Hawaii Day 3

What does one do when the personal laptop conks out and your options are either blogging from office (which is showing the red rag to the boss) or using a friend’s computer? Neither- you cannot do the first, and your friend will not let you do the second. Blogging is something I do in my free time, not when office folks or friends are around.

Anyway, the rant post about leading a laptopless life will come later. Let me finish the Hawaii trip first.

So on day 3, we decided to hike the Diamond Head Crater. We woke up promptly at 5, to skip the usual bathroom rush hour, and were out by 6, waiting for the bus that never arrived because it was a Saturday.

A cab later, we reached there and started to hike. About 30-40 minutes of panting and sweating later, we reached on top. While hiking, all that we saw was arid, barren land while from the top, we could see the whole of Honolulu, including the beach line.

This is where we started from while the tiny structure at the top was where we had to reach.



As we hiked

A favorite one

View of Downtown Honolulu from the top

Look at those waves.

I have a thing for lighthouses, honestly. I spot one and I’ll try out every means to reach it. If I cannot, I will just take lots of light house pictures.

After lunch we went to the Iolani Palace, the only royal palace used as an official residence by a reigning monarch in the U.S. Given that I hail from a country of kings, palaces, and royalness, I was especially curious to check it out.

A palace is a palace – with all its grandeur. Huge doors and windows made of carved wood. Ornate carpets and decorations. We did the audio tour of the palace and found many interesting facts.

We were made to wear this lest we dirty the floors or the carpets.

Next we did a brief tour of the University of Hawaii campus- very Indian looking campus. And guess what – Govinda was here too.

Here comes Govinda, in his full glory in Hawaii.

I wonder why these weird structures are found in front of most of the engineering departments in this country. Found something weird like this in Princeton too.

Another discovery- I haven’t seen so many china roses (hibiscus flowers) ever since Saturday evenings as a kid in India when dida (grandma) would do Kali puja and ask me to pick the red variety from the garden. And of course the ICSE 9th grade biology dissection classes where we were expected to separate every organ of the flower, including the male and female components in its entirety.

On day 1, we were recommended a food place which we never found, even after an hour of walking and looking and asking around. On evening 3, we were generally strolling by the Waikiki beach, undecided what to eat for dinner when out of the blue, our dream destination for day 1 crops up. I tell you.

After hogging on heartfuls of sushi, we returned to the hostel, full and happy and sleepy as ever. We intended to go to bed early. Day 4 had more in store for us.

sunshine