DrA
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2010
- Posts
- 527
So this trip came about because a lot of people I know told me that the only way I’d ever enjoy wreck diving is if I went to Chuuk. Having been wreck diving before and having had very “meh” experiences with it, my expectations for this trip weren’t especially high. I booked a week to go to the Blue Lagoon Dive Resort on the island of Weno. A trip report follows…
Flights
First off, the trip meant a domestic Qantas flight to Cairns in order to connect to the international flight to Guam. I’d heard through the grapevine that you could check your bags in with Qantas all the way through to Chuuk. I asked, and the check-in guy did genuinely try, but while he could bring up my United booking, he was unable to check my bags through. Maybe this was possible in the past, but it seems it’s not anymore. As such, my bags were only checked to Cairns. Not a big deal, but I had a 7.5 hour layover to contend with, and I wanted to go into town for dinner…Qantas flight itself was a fairly typical flight, short and no fuss. My VGML didn’t eventuate – but I didn’t expect it to for such a short flight. There was a bit of a wild goose chase when I landed in Cairns and wanted to store my dive bag for a few hours while I went to town for dinner. It wouldn’t fit in the luggage lockers, and the storage facility manager gave me the run around for about 45 minutes before finally meeting me at the international terminal storage room where they locked my bag up in a secure room. Cost $11 to keep it there for a few hours, which is pretty reasonable I guess.
The United flight from Cairns to Guam was also pretty straight forward. Check-in opened 3 hours before departure. I’d done web check-in online the night before anyway, so all I really had to do was bag drop. Immigration guy wanted to chat – apparently it was suspicious that I had a totally clean passport? Uh, my old one ran out of pages – I had no choice in getting a new one. Oh, so you travel a bit then? No ****. Cairns now also has the body scanners…Joy. Then on top of that, I got called for an explosives check. Because of course I did. And of course I set it off. Another chat about how I work on mine sites and half my clothes probably have traces of explosive residue. All good in the end, just seems not to be my day. My VGML didn’t eventuate on this flight either. I’d bought a few things from the shop in Cairns airport before boarding, so it didn’t really matter much. Honestly, all I really wanted to do on the Cairns-Guam flight was sleep.
The Cairns to Guam flight itself was uneventful and we landed on time. Upon arrival in Guam we cleared immigration and customs (you require an ESTA visa), before heading back upstairs for security screening to get back into the departure lounge. That was quite honestly the most pain free TSA screening process in my entire life! There’s a number of shops in there, mainly targeted at the masses of Japanese tourists. In fact after the flights to Japan left, almost everything closed. A few café’s remained open for those of us on other flights though.
Then the fun began…We boarded the Guam-Chuuk flight, which is the island hopper that goes Guam-Chuuk-Pohnpei-Kosrae-Kwaj-Majuro-Honololu. We took off on time and everything seemed to be going ok, as it’s only a 75 minute flight. We were coming into land when the pilot aborted the approach. We thought that he’d pulled out to go around again for some reason, but he just kept going to Pohnpei. We didn’t land in Chuuk. After landing in Pohnpei, all the Chuuk passengers were told to get off the plane and that the local ground crew would take care of everything. And welcome to hell…
We got off the plane and cleared immigration, collected our bags, and cleared customs. Then…Nothing. The ground crew had no idea of how to cope with so many people. There were almost 80 people who got stranded in Pohnpei, and there weren’t enough hotel rooms to put everyone up, because there was some huge ministerial conference starting on the weekend. United staff said they wouldn’t pay for accommodation or food because it was a weather related diversion, which for most of the dive tourists heading to Chuuk isn’t a massive issue for a few days, but for the locals? Problems. I couldn’t get a room, and ended up crashing on the floor of a random stranger I met while in the queue. There was a reverse route island hopper flight the next afternoon, and I asked about buying a ticket for business class because economy was all just standby at that point. They told me I had a seat and told me to come back in the morning to sort everything out. So I went back at 10 am the next morning, and they again confirmed I had a seat in J. About 15 minutes later, they said I was on standby. This backflipping went on for a couple of hours, before I finally just slipped a few hundreds in my passport the next time the United guy came and asked me for it. I got off the standby list 15 minutes later, albeit with a seat in Y. But I was on the plane, and at that point, I didn’t really care about much else. Then I find out I had to pay a $20 departure tax for a departure that was never planned for in the first place. Naturally.
