Maui

Karu and I went to Hawaii in Jan, 2010 for a vacation. It is the best vacation of my life. We visited Maui, Kauai and Oahu. Hawaii reminds us of our earth before we, humans, started destroying it. It is as close to nature as I have ever been.

We used a travel guide called Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty. I do recommend this book. In addition to the the travel book, we used my iPhone for directions, reviews etc.

After 16 hours of travel, we reached Maui. Maui is one of the most commercialized islands of Hawaii. However, it is still close to nature with all the luxuries, unlike Oahu which is concrete-y and doesn't feel like an island. Kauai is less developed than Maui and you pay higher prices for stuff (expect lodging - which is low due to the competition and lesser number of tourists).

Day one of our vacation, we did The Road to Hana. We rented a Jeep for a day based on some reviews suggesting it is the best way to drive to Hana (not worth it - read the post on Hawaii Transport). It took us for ever to figure ut how to remove the soft top of the jeep. And it wasn't just us. We saw may people on the way struggling with it and we meet some couples who shared similar feelings about the top.

People recommend that you start by 6:00AM for the drive on Road to Hana. Guess what, we started at 10:00 and we did fine. We started driving towards Road to Hana and was stopped by a cop. We got a heavy ticket for driving in a 20 zone at 40. And everyone was driving at 40. Who drives at 20 in a downhill? It was a speed trap and the obvious-looking tourists in Jeep has to pay to run the town of Paia.

The road to Hana is rated the number one scenic drive in the US and it lives upto the hype. The road itself is only 32 miles but it easily takes 3 hours to drive as its narrow and winding along the mountains on one side and the ocean/bay on the other side. I have been in couple of scenic drives in California and Michigan. After an hour, I was like - okay, I know its pretty and all - lets just get to the destination. But Road to Hana wasn't like that. You just cannot get enough of the lush forest and the waterfalls and the clear blue ocean and bays on either side. It was really Pandora (from avatar) for real. The movie was not far fetched. It happened in a place called Hawaii. My favourites along the way:

1) Look out for the orange African tulip trees. They stand out bright and orange among the green forest.

2) There are these creepers that cover the tall tress. They have board leaves. The beauty it adds to the scenery - neither words nor photos can describe it.

3) Banana bread

We followed Maui revealed, stopped at water falls and bays and some food stands and fruit stands and made it all the way to Wai'anapanapa State Park. We saw the lava rocks and took a dip in the pebble beach. I hated the idea of pebble beach as the water hits you with all the pebbles. Otherwise, the national park was okay. We saw some guy stealing the leaves from the plants in the national park. It felt like India. The book suggests some detours through private land. We decided to respect the locals and their privacy and skipped it. On the way back, it started raining heavily. We decided to get drenched rather than go through the hassle of putting the soft top of the Jeep back. Eventually we stopped and went through the laborious process of putting the top back, only for the rain to stop in 5 minutes!!

Road to Hana is a must-do. I will do it again if I am in Maui. I will probably stay in Hana, so I can check out more stuff on the way.

Day 2, we woke up early and did a snorkeling/sNuba (not scuba) trip to Molikini crater. The weather was too bad to snorkel at Molikini. So we headed to coral gardens. This is the first time, Karu and I were doing proper snorkeling (last time , it was Florida, we snorkeled with the Manatees at 5 feet deep water!). We did the tout with Aqua Adventures. Unlike, other big boats with a million people on board, they have a small boat with 20 people and personal attention. We really needed it as we do not know swimming. One of the crew members stayed with us 10 minutes till we were comfortable in water. I was the first to get down in water. I had a couple of water noodles to help me float. I put on my snorkel glass and mouth piece and my fins, got into the water. Now the guide said, breath through your mouth and put your face into the water. I did - and what I saw - was just AMAZING and unbelievable. All those colors of corals reefs and hundreds of fishes - of all possible colors I know of. OH MY GOD! It was just a second I was in under water and I couldn't really believe what I saw. I came up because I couldn't breath through my mouth. The guide was laughing at me - as I came out with wide eyes and trying to breath and screaming, oh my god - it is so pretty - is this really true - all at the same time! I eventually figured out to snorkel comfortably (its not very hard). We saw sea turtles, countless fishes and coral reefs. It was a treat to the eyes.

