Hawaii: Deep Dive

Whether it is diving in the ocean or studies or whatever you are planning for the day, it is good to begin with a healthy breakfast. So the next day, we had a fruit-and-nuts breakfast and fired the engines of our car to go to our first snorkeling experience. On our way, we had a brief halt at one of the biggest wind-surfing beaches -- not to wind-surf but to watch it. I have always had huge admiration for surfing (and people who do it) and watching wind-surfing only increased it further.

Moving on, to our first snorkeling experience. I absolutely did not have an anxiety attack and I could not wait to jumping in the water. Just like these text strikethroughs, she had seen through my denials and had arranged for an instructor on the first day. The first part was to kayak in the ocean to go to the snorkeling waters which were not close to any beach. It was going to be the two of us in one kayak and the guide (Emily from Wisconsin) in the other kayak. After getting into the kayak, we went through our usual routine ritual of disagreements before settling into a good rhythm and reached the snorkeling waters. Emily taught us how to breathe through the snorkeling mask and also how to jump from or board the kayak. For first-timers like us, it was surely easier said than done. We jumped into the blueness and started following our guide.

Turns out that beauty of the adventure can easily subdue any jitters. Soon I totally forgot about any anxiety, in fact forgot about rest of the world above. Snorkeling first time opens your mind to a completely different world. Yes, you know beforehand that you are going to see the aquatic life but the actual experience feels far alien and overwhelming compared to the knowledge. We saw gigantic turtles, shoals of colorful fish, corals and all the times I was full of amazement. She and I were literally tugging each other's hands all the time and making dolphin-like noises (not really, but some kind of noises) to show each other the fantastic life that was floating around. We saw some gigantic old turtles which were probably around before the first world war, shoals of colorful fish and some corals. One turtle even waived at us, although now when I think about it, it could be more like go-away-you-crazies gesture.

Next day, she wanted only two of us to go into the waters without the guide!! This was for preparation of the third day, which you will soon read about. We went to a nearby rental equipment shop and met a smart salesperson called Jennifer. She and jennifer immediately hit it up. We rented all the equipment for the next day and drove to our hotel. It turned out to be just next to beach, separated by a small green pasture. We absorbed the scenic views and then went for absorbing some city life. She totally, totally, really, did not eat any fish tacos which were fantastic (seriously, mainland US, get some of those spices from Hawaii) and gulped some hibiscus(!) flavored beer.

Next day we reached a beach at Kihei for doing some Snorkeling on our own. It took three things for me to venture out away from the beach (1) an hour of anxious wading into shallow waters (2) her repeated calls to join in the deep waters (3) sighting of a huge turtle some distance away. We went to a spot some distance away from the beach, keeping close to the rocks, and got some confidence that we can snorkel on our own in calm waters because the next day was going to be a big deal. We were going to be snorkeling in waters hundreds-of-feet-deep away from the beach.

The snorkeling destination for the next day was Molokini Crater which is basically a moon-crescent shaped rock jutting out from the ocean. We boarded the boat of Pacific Whale Foundation along with 30-odd people and headed to the spot. Close to the rock, we had to jump in the open ocean. The weather was majestically sunny. Snorkeling at the spot turned out to be simply orders of magnitude beautiful than what we had experienced earlier. This was the spot where all the cool fish-dudes hung out. So beautiful that you soon forget about hundreds of feet deep water (also helped by the edge of the crater extending into a cliff below the water, which is like a few meters wide shallow land strip below the water). We spotted parrotfish, an eel opening its mouth to grab some breakfast, hundreds-strong shoals of some big black fish, and yes, Hawaiian state fish called Humuhumunukunukuapuaà (humu-humu-nuku-nuku-kua-puaà, which I have painstakingly memorized) and even some sharks (not great white sharks) at some distance. We just lost track of time and our lifeguards literally had to call people back to the boat by finger-pointing.

Parrotfish

Can you spot an eel here?

Deeper side of the crater (we were mostly on the other side)

Us in wet-suites! This is before we both got sunburnt like crazy. You really need some (biodegradable) sunscreen if you are going to be out on the ocean for a long time on a sunny day.

We were also taken to the other side of the crater rock, where waters were turbulent and only experienced swimmers were told to follow expert guides into the ocean, so she went and spotted more party-shy varieties like porcupine-fish. At the end of it, the boat took us back to a snorkeling spot close to the shore and we were really lucky to spot three huge turtles (along with other colorful) variety of fish who like to hang out close to the shores. 