I sympathize with the many people who couldn’t get off the standby list. There were about 15-18 of us who managed to get on that flight, and most only got confirmed seats because they were top tier Star Alliance frequent flyers who get standby priority. Over 50 people were left in Pohnpei, with the next flight out not until 2 days after that. The problem was that all the hotels were fully booked out as of Friday, and the next flight wasn’t until Saturday afternoon…Nobody was going to have anywhere to stay on Friday night. United literally just shrugged their shoulders and said “not our problem”. We tried to use that as justification for getting United to send a rescue flight to come and get everyone. I understand that the weather meant that United wasn’t forced to pay for people’s hotels, but the fact that there was no accommodation left at all? That’s not United’s fault, but something had to be done. You can’t sleep at the airport in Pohnpei. I got out, so I’m not entirely sure what everyone ended up doing (I know some ended up staying at local’s houses), but United was flat out refusing to send a rescue flight despite the number of stranded passengers. It was a decision made in Chicago, but the local ground crew had no idea why they said no, because their previous experience was that United usually sent one in such situations.
The whole thing was a giant mess. I understand why the flight diverted, even though I feel it shouldn’t have been necessary – why does the plane not carry sufficient fuel and flight crew to deal with potential problems? That aside though, the way the situation was handled on the ground was abhorrent. I spoke to my travel agent back in Australia while I was waiting in the line, and he told me that United was legally required to provide support. He also spoke to the United team in Sydney, and they just gave us the run-around and told us that I had to deal with the local ground crew in Pohnpei, because they would help us. The problem is, that despite all assurances from Australia that they were legally required to help, they didn’t. I questioned a few travel experts online about what exactly United was legally required to help with, since that’s what I’d been told, and nobody seemed to have a definitive answer.
While I did manage to get to Chuuk a day late, the whole situation with the flights has left a very bitter taste in my mouth. I tried to enjoy my diving, but I was just so pissed off about everything that the trip was kind of ruined.
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, we then had the return trip back to Australia. The flight schedule meant that we only had a 1 hour connection time in Guam – we were to land just before 6pm and depart just before 7pm. Lo and behold, the flight from Chuuk to Guam was half an hour late. One of the cabin crew told us that there was some issue with the push back truck at Pohnpei airport – the battery was flat. Seriously. So we get on the plane half an hour late desperately trying to find out if they’d hold the Cairns flight for us. No information either way the entire flight, just “once we land, try and get through immigration and customs as quickly as you can!”. Thanks for that pearl of wisdom United. Funnily enough, the cabin crew were the same lot that took us from Pohnpei to Chuuk the previous week after our diversion from hell. They recognised us! Anyway, we rushed through immigration – they had a line set up specifically for those of us coming off the island hopper flight heading to Cairns in order to expedite things. Customs and TSA screening went quickly (yes, I’m still shocked that the TSA can actually be efficient), and we did in fact all make the flight. We left about 10 minutes late, but we were on that damn plane. Whether our bags made it on to the plane was yet to be determined. I ended up with the bulkhead row to myself on the flight, which meant that I couldn’t stretch out and sleep, but a bulkhead seat is still a bulkhead seat.
Upon landing in Cairns, it turns out that our bags did in fact make the flight. A quick and painless check of my bag by quarantine and I was out the door by midnight. Of course, this is when it really hit me that Cairns airport isn’t open 24/7. The two terminals were locked up, and didn’t open again until 3.30am. Qantas check-in opened at 4am. I know Cairns isn’t a huge port, but there were over 2 dozen people who came in on that United flight that had early connections the next morning who just sat around outside the airport for almost 4 hours waiting for the doors to open. While it’s in the tropics, it’s still wintertime, and it wasn’t warm. It painted a pretty poor picture for the international visitors to be locked out like that. Made it home on time at the end of the day, and was very glad to walk in my front door.
Honestly, this entire trip would have been a mindblowing experience if it hadn’t been for United. Sadly it’s been memorable for all the wrong reasons. If it wasn’t for the fact that they are the only carrier operating to Micronesia, I’d never fly them again.
