East and West

Someone remarked the other day that if it was not for me, the airline industry would have hit recession long back. I thought about it – 3 out of my 5 May weekends were spent out of station – Hawaii, California, and the east coast. When I started my new year, I made a list of resolutions like I do every year, but barely follow. Learn to drive. Slim down. Find a nice man to marry. Explore the world. I am glad I have diligently carried out the last one.

People are raising eyebrows, given the amount of traveling I am doing. Why do I care? All this while, I heard people talking about lonely lives in the US, and how people succumb to doing weird things to ward loneliness away. Traveling is more innocuous than you can think.

The west weekend was spent on an impromptu trip to San Francisco, Monterey Bay, and Big Sur. Very blue, very sunny, enjoyed every bit of it.

The east coast was different in every way- climate wise, people wise, and place wise. The states are so closely located that you can actually drive through 6-7 states or more in a single day. Started with Philadelphia, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Shenandoah National Park (NP), Luray Caverns, Princeton, and New York City. All in a span of 4 days. Did a lot of interesting things – visited the gravesite of J.F. Kennedy, hiked in Shenandoah, walked through the streets of Princeton University, brazened out the New York City sun and heat, and stepped into my 13th state of travel as I entered Delaware. The east coast trip was some 2000 odd pictures. Crazy, I know.

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Hawaii Day 5

Day 5 was when we were supposed to be headed back, and had the morning to ourselves. We decided to pick a few of our favorite locations and spend a leisurely morning there. We found 3 collinear beaches, meaning you could take a bus and go to beach 3, come back to beach 2, beach 1, and finally the hostel taking the same bus in the opposite direction. The buses were scheduled an hour apart, which gave us sufficient time to explore all 3 beaches. Here are some random pictures of the Makappu beach, the sandy beach, and the Hanauma bay (it was our 3rd visit to the Hanauma bay).

The bottomline is -- go visit Hawaii if you get a chance. Don't wait for a honeymoon or something romantic to happen.

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Hawaii Day 4

Day 4 was a conducted bus tour. No tension of getting lost, no jhamela of finding bus routes. Here are some of the places we covered.


Waikiki Beach


Dole Plantation (a pineapple lover myself, I always wanted to visit the place from where the juices and the pineapples I ate came from). I never knew it was in Hawaii.

Pineapple farming fields.

Some beach (had lost my count after a while).

Some beach again.

Marshy grounds. A paradise for people who study flora and fauna of the ecosystems (I used to do it a long lifetime ago).

Took a while to get it posing.

China man's hat island (Look at the shape).

Byodo temple.

Pali lookout.

Makappu beach.

Sandy beach

Blowhole

Hanauma bay

Koko Head Trail- Very steep, no trees to shield you while hiking. Many people have been victims of heat strokes, trying to hike in the sun.

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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.

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