[caroswin]

When you go to Yap, go and stay at Traders Ridge resort. It's run by a fantastic couple Brenna and Chris, who have some great stories. I took a group there earlier this year and we'd run into lots of flight scheduling & accommodation problems in Guam, so by the time we got there we were completely over it. Brenna organised a welcome drinks party for us with local food to sample, and turned the whole trip around for us.

Yap itself is lovely. The people are so friendly, even the teenagers there are happy to talk to you. It's pretty basic, there's not much development on the Island, but they have a beautiful history. The stone money bank was amazing and definitely worth a look, I had envisioned a building but it was actually just the enormous donut-shaped stone "coins" lined up along a bank. Apparently the stones never move, just their ownership changes. The stone is quarried in Palau and the value of the stone lies not in its size, but in the danger level of the trip in bringing it back via outrigger canoe. There are also WW2 wrecks just lying about, we saw cannons and planes. The locals all chew betel nut and have permanent red teeth - even the young girls.

The Chinese government recently gave the Federated States of Micronesia a big ship for their inter-island transport. Prior to this amazing gift, locals visiting relatives on neighbouring islands would sleep on the deck of the previous ship and bring all their own food for the journey. The ship had just arrived when I was there in March, I think the gift was in time for the Yap Day celebrations.

The diving... well Yap is famous for its manta rays and they can be found all year round in different places. The visibility is usually not crystal clear - we were a bit surprised as we thought it was all like that. But there were about 7 mantas on one of the dives and they weren't particularly worried by us being there.

On the walls the water is crystal clear though, and you can see for miles. Go to a dive site called Yap Caverns, where you can weave in and out of the rock formations. It's beautiful.

All in all I rate Yap very highly.