Wednesday 9 May 2012

Feasting at Food Festivals

One of the more exciting things about traveling to new places (especially for Nadeah) is trying out different foods. Being on the cusp of Asia, we are immersed in a wide variety of amazing foods. On a small island, we weren't sure there'd be a variety of food options. Thankfully we can easily find the ingredients to make foods ranging from Wahoo fish tacos (actually wahoo just caught here in the photo) to Kim Chi to Sushi to Pad Thai. More surprising was finding all we need to make our first ever home made lasagna.







 Street food and festivals with food booths (think state fair) are big here. Thursday night market takes over one street in the city center a few blocks long with our favorites being chicken on a stick, coconut drinks, noodles of all types and boba drinks. This time of year has a few major annual festivals, including the Flame Tree Festival and the Taste of Marianas as well as Charter Day at the only college in Northern Mariana Islands. Native Chamorro, Carolinians and visitors from other Micronesian islands performed all three 3 nights of the free festival.





Saturday 5 May 2012

a big Fan of the sea

Scuba diving in Saipan has some awesome sights. This photo seems enhanced or fake and besides editing some blurry areas- it is totally this vibrant and colorful. This is at 'the Grotto' a series of underwater caves and tunnels at the gorgeous north end of the island. The surrounding colorful foliage are known as sea fans. Think japanese hand-held fans.

 

In addition to this massive sea fan, in the distance you see large schools of fish- one above me, another below.


 The glow of light coming through into the cave gives this one an eerie sci-fi feel to me. Some moments down there feel a lot more like outerspace than being on the surface.