We will soon be affectionately called the Noodlers by the locals and tourists ;-) In salt water, one just floats. But we were paranoid and would take the noodle whenever we get into the water for snorkeling - even if the water is only 5 feet deep. We even lugged the two noodles from Maui to Kauai in the plane. Well, if you can give a hearty laugh for people around us - why not?

Once we were comfortable with Snorkeling, we moved on to the next part of the adventure - SNUBA. Snuba is a mix of snorkeling and scuba - for the weakling who cannot do scuba diving. The oxygen tank is tied to a raft and floats in water. You are attached via a 20 feet tube to the tank. It is very similar to snorkeling expect you can go deeper with the 20 feet tube connected to the oxygen tank. You do not need to know diving, you do not carry any heavy tanks with you, you do not need to take week long expensive classes to learn scuba - and you will not die if you hop into an airplane the same day :)

After the trip, we started coming back to the shore. But the adventure is not over yet. The humpback whales migrate to the Hawaiian ocean from Alaska during winter to live and reproduce. The water is full of whales. I am not exaggerating. It is just so full of whales, you can see the fountain from its back all over the water surface. DO NOT take one of these whale watching trips. Because if you are in water, you HAVE to see them. Any water adventure you do, you see them. We particularly got lucky as a calf came very close to the boat and its mom came to protect him. Our captain stopped the boat and we got to see the whales from like literally 10 feet. In Hawaii, all the sea creatures are protected and if you approach them or touch them, you pay a heavy fine of $20,000. But if they come to you, you watch them. Further on the way back, we saw more whales, more whale tricks and whale flapping their tail and more fountains. It was a satisfying trip. The trip motivated us to learn swimming and scuba diving.

In the evening, we went to the Old Lahaina Luau. I had mixed feelings about Luau when I read about them. But after being to one, I highly recommend it to all at least once. As for me, I am going there again :) The show itself was good. I have seen hula dance on TV and web. But when you see them for real, it was mind blowing - how well they could shake their hips without moving the rest of body and how co-ordinated they danced. The women were so pretty. They even taught me to do some hula dance (hip-shaking) steps - it was really hard. The food was amazing, the drinks were unlimited and the service was awesome. Our waiter was very friendly and funny. He made me realize how to love the work you do - because it is easy to love your work than you hate it - and it better for everyone around us. He is probably doing this everyday through the year. He probably fought his with wife at home. He probably had a really bad day. But when he put on his Luau attire and stepped in the grounds to serve the guests, he wears this perfect smile and a enthusiastic attitude to greet us. My moment of epiphany in a fancy luau ;-) And he earned his heavy tip :-) We saw the Kaula pig pulled out of the pit.

