Aloha!!

Aloha !!!!

Pit-stop Number 2: Hawaii
Time Spent: 4 days – 2 days at Kona (west coast), 2 days at Volcano (east coast)
Place: Big Island
Overall Feedback:
Hyped – Yes. Over-hyped – No way! The islands deserve every bit of praise that they get.

We landed at Honolulu International (HNL), and had a connecting commuter flight to Kona airport, which is one of the two main airports of the Big Island. The approach to HNL was beautiful…sorry, but can't upload pictures right now since I'm stuck with a dial-up connection...

We had about 4 hours to kill between the two flights, and decided to give a shot at our plan of saving $ by eating cup-o-noodles every so often. What followed was quite an interestingly spent half-an-hour, with us trying to get hot water for the noodles. Our first attempt was at a snack and coffee stall, whose owner told us that she’d charge us a couple of bucks for the water. Trying to be totally cheap, we told her thanks but no thanks, and moved on to a bar at the airport. The sweet girl over there initially turned down our request, but after some senti from us around how cruel the airport food stalls were to vegetarians like us, she relented. Our happiness didn’t last too long though, as the owner told us that the hot water machine was broken, and that it had a habit of not stopping once it started. This was supported by the narration of an incident when the machine nearly flooded the bar with its hot water. Not wanting to bring upon such a fate on our co-patrons of the bar, I tried going back to the coffee stall. This time the woman told me that the hot water wasn’t hot enough for the noodles. This led me back to the bar, where I asked the girl if she could microwave the noodles for us. The girl seemed to like the idea, but realized that she didn’t have any utensils to heat it in for us! So we finally said a big Mahalo to her for trying so hard, and decided to give one last shot to the coffee stall. We tried the hot water, and it was just fine. Moreover, the new person who was there didn’t’ charge us a dime, and we were finally successful in our aim of getting snacks on the cheap! Mission Accomplished!

Anyway, after that brief hot water search, we took our quick 45 min flt to Kona, and got to see some amazing views of the Big Island, which is completely made of volcanic eruptions. Much of the island even now is covered with black volcanic ash. On the big island, our time was split evenly between the west coast, which has the better weather and beaches, and the east coast, which houses the wettest city in the US as well as the world’s most active volcano. The water everywhere was an amazing blue in color. We spent much of the second day kayaking and snorkeling. We kayaked for about 45 minutes to get to Captain Cook’s monument, which was erected in fond remembrance of Mr. Cook who breathed his last at the shores of the Big Island. We were not too sure if we wanted to snorkel or not, especially given the fact that I can’t swim, but decided to take the gear after much cajoling by the guy at the rental shop. After reaching the monument and seeing a fair bunch of snorkelers around, I decided to give it a shot, and boy – was I richly rewarded or what! There was just an outstanding number of brightly colored fish, zig-zagging their way around beautiful cities made of corals. I was totally amazed at the amount of color and brightness that was hidden under the monochromatic blue ocean! M also decided to give it a try, and claims that she saw a 2 feet sea turtle. Since I had used up the entire film in our waterproof camera, she couldn’t click a pic of the turtle, and we thus have no proof if there’s any truth behind those claims. As far as I am concerned, I can’t wait to develop that film and get to see the pictures.

Next stop at the Big Island was the Waipeo valley, which was heavily covered with clouds and fog. It was quite a serene place, and we wished that the weather had been better. We met a lady there who was weaving small baskets of coconut tree leaves who proudly told us that she had seen honeymooners buy a gift from her, only to return to her to buy more of the baskets when they were celebrating their 10th or even their 15th anniversaries in Hawaii!

We wrapped up our stay at the Big Island with trips to the Akaka falls and to the volcano. We met an interesting guy at the Akaka falls who was selling some shells to visitors. Apparently he was in the business of collecting these special shells that were only found at the edge of cliffs and other scary spots close to the waterfall. He would then sandpaper these shells until they became super smooth and reflective, and started showing some beautiful patterns. Overall, it was pretty cool stuff and an interesting story. Of course, we didn’t buy anything.

We went to watch the volcano in the night, to see it do what it has been doing for the last 25 years – sputter out red hot volcano. We were told that this has led to a continuous increase in the size of the island, and as a result, locals no longer consider the volcano as a threat – they in fact consider the volcano as a steady source of creation. Although the sight was beautiful, both of us were a bit underwhelmed, largely because we expected that we would get to see flowing lava. I guess it was just a matter of too high an expectation!

And thus ended our trip to Hawaii. I can’t wrap this up without putting a good word for the lovely hosts of our B&B at the volcano – My Island B&B. Kii was an amazing hostess, and we absolutely adored her sumptuous breakfasts. It was also an interesting experience having breakfast with travelers from across the globe. Our neighbors at the breakfast table were a family spanning three generations that had decided to meet up in Hawaii as a mid-point. The grandparents had flown in from New Zealand, and the parents and kids coming in from North Carolina. The interesting part was that the flight time was longer for the NC’ians than the Kiwis, and yet all that the American got were cold drinks and pretzels, thanks to all their flights being domestic!

