Oahu

We spent the last day of our vacation at Oahu. We had around 16 hours. And it is the right amount of time to spend in Oahu ;-)

Oahu is very different from Maui and Kauai. It is very developed - I have never seen 8 lane roads - not even in main land. The traffic was terrible. The place was concrret-y like the rest of the US. You hardly feel you are in Hawaii.

On the positive side, there was a lot of good eats and beaches. You can drive to any corner of the island. We went to the flea market. It was quite a sight. For people from Chennai, it was like Burma bazzar and Ranganathan street put together. I was so glad, I did not buy anything in the other islands coz things were so cheap at the flea market. I bought a Hawaiian dress for $8 - a dress for $8 - can you believe that. I got a beautiful sarong for $5. And shell necklaces were 12 for $7. T-shirts were $3 each. Of course, everything is made in China.

We then drove to the north shore to a beach called Sunset beach. True to its name, the sunset for beautiful. The ocean was very rough and the winds were strong. I have never seen such rough waters - and I have lived next to ocean for 21 years. The waves were well above 30 feet. The waves were hitting each other from all directions that it looked like the was boiling. The only other time, I felt so scared and helpless looking at the waters was right after Tsunami. I remember going to the beach next to my house 6 hours after Tsunami. The water had receded by like 500 feet, unlike other places where it consumed land. The water was just boiling in fury. I really thought the ocean was angry. I wonder, how the people living on the ocean front property live in peace when they see such rough seas and wind.

On the way back, we had shave ice -not shaved ice - anyways, both are bad - the shave ice is slightly better than shaved ice if you want me to rate them. We had some awesome garlic shrimp from the famous north shore trucks. We returned the car and was right on time for our flight back home.

I couldn't have asked for a better vacation. It was the right amount of time in each island and we got into the flight just in time when I thought it went so well that I want to return home and treasure the experience. Everything about was perfect - hmmm.. expect for the speeding ticket. Long live the town of Paia with our humble donation.

Long live the beauty of the land and sea and sky. I hope we do not destroy Hawaii and our planet for our kids and their kids and their kids. Thanks to Hawaii for motivating me to write in my blog. It took me one year to name my blog and 6 months to write anything in it - and a paradise on earth to write something meaningful in it.