from the interweb

Obyan Bay is south of the Saipan airport and not on what you would call the beaten path. We even got lost on a dirt road that led us past some industrial factory and onto a farming pasture. The locals at the farm redirected us to the bay. The dirt road to Obyan Bay was well washed by the rain. We decided to abandon the scooters to finish the trek to the beach on foot.

We arrived with two hours of daylight left. Grabbing our gear, we raced to the water to make the best of it. The bay offered wonderful corals and fish, the best snorkelling we'd had in Saipan. I even saw a shark! Not a large one, it was about a meter long. I might have calmly swam in the opposite direction to tell Jennika. The visibility was clear and the coral was just off shore. We wish we'd gotten there sooner to enjoy more of the daylight.

Cheers, JaM's


Exactly what Obyan Bay looked like below the surface, except with many more fish!

Obyan Beach

Map of Saipan for Day 6, including the sunken tank and Obyan Beach