Why I Won’t Be Spending Forever In Saipan
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Happy first Saipan-aversary to me!
A year ago, I spent 34 hours traveling from Knoxville, Tennessee to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific called Saipan. I wasn’t at all aware of what my new life would look like, and if I would even be happy living in Saipan.
It turns out that I have been VERY happy in Saipan. This little island is as close to paradise as you can get. There are lush tropical gardens everywhere you look. Some of the most beautiful beaches anywhere in the world. The people are the kindest, most warm, and generous humans you will ever meet.
And yet… I want to leave.
It’s hard for me to even admit this out loud – but my days in Saipan are limited. As much as I love my rock, there are some things about Saipan that make it impossible for me to spend forever here. It’s not that I don’t want to – but feasibility wins every time.
If you are a Westerner and are thinking about trying your luck over here on Saipan, let me ask you to first take to heart what I am about to say. Individually, none of these reasons are enough to make anyone throw in the towel and call it quits.
But, as you get older, you realize it’s the little things that eventually will break you. After a year of trying to make the best and let these things go, I have come to the realization that Saipan and I are not a forever love story.
And, that’s ok.
Not every relationship was meant to last, and I am totally ok with moving on to a place that is a better fit for me.
I will always hold a tender place in my heart for Saipan, I will always speak fondly of this beautiful island, and I have no hard feelings whatsoever (which is more than I can say about some of the places I lived as a military wife).
So, before you decide to sell everything you own and try your luck over here, let me explain
Why I Won’t Be Spending Forever In Saipan.
1.Non-Expired Groceries – In case you’ve never looked to see where Saipan is on a map, let me help you out here:
Click here to see Saipan on a map
See how my sweet, little island is all the way out in the middle-of-nowhere Pacific? That may seem charming, and to some, it may even seem like something they have always dreamed of, but that’s because you’ve never been grocery shopping on a remote island.
IF you find what are looking for at the store, it is most likely expired. Most food takes weeks and weeks to arrive here, and usually by the time it gets off the boat and on the shelves it has long since passed its expiration date.
Now, that’s not always bad. Most food doesn’t just turn inedible the very second the date stamp on the box passes and getting food from the expired aisle at 50% off is a super good deal here.
But – then you taste it. It’s stale. You open it up, take one bite, and toss it in the trash. Ultimately, I threw away almost more than I ate in the first few months I lived here. It took me a while to catch on not to buy anything in a package or can that I couldn’t check to see if it’s still good.
Frozen meat is the WORST here. In fact, almost anything frozen is absolutely inedible.
By the time you bring it home the food has been thawed and refrozen several times which leads to the worst case of frostbite you’ve ever seen on food you have just bought.
Frozen meat will be solid white in the freezer aisle of the grocery store, and if it didn’t have a name on the package telling me what it is I would never be able to tell one meat from another. It’s all the same- just a frozen white hunk of meat.
2. Produce – You know how I mentioned that food takes a long time to get food across the ocean to us? Well. about that…
In general, all produce has a very limited shelf life. And, as I’m sure you, dear reader, already know, produce doesn’t show up at the grocery store the very day it is picked. It can take a while to get sent off.
Between that fact, and the fact that our food has to travel somewhere around 10,000 miles to get to us, most produce is totally spoiled by the time it reaches our grocer’s shelves. In fact, in the year I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen fresh strawberries in the grocery store. I’m assuming that they go bad before they make it here and can’t handle the trip.
The produce that does actually survive on the boat is either SUPER expensive and/or is rotten within 24 hours of you buying it. I wasted a lot of fresh produce the first few months I got here because I didn’t realize that you shouldn’t buy produce days before you need it.
Living in the US my whole life, I have always been able to go grocery shopping just once a week and get everything I need for the week in one trip. That is not the case in Saipan.
Your best bet is to grocery shop on the day you actually need the produce. BUT (you knew that was coming, right?), the odds of you finding the produce you need are very unlikely. Remember, it’s you and 40,000 other people competing for the same food coming off of one boat at a time. Good luck finding that asparagus is all I can say to that.
3. Chocolate – Do you like chocolate? Do you prefer your chocolate – you know – chocolate, not white? (I don’t mean white chocolate. I’m referring to the color of your chocolate) Well then don’t move to Saipan.
I don’t know if it’s the long trip over, the heat, both things combined, or something entirely else that I have no idea of, but almost all chocolate you buy in Saipan has gone bad by the time you buy it.
There will be a white film covering the outside of your candy bar, and it’s probably more than likely your chocolate will have melted many, many times before you actually buy it. Once you open the package you will find a melted, heaping mess of “chocolate” that has a thin white film covering it.
Believe me – it’s gross. And disappointing. And, a total waste of money. Take my advice – skip the chocolate here.
4. Convenient Mail/Deliveries – Reality check time: Just how patient are you, really? Can you easily wait for your Amazon Prime order for two or three weeks? How about two or three months? Because that delivery timetable is not at all uncommon in Saipan.
Once the package actually arrives, good luck to you that it arrived in one piece and undamaged.
