Zamami Island

Bad news

I had pre-booked our ferry tickets to Zamami Island and back, having read that the ferry can fill up.  The departure point involved a bit of a walk from the monorail so we treated ourselves with a taxi ride ordered through Uber.

Then bad news struck, my credit card number had been used online to buy three lots of SGD500 products from Gardens By The Bay in Singapore.  Who on earth buys SGD500 of garden entries?  Thus, my card has been blocked.

This means I have to review all my upcoming hotel guarantees and changed any that have been guaranteed on that Mastercard.  I’d also be without my main credit card but fortunately, Kim is with me nearly the whole trip and I do have backup cards.

It’s also a real bugger having this strike me at the beginning of the trip whereas last time, it was close to the end of the trip through Colombia.

Furuzamami Beach

The 50 minute ferry ride to Zamami appeared nearly full.  Upon arrival, we rushed to the bus to ensure we could get a seat to Furuzamami Island, was we wanted to catch it during a high-ish tide for a good swim.

On Google Maps, the route was a 20 min walk but in reality there’s a large hill that would make the walk awfully unpleasant in the heat.

Furuzamami Beach was a stunner.  It wasn’t just the white sand and clear blue waters.  The water went from shallow to deep quickly meaning it would be swimmable even at the lowest tide.

We enjoyed several swims in the gorgeous water and made short walks.  The price for an umbrella or a lounger was prohibitive, so we took refuge under the deck that was part of the shop above.

Even at 4-5 m depth, the water was so clear we could see the bottom.  Despite having been to Maldives recently, I might even say that this is the best beach and water I’ve ever frolicked in!

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Exploring Zamami Island by car

After over an hour, we returned back to the port area by bus and looked for a rental car.  We tried a couple of places with no luck but fortunately struck it lucky afterwards.

While the starting price seemed OK, the insurance and fuel charged soon brought it to a price that was kinda high for the short time and distance that we would be doing.  We committed to a 3h block as it was only a little more than the minimum 2h rental.

We started our drive at 1240 exploring the south-west portion of the island first.  There were several viewpoints here and on such a beautiful day like today, the view from all of them were awesome despite the low tide.

The road took us back to town afterwards and we continued to the north-east which had nothing much to see. It wasn’t possible to drive at much more than 30 km/h on the island.  Despite the low speed, we were done in under 2h.

With time remaining on our car rental, we returned to Furuzamami for a second swim.  The tide was low by now but it was still perfect for swimming. In retrospect, the total cost of the car rental, insurance and fuel got us only a few viewpoints in the south-west, so it wasn’t money well spent.

We returned our car around 1530 and walked to the visitor area for a late lunch and kill an hour before the 1700 ferry back to Naha via Aka.  The taxi queue back at Naha was fast moving but we were still pleased not to have been at the end of it.

I wanted to get back to the room ASAP to ring the bank to confirm that the unauthorised charges were indeed fraudulent. While I did that, Kim got some dinner from the convenience store and we stayed in for the rest of the evening.

It had been an awesome day on Zamami Island.  I hope to return and stay there and do some diving in the future, and spend another day or two on that amazing beach!