Resort
I booked a week at the Blue Lagoon Dive Resort in Chuuk. I’d initially planned to book on one of the liveaboards, but circumstances prevented that. It doesn’t take much effort on Google to find out what happened to the liveaboards after Typhoon Maysak hit (hint: the typhoon wasn’t the biggest problem). People I know who’d been to Chuuk in the past told me that Blue Lagoon was preferable to Truk Stop – the only real options. I took their word for it.
The resort is about a 30 minute drive from the airport, although given the distance, it shouldn’t really have taken more than 5-10 minutes. The roads are pretty horrific. We stopped at a bottle shop and grocery store on the drive to the resort for people to stock up, because everyone knows that resort bar prices are bad, and the resort knows this too, so they don’t mind if you drink your own.
Lots of people told me that even the Blue Lagoon Resort was pretty basic. I think their definition of basic, and my definition of basic varies considerably. It’s nicer than some resorts I’ve stayed at that are considered “luxury” to be honest. The rooms were clean, had flushing toilets, hot water shower and bath, a mini bar fridge to store whatever you want, plenty of powerpoints, a decent restaurant, a reasonably well stocked bar, a gift shop…What else do you need?
Regarding the food – I’m vegan, and I still managed to order off the menu. There’s a number of Japanese-style dishes that are vegan. Predictably the rest of the menu is mostly seafood. The food wasn’t included in the cost of the resort package I booked, but you could get a huge (US-sized) feed for about $12. Honestly, you could order an entire 3 course meal, including a whole lobster for the main for $15. Yes, seriously. You’d pay over $120 for just the lobster alone in Australia. They go and catch them just off the island, and then serve them up for lunch and dinner the next day. Makes me wish I could still eat meat!!! There was a surprising lack of fresh fruit and vegetables though (what got served was tinned or frozen, not fresh). Nobody gave an outright reason for it, but we suspect that most of the local crops were wiped out during the typhoon in March, and things simply haven’t recovered yet.
Diving
My diving was booked through the dive shop associated with the Blue Lagoon Dive Resort. The package I booked included 10 dives (5 days x 2 dives a day). I’d hoped to discuss the option of doing additional dives when I got to the resort. If I was only going to be there for a week, I wanted to make the most of it. Due to my hesitance in booking the trip in the first place because of previous disappointing wreck dives, I didn’t want to book a longer trip in case I was sick to death of it in a couple of days. However, due to the flight shenanigans, I was down to 4 dive days. An expensive trip for so little diving in the end. Not happy, but it’s United’s fault as far as I’m concerned. The resort was also reluctant to run extra dives, which kind of sucked.
Anyway, the diving itself was pretty good. I think I finally understand why people rave about the place. It’s the first time I’ve gone wreck diving in my entire life and had a “wow!” moment. That being said though, despite my comments to others that I met on this trip about returning, I don’t know how truthful that is. The sites I visited were awesome, but I’m admittedly not much of a war or history buff, and I don’t really care a whole lot about going and doing 65 meter dives just to go do a wreck penetration to see an engine room (no offence to the guys I met, I know that was their thing, but to each their own). There’s some cool stuff to see, but I think I probably saw the best of it on this trip. Maybe if I get bored in the future after I’ve already visited everywhere else on my to do list, it’d be on my list of diving locations to revisit. But right now I kind of feel “that was fun, but now I’ve been there and done that – what’s next?”…
The dive sites visited: (1) Fujikawa Maru, (2) Yamagiri Maru, (3) Shinkoku Maru, (4) Heian Maru, (5) Betty Bomber, (6) Nippo Maru, (7) Rio de Janeiro Maru, (8) San Francisco Maru, (9) Emily, and (10) Patrol Boat.
A couple of other diving related things…
Photos on my blog...
Flights
First off, the trip meant a domestic Qantas flight to Cairns in order to connect to the international flight to Guam. I’d heard through the grapevine that you could check your bags in with Qantas all the way through to Chuuk. I asked, and the check-in guy did genuinely try, but while he could bring up my United booking, he was unable to check my bags through. Maybe this was possible in the past, but it seems it’s not anymore. As such, my bags were only checked to Cairns. Not a big deal, but I had a 7.5 hour layover to contend with, and I wanted to go into town for dinner…Qantas flight itself was a fairly typical flight, short and no fuss. My VGML didn’t eventuate – but I didn’t expect it to for such a short flight. There was a bit of a wild goose chase when I landed in Cairns and wanted to store my dive bag for a few hours while I went to town for dinner. It wouldn’t fit in the luggage lockers, and the storage facility manager gave me the run around for about 45 minutes before finally meeting me at the international terminal storage room where they locked my bag up in a secure room. Cost $11 to keep it there for a few hours, which is pretty reasonable I guess.
