Trip Report Marshall Islands/Majuro (May 2018)

Hello

Within a Oceania trip I made a visit to Majuro in the Marshall Islands. It was nice and want to share some experience.

For the full report with photo and map, please take a look here A visit to the Majuro in Marshall Islands

My expectation about my stay was to go diving all day long around plane- and shipwrecks, which got blasted away by nuclear bombs during the US nuclear testing programs in 1950. Unfortunately, sometimes scuba plans don’t work as intended.

MAY 4 – ARRIVING IN MAJURO ATOLL
The flight was a bit more than an hour and I was happy having a seat in the front of the plane as immigration in the Marshall Islands turned out to be VERY slow, with only one SLOW stamping officer for a few dozen passengers. Glad I was not needed to spend too much time in the same heat and humidity as it was in Kiribati.

Not only the immigration officer was slow, but also the taxi driver took it slow, as did the pedestrians, the coffee shop woman, the stray dogs, the…. Ok enough! The taxi ride from the airport was interesting as there are no addresses or house numbers in the capital Majuro. Probably that explains why there is a speed limit of 40kmph so that there is enough time to figure out the correct destination. There is one main road through the whole atoll of Majuro. With only knowing the name of the small supermarket beside the accommodation it’s possible to find the apartment, as all buildings are aligned at one main road.

Majuro downtown itself looks a bit run down, like a large harbor with ship containers and rusty boats all over. A bit similar, but never as worse as Kiribati’s Tarawa. It almost feels like they know the sea level is rising fast from year to year and what they might be building today, is doomed to be flooded in a few years. Yes, so why spending effort in something that might have no future? I wouldn’t neither.

ORGANIZING THE DIVE TO THE PLANE WRECK
A visitor's centers is located on the main road somewhere, but didn't have time this afternoon to find out where exactly. Instead went to Hotel "Robert Reimers".

The « Robert Reimers » is a hotel facility which has a visitor’s office and who can give proper information about almost everything. I went there asking for scuba diving around WW2 relics and I thought this is high on demand among visitors or locals. But it’s not :). I described that I’m looking for a specific sunken plane wreck, which is located off the shores on the privately owned island called Enemanit. It’s a fascinating plane wreck not far from the shore, somewhere beside a small island somewhere among the hundreds of Marshallese islands.

As „Robert Reimers“ only provides visits to their private Island called “Eneko”, its necessary to pay for a private boat ride to island Enemanit. An own boat transfer was 25 Dollar and is a 25 minutes boat ride through the beautiful lagoons of Majuro. So I Scheduled it for tomorrow. Also required to put a foot on Enemanit, is a permit. For that permit it’s necessary to apply in person at a trading company called “Pacific International Inc. – Pii” – yes confusing, but that it is what it is. I was happy that it was only Friday afternoon and so it was still in business hours including that trading company Pii. Pii is, however, located at the other end of Majuro and had to take a cheap Majuro taxi ride for only 75 cents. At Pii I had to fill out an application form and then they called the owner of the island, which is also the owner of the company.

Getting the permit took me around 30 minutes and costs 25 USD. A visit to Enemanit indeed sums up a little. With 25 bucks for the private transfer, 25 bucks for the permit, it comes to 50 USD without any food or necessary gear. But I was happy having settled this and was able to visit Enemanit and the plane wreck, as it was one of the main intentions for my visit to the Marshall Islands.

MAY 5 – DIVING AROUND THE WW2 PLANE
Was supposed to be at 10am at „Robert Reimers“, where the motorboat was already waiting. After 25 minutes driving through the wonderful blue Majuro lagoon and passing many small islands like on a conveyor belt, soon the tiny island Enemanit showed up.
Got some brief information about where approximately the plane wreck is located and got dropped off as a Robinson Crusoe on this remote island with no shops, houses, people on it. The island Enemanit belongs to someone and they built a shade and a peer. There were about five pigs and some dogs walking around.

I asked the skipper if he can pick me up again at 2pm and off he went.

With a bag of snacks and a gallon of water, I was equipped for the next four hours. After getting familiar with the dogs and pigs, I prepared for the diving. For protection against sun, I brought a new big bottle of 50spf sun lotion, and a towel around my neck and the head for the diving – I looked like a freakin' terrorist, but nobody was around to spot and report me, so no problem.

Now I had about 4 hours until the motorboat and driver come to pick me up. Making proper photos there was more difficult than I thought. Swum out to the plane location and back to the shore for having breaks about 5-6 times. The heat is uncomfortable, but what more is to concern about are the jellyfishes. They are almost invisible, but they do sting (without poison) and I my legs and arms were covered in itchy jellyfish scars by the end of the day.

I wanted to go Scuba diving and Scuba diving around Majuro is possible, there are two (semi) professional dive operators. One is “Raycrew” which is located inside the Marshall Island Resort and the other one is a Matt Holy, who has his « shop » behind EZ market. Matt takes out divers upon request. Matt also has a private courtyard in the Lagoon where he sunk different vessels by himself. I contacted both before and during my stay in Majuro and exchanged some emails. I was even at both „offices“ in person but at the offices of both operators either no one was there or, some friend who wasn’t able to provide final arrangements or organize. Raycrew answered then by email that they have no other divers these days and with me as only one diver, they not go diving on Sunday as they are a little tired from working… (wait, what??). Matt was so kind and offered me for a fair price, a dive around the vessels he sunk. But this wasn’t really what I was hoping to dive for in the Marshall Islands. So it’s quite difficult to find a REAL Scuba Diving opportunity around Majuro.

MAY 6 – WALKING IN MAJURO
On Sunday almost everything was shut down, because yes, it’s Sunday :) There is not so much to do in Majuro by default. One of the best that came to my mind was to walk around, up to the top of Majuro atoll and back down. Even there are not a lot of architectural masterpieces in Majuro, walking along the main road and along the lagoon offers to get a view on hidden treasures. Sometimes it’s a rusty boat where people swim in and around or otherwise it’s to observe the slow lifestyle of the locals.
People walk so slowly there, they look like they’re drunk, but yes they are not in a hurry. Neither are cars on the road. Max speed is somewhere between 30-40kmph and most of them drive even slower :)

Found out today that I just missed the 39th constitution day of Marshall Islands. It was just some days ago and there were celebrations with traditional shows and traditional clothed people who dance around, traditionally.
But instead of the constitution fireworks, I saw a lot of trash again in some areas of Majuro and at the shores. Not as worse as Kiribati, but also here many people like to use the shores as a dumpster and to do toilet business in the lagoons. However, the majority of these people try their BEST to keep things clean and they are all friendly people. Everybody smiles and when making photos they like to wave into it. Even when I stand there 50 meters away and they spot a camera, hands start to wave the friendly way.

MAY 7 – THERE WE GO WITH FLIGHT CANCELATIONS
I got hit by a flight cancelation and I hope it was the first and last one for this Oceania trip. Flight cancelations are among the worst case scenario for this trip, as any delay or cancellation can be the “Game Over” of the trip, as I will lose almost all remaining flights of total 19 flights these 5 weeks.

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