The guy at the Luau explaining the culture was a native. He had this sadness above this head - above the environment being destroyed and Hawaii losing its natural beauty. He did not come off as a negative person and made us appreciate the gift we have and our duty to protect them. He made me cry at how we humans are greedy. Well, its not just him. But the beauty of the place and the memories of the movie Avatar and you see it all for real. We humans just suck. We suck so bad. We cannot live in harmony. We have to kill, destroy and exploit - even if its for need, I can understand but we do it for luxury. I can understand killing animals for fur 1000 years ago for survival in the cold - okay whatever - its for survival. But why will you kill for luxury and sports. Why will you kill an elephant to make a display item out of its trunk. Your dining room will not lose anything without a expensive display piece from a dead animal. I promised myself, I would never ever buy anything that encourages/leads to killing of an animal. The least we could do. Nature is so pretty. I lived next to an ocean all my life but never knew the sea life is so abundant and beautiful. I lived in the tropics for 21 years and never knew the land I lived on was once as pretty as this. I lived half a mile from the beach. I have never seen the waters so calm and so rough, and I have never seen so much emotions in the land and water around you. One of the local (who was very friendly) told me she kisses the land she walk on and she is happy to be alive. When you live so close to nature, you understand it takes fraction of a second for Nature to wipe you out. We live in big cities and all we know is concrete. In the process, we have forgotten to respect Mother Nature. I went to a farmers market in Maui. Maui is not known for its farmers market. They has minimal stuff. There was this couple selling the fruits and they were so rude to us. Initially, I was shocked, people in a tourist town can be so rude to the tourist. I can understand. They HATE the tourists and our guts. We destroy their land and sea. I heard the fish population is down by 20% in the last 10 years. This experience made me alittle scared of the locals and I avoided them in the fear that they would shout at me at any moment. Man is to be admired for what he has achieved. But his greed and ruthless destruction of the land he belongs to - is incomprehensible.

The next day, we rented our own snorkel gear and ventured out to snorkel on our own. We went to a random beach. The coral were like a feet away from the shore. They were half a feet under the water surface. And they were everywhere. We freaked out when we started to snorkel and we were right above the coral. If you touch them or kick them, you kill them. We struggled to get out of there. We eventually figured out a clearing where you could see the corals from the sides and not from the top. There were so many fishes and sea life in and on the coral. It was quite a sight.

Tip: If you wear fins and swim in the beach, the beach sand could get in between the fins and your skin and bruise it. So wear a fin sock. It would save some band-aids and skin :)

In the evening, we drove up to the Haleakala crater. The drive was quite steep with a lot of hair pin bends. The terrain was pretty with a lot of meadows and fields. It eventually gets dry and lifeless. It was so cool to see that the clouds are all below us as we climb up. It was surreal. I had to hold Karu's hands to make sure I wasn't floating away or anything.The sunset experience was horrible. The problem is you know the sunset is so awesome. The colors are wonderful. I have never seen the sky so orange and yellow. But the sun goes down behind the astronomical center and it was very frustrating. We waited for an hour till it became dark and did star gazing. It was so amazing. I have never seen such wonderful star lit sky. You could milky way band with naked eyes. You see so many stars. I have heard and read about light pollution but never really understood it as I never knew what I was missing. Again, we must be cursed to be missing such a sight everyday and to live the way we live. Haleakala is one of those rare places where you can drive to the top of a 10 thousand feet mountain and the sky is so clear as Maui is not so badly polluted by city lights. The drive back down was terrifying. This is the first time, I was terrified with driving down a mountain. I have always enjoyed the thrill of hair pin bends and driving in slopes. But this one was too much for me. I kept my eyes shut for the most part part. It was the altitude and the black sinister looking clouds all around you - especially when these huge chunk of clouds move. The hair pin turns was tortorous that I felt like I was just going to fall into a black hole. Thank god, Karu was confident and did not share any of my emotions and we drove back to civilization safely. One of the over rated things in Maui is biking down the Haleakala crater - point one - you are not biking down the crater. You are biking down the road. They stopped the biking down crater thing two years ago. I saw the current bike lane and you must be seriously stupid to pay $60 to come down that lane. The probability of getting hit it too high and the minimal adrenaline rush to come down that lane is not even worth it. I heard the sunrise is an ethereal experience from Haleakala summit. There were too many factors involved in getting the sunrise experience right that we decided to skip it. Also I do not enjoy dry land as much as the forest and water - its just not my thing. I didn't like the Grand Canyon too.

Day three, we had a relaxing breakfast and left for Kauai. Do not miss my post on Hawaii transportation for a good laugh on the Go! airways flop show.

Tip: Maui is an expensive place to shop. Do not buy Lei for more than a dollar. Do not buy sun dress for more than $17. Do not buy a sarong for more than $5. Do not buy Hawaiian necklace/chain for more than $5. Swap meets/flea markets have better rates than malls.