The United flight from Cairns to Guam was also pretty straight forward. Check-in opened 3 hours before departure. I’d done web check-in online the night before anyway, so all I really had to do was bag drop. Immigration guy wanted to chat – apparently it was suspicious that I had a totally clean passport? Uh, my old one ran out of pages – I had no choice in getting a new one. Oh, so you travel a bit then? No ****. Cairns now also has the body scanners…Joy. Then on top of that, I got called for an explosives check. Because of course I did. And of course I set it off. Another chat about how I work on mine sites and half my clothes probably have traces of explosive residue. All good in the end, just seems not to be my day. My VGML didn’t eventuate on this flight either. I’d bought a few things from the shop in Cairns airport before boarding, so it didn’t really matter much. Honestly, all I really wanted to do on the Cairns-Guam flight was sleep.
The Cairns to Guam flight itself was uneventful and we landed on time. Upon arrival in Guam we cleared immigration and customs (you require an ESTA visa), before heading back upstairs for security screening to get back into the departure lounge. That was quite honestly the most pain free TSA screening process in my entire life! There’s a number of shops in there, mainly targeted at the masses of Japanese tourists. In fact after the flights to Japan left, almost everything closed. A few café’s remained open for those of us on other flights though.
Then the fun began…We boarded the Guam-Chuuk flight, which is the island hopper that goes Guam-Chuuk-Pohnpei-Kosrae-Kwaj-Majuro-Honololu. We took off on time and everything seemed to be going ok, as it’s only a 75 minute flight. We were coming into land when the pilot aborted the approach. We thought that he’d pulled out to go around again for some reason, but he just kept going to Pohnpei. We didn’t land in Chuuk. After landing in Pohnpei, all the Chuuk passengers were told to get off the plane and that the local ground crew would take care of everything. And welcome to hell…
We got off the plane and cleared immigration, collected our bags, and cleared customs. Then…Nothing. The ground crew had no idea of how to cope with so many people. There were almost 80 people who got stranded in Pohnpei, and there weren’t enough hotel rooms to put everyone up, because there was some huge ministerial conference starting on the weekend. United staff said they wouldn’t pay for accommodation or food because it was a weather related diversion, which for most of the dive tourists heading to Chuuk isn’t a massive issue for a few days, but for the locals? Problems. I couldn’t get a room, and ended up crashing on the floor of a random stranger I met while in the queue. There was a reverse route island hopper flight the next afternoon, and I asked about buying a ticket for business class because economy was all just standby at that point. They told me I had a seat and told me to come back in the morning to sort everything out. So I went back at 10 am the next morning, and they again confirmed I had a seat in J. About 15 minutes later, they said I was on standby. This backflipping went on for a couple of hours, before I finally just slipped a few hundreds in my passport the next time the United guy came and asked me for it. I got off the standby list 15 minutes later, albeit with a seat in Y. But I was on the plane, and at that point, I didn’t really care about much else. Then I find out I had to pay a $20 departure tax for a departure that was never planned for in the first place. Naturally.
I sympathize with the many people who couldn’t get off the standby list. There were about 15-18 of us who managed to get on that flight, and most only got confirmed seats because they were top tier Star Alliance frequent flyers who get standby priority. Over 50 people were left in Pohnpei, with the next flight out not until 2 days after that. The problem was that all the hotels were fully booked out as of Friday, and the next flight wasn’t until Saturday afternoon…Nobody was going to have anywhere to stay on Friday night. United literally just shrugged their shoulders and said “not our problem”. We tried to use that as justification for getting United to send a rescue flight to come and get everyone. I understand that the weather meant that United wasn’t forced to pay for people’s hotels, but the fact that there was no accommodation left at all? That’s not United’s fault, but something had to be done. You can’t sleep at the airport in Pohnpei. I got out, so I’m not entirely sure what everyone ended up doing (I know some ended up staying at local’s houses), but United was flat out refusing to send a rescue flight despite the number of stranded passengers. It was a decision made in Chicago, but the local ground crew had no idea why they said no, because their previous experience was that United usually sent one in such situations.