When you ask your loved ones to send you care packages from back in the States (oh, and trust that you will need them to do so at least several times a year) you will then wait – I would guess how long your wait will be but there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to postal delivery times on the island. Once it finally arrives, don’t be surprised to find your package in this condition:
Even though it says “Handle With Care” the employees of the United States Postal Service don’t seem to give much of a damn. Just be happy your package arrived at all. I cannot begin to count the number of items that never make it over the ocean to me.
Which brings me to my last point about mail – I hope you don’t want things delivered to you in Saipan.
Even though technically Saipan is part of the United States, most delivery/mail carriers don’t see it that way. Good luck finding a company that actually ships to Saipan. Should they actually ship to you, expect to pay an astronomical amount of money to cover the cost of shipping.
Nothing is cheap here, that’s just a fact. You better get used to that quickly if you choose to move here.
5. Pet welfare – Saipan is the only part of the United States with NO pet welfare laws on the books.
And it shows.
The feral dogs that run around the island are called the “boonie dogs”. They are mostly harmless. The issue is the sheer number of them. Everywhere you look there are stray dogs. They are flea and disease-ridden and starving to death.
It will break. your. heart.
The locals are very cruel to the dogs. There is seldom shelter, food, or water left out for these pups. They are left to roam free and figure out how to survive on their own.
But, as I am told, this is just a part of “island life” and I should “just get used to it”. To hell with that! I hope I never ignore the plight of another living being who is suffering.
Veterinary care is limited to one (very expensive) island vet. And, this is JUST MY OPINION, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of his office or the way it is run. I worry about my furbabies health every time they have to go in there. I don’t want to share details because as I said these are only my opinions and not facts. But, the monopoly of vet care on the island is very apparent is all I’m going to say about that.
6. Healthcare – While all the other reasons aren’t enough to make me want to leave, and in reality, I can deal with these problems. But, this last item is one that I simply can’t overlook.
Even though we have a hospital on Saipan, I cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone who is visiting the island. I have heard more than one horror story come out of that hospital. Not to mention the fact that they are not equipped to handle major emergencies, and so if you need a higher level of healthcare you have to be flown to either Guam or the Philippines.
Unfortunately, if there is a typhoon you cannot be flown out and if you have an emergency you can die because of this. We have already experienced this first hand this summer thanks to a co-worker of Tommy’s passing because he couldn’t get medical help on the island during a typhoon.
If you are approaching retirement age, or if you have medical needs that need to be monitored, I can’t recommend that you consider Saipan. Had I realized just how poor the health care situation was here before we moved I probably wouldn’t have moved here at all.
Unfortunately, there just isn’t a lot to be found online about Saipan’s healthcare, so I came over on a prayer. I have a serious health issue that requires me to have access to specialists. I’ve been lucky so far this year and have been able to self-manage my condition, but that has caused me to get sicker overall. This is unsustainable for me in the long run. As such, I have no plans to stay on the island more than another year or two. Sooner, if possible, is preferred.
Please don’t misunderstand me – I adore this little rock. At the time we moved here I could have never begun to guess just how good for me moving to Saipan would be.
I wish with all my heart I would want to stay here forever. But, I just can’t.
In the end, my health must come first. The things that frustrate me about the island are just background noise on most days. But knowing that I am taking a risk with my life just living here because I can’t get the emergency care I need immediately if something were to happen scares the bejeezus out of me. There’s just no way to get around the fact that Saipan and I are not meant to last.
We have no immediate plans to leave, however, if the right offer were to come along I know we would take it. But, I know when that day comes I will be crying when the plane takes off from the island.
Saipan has touched my heart in the most unexpected ways, and I didn’t realize just how deeply I have changed since I moved there until I came back to the US for a visit. Only once I was back around familiar places and people could I clearly see how much I’ve grown this past year.
Saipan has made me a better person, has helped me find peace in the most chaotic days of my life, and has healed me when I didn’t think my pieces could ever be glued back together again. Saipan was that glue, and I am a much better person for having lived here.
Want to know more about Saipan? Here are some suggested links:
Saipan Series: Banzai And Suicide Cliffs
Saipan Series: Old Man By The Sea
Saipan Series: Moving Pets To Saipan
Have you ever lived somewhere that you knew you couldn’t make a forever home even though you really wish you could? Let’s talk about it below! I appreciate you stopping by! Please leave me some comment love so I know you were here!
I found this article very fascinating to say the least. As of this comment back to you, my son and his family are planning a move to Siapan in the coming weeks. I will be joining them at a later date and time. I am from Tennessee as well, Athens. I have been to Knoxville before.Small world as they say! I was made aware of the high cost of things that come to Saipan due to it being imported. I wish you all the best in your journeys.
Kathy, many blessings to you and your son. My advice would be not to call it a forever move for at least a year (because you might change your mind after a little while of living there and realize, like me, it’s not a perfect fit), and to have an exit strategy for when, not if, WHEN the next Cat 5 Typhoon comes through. Be safe and I hope you enjoy it!