On day 5, we got up really early, freshened up, picked up the breakfast that our lovely hosts had put in the refrigerator for us, and drove to Hilo airport for our flight back to HNL, from where we jumped on to our flight to Kuala Lumpur through Seoul. As we left, we were totally certain that we were going to come back to Hawaii pretty soon. The next time, I’d make sure to have my pilot’s license under the belt, so that we could do some island hopping in a rental plane.

Step One, Part Deux

Here's the story...continuing where I left off (in the bay area)...

The next morning started with a reunion of bay area IIT & GSB junta at the Santana road mall. D was given “birthday bumps” IIT style (D’s birthday – Santana Road Chapter), and when I started to scream for help from bystanders and mall-goers, I was taken to a back alley loading dock – total mob style. Despite the pitai – especially from the surprise visitor (Chinkey Verma) and from Bha (Oh yes – don’t think I didn’t notice you. I have full video of you using Him’s chappal with full force) – it was difficult to not feel nostalgic of IIT days.

Then there was some great family time. Mittu Di baked a delicious cake, which once again I was not too keen on sharing with others. The aarti/tikaa by Preeta Di was a great traditional touch – couldn’t remember when was the last time someone did that on my birthday! And the chaat-tokaris were to die for…

By this time, we had repeated our complete itinerary to so many people in HimBha’s presence that Him had the whole thing memorized, right to the minute details, and had taken upon himself to answer all questions related to our trip plans. Pigeon meanwhile proved that she was a person of few needs, and could even live happily in a small tent. She was found comfortably occupying a nice, cosy home with our own in-house magician.

We then went over to the house mansion of Preeta Di’s. This place was so huge that you could sleep in the closets! And surprise surprise, we came to know that Jijaji had actually done that once! The bathrooms were largely self-sufficient units by themselves, and we suggested that they might want to think about installing an LCD TV and a microwave in them as well….

Thus ended the first leg of our trip….to be followed by a wonderful stay in the Big Island of Hawaii

The First Pit-stop

Its August 19th today, and I am running seriously behind on my goal of having the blog updated at least once in three days. I guess it requires a good deal of discipline to write up something while you are on a vacation ;)

Anyway, right now it is 5:30 in the morning, and we are all packed and ready inside our suite in the SIN – KUL overnight train. If someone had told me 2 years back that I would be up, had a shower, and be all packed up at this hour – and that too on a vacation – it would have been really difficult to believe the story. But here we are!

Ok, so coming back to where I left off – which was just before leaving Chicago. We did manage to get most of our tasks accomplished by the 8th, bid adieu to our wonderful host in Chicago (DKC – I’m already missing the morning teas!), took the cab, did not get stuck in traffic despite it being 4pm on a Friday (Tip for Chicago visitors – avoid O’Hare as much as you can - Midway is way more convenient to get to, and is less congested), and ultimately boarded the Southwest flight to Oakland well on time.

There was a nice little reunion with HimBha at OAK. Bha was sporting two colorful, fluorescent band-aids on her arm, with a print of Jimmy neutron or Mickey Mouse or whatever it is that the girls look at on a band-aid and find incredibly cute! The band-aids were the only remaining indication of the yellow fever and other vaccinations that Bha had got, in her preparations for their trip to Brazil. (Wow – I wonder why I have never been sent to such exotic places on work related visits. As a contrast, my last work visit was to Columbus, Ohio…Oh, the rocking life of a management consultant!)

Him was looking thinner than usual – which he claimed to be the result of an optical illusion due to his body-hugging t-shirt. We argued about it for a while, and then started calling up our Big Oil Executive turned chauffeur (Prerna). She turned up, we debated if we could squeeze in 6 bags plus five people plus two beach chairs in a mid-size sedan; learned that we could; sat in the car, and then Ms. Pigeon (Prerna) gave us the great news – “Yaar thodee see fight hai. The brakes in this car don’t seem to be working, ‘coz I was driving the car with the handbrake on!!” Ha-ha Hee-hee followed, 6 bags + five adults + 2 beach chairs got out of the car, the rental car was exchanged, 6 bags + five adults + 2 beach chairs again got into another car, and we finally left the airport at 1am. And then came the drive. Pigeon must have felt that we travelers needed a dose of adrenaline to wake us up, and hence gave us a glimpse of some crazy driving, which included

- driving on the wrong side of the road,
- driving with two wheels on the curb, and
- taking hairpin turns at double the recommended safe speed.

Needless to say, the strategy worked, and all of us were wide awake and on the edge of our seats within minutes. Bha, M and I all agreed that it was a good idea to let Him take the front passenger seat to witness this superb demonstration of night-time rally driving. Moreover, we also unanimously agreed that it would be better if we let him take the front driver seat in the future.