The whole thing was a giant mess. I understand why the flight diverted, even though I feel it shouldn’t have been necessary – why does the plane not carry sufficient fuel and flight crew to deal with potential problems? That aside though, the way the situation was handled on the ground was abhorrent. I spoke to my travel agent back in Australia while I was waiting in the line, and he told me that United was legally required to provide support. He also spoke to the United team in Sydney, and they just gave us the run-around and told us that I had to deal with the local ground crew in Pohnpei, because they would help us. The problem is, that despite all assurances from Australia that they were legally required to help, they didn’t. I questioned a few travel experts online about what exactly United was legally required to help with, since that’s what I’d been told, and nobody seemed to have a definitive answer.
While I did manage to get to Chuuk a day late, the whole situation with the flights has left a very bitter taste in my mouth. I tried to enjoy my diving, but I was just so pissed off about everything that the trip was kind of ruined.
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, we then had the return trip back to Australia. The flight schedule meant that we only had a 1 hour connection time in Guam – we were to land just before 6pm and depart just before 7pm. Lo and behold, the flight from Chuuk to Guam was half an hour late. One of the cabin crew told us that there was some issue with the push back truck at Pohnpei airport – the battery was flat. Seriously. So we get on the plane half an hour late desperately trying to find out if they’d hold the Cairns flight for us. No information either way the entire flight, just “once we land, try and get through immigration and customs as quickly as you can!”. Thanks for that pearl of wisdom United. Funnily enough, the cabin crew were the same lot that took us from Pohnpei to Chuuk the previous week after our diversion from hell. They recognised us! Anyway, we rushed through immigration – they had a line set up specifically for those of us coming off the island hopper flight heading to Cairns in order to expedite things. Customs and TSA screening went quickly (yes, I’m still shocked that the TSA can actually be efficient), and we did in fact all make the flight. We left about 10 minutes late, but we were on that damn plane. Whether our bags made it on to the plane was yet to be determined. I ended up with the bulkhead row to myself on the flight, which meant that I couldn’t stretch out and sleep, but a bulkhead seat is still a bulkhead seat.
Upon landing in Cairns, it turns out that our bags did in fact make the flight. A quick and painless check of my bag by quarantine and I was out the door by midnight. Of course, this is when it really hit me that Cairns airport isn’t open 24/7. The two terminals were locked up, and didn’t open again until 3.30am. Qantas check-in opened at 4am. I know Cairns isn’t a huge port, but there were over 2 dozen people who came in on that United flight that had early connections the next morning who just sat around outside the airport for almost 4 hours waiting for the doors to open. While it’s in the tropics, it’s still wintertime, and it wasn’t warm. It painted a pretty poor picture for the international visitors to be locked out like that. Made it home on time at the end of the day, and was very glad to walk in my front door.
Honestly, this entire trip would have been a mindblowing experience if it hadn’t been for United. Sadly it’s been memorable for all the wrong reasons. If it wasn’t for the fact that they are the only carrier operating to Micronesia, I’d never fly them again.
Resort
I booked a week at the Blue Lagoon Dive Resort in Chuuk. I’d initially planned to book on one of the liveaboards, but circumstances prevented that. It doesn’t take much effort on Google to find out what happened to the liveaboards after Typhoon Maysak hit (hint: the typhoon wasn’t the biggest problem). People I know who’d been to Chuuk in the past told me that Blue Lagoon was preferable to Truk Stop – the only real options. I took their word for it.
The resort is about a 30 minute drive from the airport, although given the distance, it shouldn’t really have taken more than 5-10 minutes. The roads are pretty horrific. We stopped at a bottle shop and grocery store on the drive to the resort for people to stock up, because everyone knows that resort bar prices are bad, and the resort knows this too, so they don’t mind if you drink your own.
Lots of people told me that even the Blue Lagoon Resort was pretty basic. I think their definition of basic, and my definition of basic varies considerably. It’s nicer than some resorts I’ve stayed at that are considered “luxury” to be honest. The rooms were clean, had flushing toilets, hot water shower and bath, a mini bar fridge to store whatever you want, plenty of powerpoints, a decent restaurant, a reasonably well stocked bar, a gift shop…What else do you need?