Having eschewed most of the touristy things so far, we even went to Hawaiian Luau (traditional parties), just being afraid accusing-eyes that people would give us if we return from Hawaii without attending a Luau.

This wasn't over for her yet. She wanted to take a surfing lesson! And so she did the next day morning before we wrapped up!

She after her surfing lesson

It was the time to wrap up. We were not really ready to leave Hawaii. However, we were really happy, content, satisfied. Hell, we were even feeling a bit spiritual at the moment. Perhaps for a moment, we even understood what Aloha truly stands for.

Notes:

Aloha (from wikipedia): Aloha (/ɑːˈloʊhɑː/; Hawaiian: [əˈlōˌhä]) is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, that is commonly used as a simple greeting but has a deeper cultural and spiritual significance to native Hawaiians.

A greeting of love and compassion; also means "to be in the presence of the divinity" or in the presence of (alo) the "divine breath of life" (Ha)

Hawaii: Up and Down

After sleeping in the tent with the cacophony of weird night sounds, we woke up to the melody of early morning bird sounds and immediately hit the road to go past Hana. When she told me that our first stop was Laulima farms, I was like "meh, maybe we will get done with the farm or whatever soon and get back to the awesome road again". Fast forward two hours later, I had drag myself out of the farm and I was very scared my feet will refuse to obey me!

In fact, Laulima farms is the closest thing I have seen to the mythical concept of garden of Eden. This organic farm is situated on a 13-acre land and if I were to design a motto for it, it would have been "anything grows". It grows anything and everything in-between coffee, chocolate, papaya, bananas, avocado, papaya, scary-looking soursop, custard-apple, coconuts, a multitude of flowers including bird of paradise. We walked a brief loop through the farm and it was so crazy that we walked that loop again immediately. Afterwards, we were treated to a delicious fruit plate including papaya, cacao (chocolate fruit), mulberries, bananas, coconut and a kind of edible flower that we could eat. The effect of that atmosphere and fresh fruits was so profound that I continued eating a variety of fruits even after returning from Hawaii (I was not a big fan of fruits). For those who would want to know, cacao or chocolate-fruit is a cousin of custard apple, except that its seed a bit bitter-sour.

Laulima farms: The garden of Eden lies behind this demure entrance

Breakfast at Laulima farms

After finally managing to leave Laulima farms, we went to the nearby Oheogulch or Seven Sacred Pools waterfall. The view was so pristine: a series of waterfalls merging into the ocean. There were hardly any tourists in this remote part. We just had a huge ocean crashing against cliffs with mountains on the backside. I will let the photos do some talking here.

Place where water from the seven sacred waterfalls meets the ocean

Ocean crashing against cliffs in a never-ending battle

We pressed ahead with our road-trip, by this time our aesthetic sensibilities were already saturated. The road was tough with many spots having either one-lane road and/or non-paved road. After negotiating with a difficult patch, we were again slowly introduced to ocean-view. All of a sudden within ten minutes, this gave a way to one of the most insane landscapes we have ever seen. Vast and very gentle slopes of mountains were slowly merging into the sea. Both of us went completely silent soaking in the view. Really, that place more than deserved silent admiration (perhaps it deserved silent delirium if there exists such a thing).

Road past Hana: Mountains sloping gently into the ocean

Raod past Hana: A stark beauty along the way

Road past Hana: She didn't want to leave this place

Road past Hana: Seven sisters dancing on the hills against the backdrop of the ocean merging into the sky

The road passed through Manawainui valley and the landscape changed again within a few minutes! Now instead of grassy mountains and oceans, we were going through a hillstation-like terrain with mist, gentle rain and characteristic trees. Soon, we were looking down on the west side of island (which happens to be dry) from rainy hills up in the mountains.

We were to stay at a place called Haiku for next three days. Our host was Dr. Bonnie Marsh, a naturopath by profession. Her house is one of the most distinct ones I have seen. The whole house had a vibe of tranquility and had an eclectic collection artifacts from all over the world. This was the first place I saw a Gamelan which a musical instrument from Java, Indonesia. I was thrilled since I had read that one of my favorite classical (european) composers, Debussy, was inspired from Gamelan for some of his famous compositions. I had seen this instrument only in pictures but now I got to try playing a bit - our host knew it is played. The instrument has a different kind of musical scale than the usual 12-note octave in Indian or European music. It sounds really different to our ears, probably like how a different language would sound. Apart from Gamelan, we also got to see Quartz crystal bowls which produce reverberating musical sounds, which my better half could play great. We crashed early as next day we had this grand sunrise time planned at Haleakala.