Miraculously, we reached home in one piece ;) (No offence intended Pigeon – I still believe that you are a good driver. It was Him who was the doubter). After that, it was all fun and birthday celebrations. Pigeon had made this wonderful cheesecake which I was quite reluctant in sharing with anyone else. The Gobi Manchurian was also out-of-this-world – a phrase that you can apply to pretty much whatever Pigeon cooks. Next day involved getting six people (five of us plus Pigeon’s roommate) into an SUV to drive up to Napa. Fortunately or unfortunately, this drive was rather uneventful, and had a nice time taking winery tours and tasting wines.

Update as of Aug 7th

Alright, here's the latest update (as of Aug 7th):

Get visas: Check
Sell off D’s lovely convertible: Check
Vacate Apartment, move belongings to storage, find new apartment and sign-lease: Check
Buy camcorder, binoculars, spare camera batteries, tripod: Check
Get yellow fever and typhoid vaccines, get malaria tablets: Check
Purchase summer reading: Check
Meet up with friends and bid them adieu: Check
Celebrate D’s birthday – "the Chicago Chapter": Check

So it’s official now: we are now two bums on the road! We have vacated our apartment, canceled all monthly utilities, and sold off our car (well, one of them)!

Lessons learned (yes, in typical consultant fashion, in three bullets):

• Amazon Prime is quite cool – at least the one month free trial. You can order stuff in the evening on day 0, and get it delivered on day 2
• Most doctors are wonderful, but some are more wonderful than others
• Never underestimate the amount of effort that goes into packing the kitchen

By the way, for anyone who’s interested, here’s our summer reading.

It’s not about the bike: Lance Armstrong
The Good Guy: Dean Koontz
Moscow Rules: DeSilva
When you are engulfed in flames: David Sedaris

As you can see, I’ve balanced out different themes and genres. Koontz is the only author that has been able to scare me shitless through his writing. Sedaris is just too funny – have read all of his books, and have also been to his performance in Chicago. His live performances come highly recommended from both of us – his speech delivery complements his hilarious essays superbly! You have to listen to his “Six to Eight black men” to comprehend his comedic genius. Lance Armstrong’s story is an inspiring one that I have wanted to read up for a long time. A few unfortunate recent incidents in the lives of a few friends have furthered my interest in knowing more about his battle with cancer. DeSilva is a new author for me – should be an interesting read – gets great reviews.

There’s another book that I have been wanting to read – The Last Lecture. Might pick it up if we finish the four mentioned above before the end of our trip.

Reviews on the books will be coming up as we read them.

Here we go again!

Open it.

Go ahead, it won’t bite.
Well…maybe a little.

More a nip, like. A tingle.
It’s pleasurable, really.

You see, it keeps on opening.
You may fall in.

Sure, its hard to get started;
Remember learning to use Knife and fork?

Dig in:
You’ll never reach bottom

It’s not like it’s the end of the world-

just the world as you think you know it.

(Rita Dove)

And so we get started: the bookings are done, the bags are packed, spare batteries have been arranged, visas have been obtained, and, most importantly, good-byes and hugs have been warmly exchanged. After months of dreaming, researching, planning, and executing, we are now off on our long vacation around the globe. And accompanying us on this trip right now are feelings of excitement, anticipation, and – yes, I’ll admit it – a tad bit of anxiety.

Here’s a little bit of background for anyone who randomly drops onto this blog (although I don’t expect that to happen). We – Neha (‘M’) and I (Saurabh – ‘D’) – are a couple that has been living in Chicago for the last three years. I recently finished my MBA program at the Chicago GSB, and the two of us decided that we deserved to take a break before jumping back into a “normal” life. So we started throwing around names of countries that we had always wanted to visit, and before we had realized, we had a pretty extensive travel plan ready for us. What followed was a crazy amount of researching that involved quite a few trips to the local Barnes and Noble to go through Lonely Planets, and visiting tripadvisor.com to read up on travelers’ feedback. This led to the final trip plan that covered Hawaii, some far-east, fair bit of Africa, and a bit of Eurasia:

Aug 8th: Bid adieu to summers at Chi-town
8th – 11th: Weekend in SFO, celebrate D’s birthday (Aug 9th) with friends and family
11th – 15th: Hawaii – Big Island
15th – 19th: Malaysia and Singapore
19th – 29th: Family Time at Jodhpur (India)
Aug 30th – Sep 1st: Egypt
Sep 2nd – Sep 11th: Kenya & Tanzania
11th – 14th: Zanzibar spice islands
14th – 21st: South Africa
21st – Oct 2nd: Turkey, Greek Islands, Athens
Oct 2nd – Oct 5th: Paris
Oct 5th: Back to Chi-town