Regarding the food – I’m vegan, and I still managed to order off the menu. There’s a number of Japanese-style dishes that are vegan. Predictably the rest of the menu is mostly seafood. The food wasn’t included in the cost of the resort package I booked, but you could get a huge (US-sized) feed for about $12. Honestly, you could order an entire 3 course meal, including a whole lobster for the main for $15. Yes, seriously. You’d pay over $120 for just the lobster alone in Australia. They go and catch them just off the island, and then serve them up for lunch and dinner the next day. Makes me wish I could still eat meat!!! There was a surprising lack of fresh fruit and vegetables though (what got served was tinned or frozen, not fresh). Nobody gave an outright reason for it, but we suspect that most of the local crops were wiped out during the typhoon in March, and things simply haven’t recovered yet.
Diving
My diving was booked through the dive shop associated with the Blue Lagoon Dive Resort. The package I booked included 10 dives (5 days x 2 dives a day). I’d hoped to discuss the option of doing additional dives when I got to the resort. If I was only going to be there for a week, I wanted to make the most of it. Due to my hesitance in booking the trip in the first place because of previous disappointing wreck dives, I didn’t want to book a longer trip in case I was sick to death of it in a couple of days. However, due to the flight shenanigans, I was down to 4 dive days. An expensive trip for so little diving in the end. Not happy, but it’s United’s fault as far as I’m concerned. The resort was also reluctant to run extra dives, which kind of sucked.
Anyway, the diving itself was pretty good. I think I finally understand why people rave about the place. It’s the first time I’ve gone wreck diving in my entire life and had a “wow!” moment. That being said though, despite my comments to others that I met on this trip about returning, I don’t know how truthful that is. The sites I visited were awesome, but I’m admittedly not much of a war or history buff, and I don’t really care a whole lot about going and doing 65 meter dives just to go do a wreck penetration to see an engine room (no offence to the guys I met, I know that was their thing, but to each their own). There’s some cool stuff to see, but I think I probably saw the best of it on this trip. Maybe if I get bored in the future after I’ve already visited everywhere else on my to do list, it’d be on my list of diving locations to revisit. But right now I kind of feel “that was fun, but now I’ve been there and done that – what’s next?”…
The dive sites visited: (1) Fujikawa Maru, (2) Yamagiri Maru, (3) Shinkoku Maru, (4) Heian Maru, (5) Betty Bomber, (6) Nippo Maru, (7) Rio de Janeiro Maru, (8) San Francisco Maru, (9) Emily, and (10) Patrol Boat.
A couple of other diving related things…
- You don’t need to dive tec (doubles, sidemount, or rebreather), but it helps to have at least basic tec training so you understand deco diving. At an absolute minimum you have to be comfortable going into deco and doing deep stops. I dived with just a single tank of air on every dive except the San Francisco Maru, on which I took a spare sling tank for my deco stops – and I have done basic tec training. I didn’t even bother with nitrox to be honest. Don’t let people tell you that it’s all complicated tec diving, and that you can’t do Chuuk as a recreational diver. It’s not necessary to dive tec if you don’t want to – I didn’t want to because it makes diving with a camera rig a pain in the backside.
- No camera room! What is this? So apparently they’ve turned what used to be the old camera room into a room for rebreathers. Which means that although we got the divemaster to put a camera rinse tank on the boat, there was no rinse tank back at the dive shop, and nor was there an air gun to clear it off. All camera gadgets had to be dried off and charged in our rooms. Seems a little odd that in a destination which is a photographer’s dream, that there’s no camera room. Not the end of the world, but it raised an eyebrow.
- I found the guides to be very “hands off”. The dive briefings were so brief that they may as well not have bothered. About the only useful thing our guide did was lead us through the wreck penetrations to see engine rooms etc. Beyond that, we were kind of left to our own devices. I appreciate that the overwhelming majority of divers in Chuuk are experienced and certainly don’t need their hands held, but I still found it a bit lacking. The fact we weren’t even shown a dive site map was annoying – especially for wreck diving where you need to plan your route.
Photos on my blog...