Haleakala is a mountain ten thousand feet high on the same small island of Maui. Really, sometimes I think Maui is like a museum of the Earth with tall mountains, desert, ocean, grassland, rainforest-like-climate: everything existing on the same island. This was a mountain-day. We boarded the bus at 4 am in the morning and reached the mountain top (10k feet) around 5:30. As the dawn lights started spreading about, we saw this huge crater in front of us hugged by clouds in several spots. It was so vast that it was difficult to get a sense of proportion of how huge it really was. Soon, we were graced with a beautiful sunrise above the clouds and the crater.

Sunrise from Haleakala mountain ~10k feet high

Haleakala crater

Biking down Haleakala mountain

Biking down Haleakala mountain: Most beautiful bicycle ride ever for myself

If the sunrise was a beautifully serene time then now an adventure awaited us. From the visitor center about seven thousand feet high, we were going to ride a bicycle to sea-shore level where we had boarded the bus. We were given motorcyclist-style helmets and a couple of sturdy bikes. In the beginning it was zoom-zoom down the slopes. Soon enough, we were cycling down green mountains through the clouds with valleys overlooking the ocean on our side. Just when we reached close to the shore level, we came across "Lavender cafe". After freshening ourselves with lavender flavored coffees, we had about fifteen more miles to ride. We started pedaling down the road enjoying the view but soon enough the variety of climates gave us a nice jolt. It started raining cats and dogs! By the time we returned our bikes, we were completely (and happily) soaked in mud and water. We spent rest of the day in a relatively relaxed way, with some shopping around in the evening.

Local bamboo art

Next day, we woke up early (I guess we never woke up late during the vacation) and after some heavy breakfast at Grandma's coffee house (exactly 100 year old), we went to nearby Ulupalakua winery. Since pineapple has been a specialty of Hawaii, here a lot of varieties of wines are made from pineapples instead of grapes. A wine-induced buzz on top of Hawaii-induced elation made for some great (and forgotten) chat, going around on walkways surrounded by lavender flowers overlooking the pacific ocean down the hills.

Ulupalakua winery: Love among lavenders

Having spent a good deal of time going up and down the slopes of Southeast Maui and Haleakala, it was now a time to dive deeper in Maui.

Hawaii: Mana to Hana

We: What would you suggest about how much time each of these places could take?

A Hana resident: We don't really worry about time here. You go someplace. You stay there as long as you feel like. Then you go to the next one. Come back end of the day. 

Fight-or-flight is said to be one of the survival strategies of living beings in the face of a threat. In the face of imminent travel, our strategy normally is fight-and-flight. Before flight, we are always in some fight-kind-of-a-situation and this trip was no different. Five days before we left, one of us realized that there is a deadline within next five days which had been totally forgotten earlier. This was a big fight with a truckload of work. As a result, we did not start packing before the midnight of our 5 am flight. It is kind of a miracle that we managed to pack stuff without losing our tempers (and this miracle also includes not forgetting our toothbrushes!)

The flight was just like any 12+ hours flight you may have taken (and probably doesn't need more description than that). We landed at Kahului airport of Maui island around noon and rented a car. One of the great tips she had read while planning the trip was about buying some groceries to last for 4-5 days before we begin exploring. Thanks to a great soul called Jonathan she had met during her Mexico trip, we went to a shop called Mana foods. Three things stood out in Mana Foods:

1. Very fresh local food as well as all the usual grocery items, with most of the prices less than mainland US (how?)!
2. A board saying "Keep your hugs limited to one minute". We came to know later that the town has a huge hippie-like culture.
3. Ah, beautiful free-spirited girls wearing dresses that say a lot of things without printed slogans. Both of us objectively decided that Mana Foods supermarket was the place to recommend to our bachelor friends visiting that town instead of any other joint. This observation was confirmed after our second visit later during the trip.

Having bought groceries, we drove to "Peace of Maui" airbnb in nearby Makawao town via a road with lush greenery on both sides. We checked in there, and we immediately started falling in love with Hawaii. Who wouldn't after seeing Mango, Orange, Banana, Lime trees and an open offer from the caretaker that "take and eat whatever you like"?

Mango tree at Peace of Maui: She doing what she does

Beginning to feel Aloha at Peace of Maui

We woke up the next day to birds' songs at 5 am and hit the Road To Hana.

Road To Hana needs to be capitalized.

• The vegetation on the way is so dense that you actually feel like an intruder. At many places, the road is actually one-lane where one of the drivers might need to wait or go back to let the other vehicle pass. Plenty of hairpin bends. Plenty of places with 16 kmph (10 mph) speed limit.
• Waterfalls on the way!
• Ocean! After a while, you drive on curvy road cliffs with deep blue ocean on one side and the crazy vegetation on the other side.

Road To Hana: one of the waterfalls

If Road To Hana doesn't make you delirious, probably very few things will. We reached the remote Hana village and immediately headed to Red Sands Beach. It is a beach where a natural stone barrier separates blue turbulent ocean and serene, clean sea-water. Hana being a really remote place, you don't see much touristy-crowd.

Red Sands Beach at Hana: The beach, the barrier and red sand

After bathing at Red Sands Beach, it was our turn to go to "Thai Food by Pranee", which is probably one of the three places to eat in the town and looks like a mere shelter. Unexpectedly, great home-made Thai food! But what knocked me down was Hibiscus juice! Blessed is the place where people drink Hibiscus juice. By the way, in Maui you see Hibiscus everywhere of every size and color, it is the state flower of Hawaii.

The Man Who Thought He Knew Infinity While Drinking Hibiscus Juice

After a spiritual glass of Hibiscus juice, we went to check in at our place-to-stay. It was a time to panic. Well, see, since all the places in Hana were above 500 dollars a night (there are like two hotels in the town), we had booked a relatively inexpensive cabin in the farm via airbnb. This turned out to be a mosquito-net tent with a steel roof on the top and absolutely no trace of lights or electricity around. We debated for a while whether we should sleep in the car but decided (thanks to you-know-who) to take the leap into the unknown. We explored Hana a bit and at night we slept in that mosquito-net pitch dark tent with mosquitos humming outside and weird unknown sounds for the company. Soon it started raining cats and dogs so the steel shelter added a rhythm to the polyphony of sounds. However, we were so tired that we slept like stones... only to wake up to a cool breeze and a multitude of bird sounds (which I have to say is one of the most pleasant things ever).

Having been knocked head-over-heels so far by Road To Hana, Red Sands beach and the pitch-dark tent, we were only wondering about what lies ahead when we hit to road again to go past Hana.

Hawaii Prologue: It Gets Dangerous!

She is more of a nomad than me, I guess. If she doesn't get to see a new place for a while, she gets restless like a fish without water. And it had been a while without a big travel, so very apparent! Then came a day when it got all dangerous and the question popped up (imagine a cute but dangerous voice): "Why don't we go to Hawaii?"

After my customary sequence of excuses 1) No, its too much money 2) No, I don't think I have time 3) Ummm, really? 4) Hmmm, okay, maybe 5) (Waste few days dilly-dallying) -- finally the day of reckoning came around, when I said let us plan. What I meant was: "Why don't you plan?".

She loves planning for travel (I sometimes wonder if she gets more pleasure from travel-planning than the actual travel). Soon enough, there came detailed Google docs, with pictures and possible plans. Soon enough, there were disagreements about which Hawaiian island we want to visit: Big Island or Maui. All travel combinations were tried and finally we settled for Maui (which turned out to be really good decision later, not only because Maui is awesome but also because a volcano near-erupted on the Big Island as we traveled). Now Google docs got expanded with day-by-day plan of Maui. Bookings were done and tickets were purchased.

In some moment of insanity, I had agreed to go for snorkeling during the trip. Then she tossed me into swimming classes which helped me get plenty experience in failing to stay afloat (by the end of it, I promised myself not to go for snorkeling, the promise which I thankfully broke). Most importantly, I got introduced to a new world of contact lenses, because one cannot wear spectacles while snorkeling. Then came Maui Jim sunglasses, which are equally loved by snobs and discerning enthusiasts (we believe we fall in the latter category). Then she did shopping (say this sentence slowly and loudly in your mind). I suspect shopping is her way of replenishing the energy lost while planning the trip, for me obviously not so. I got introduced to the concepts such as packing cubes, multipurpose backpacks, sun-proof shirts. After digesting these concepts and spending some money, we were all ready to go within next five days!!

~~~
P.S.: My new travel buddies (introduced by her):

1) Osprey Porter 46 travel backpack (defies laws of physics, can fit soooooo much stuff!)

2) Packing cubes (which now substitute my usual way of cramming plastic bags)

3) Quick-dry, vented, 40 SPF long-sleeve shirt (offers as good protection as a sunscreen as well as keeps you ventilated, both things very important in Hawaii)

Welcome

Welcome to the the world of two restless nomads!