Vacationing in Maui

Our trip to Hawaii was awesome, very good change.  We went to the island of Maui, among 8 islands that form Hawaii.  This island has a dormant volcano, forming mountains which has rainforests on the windward side, and an arid side, on the leeward side of the mountain.  Our resort is right on the Pacific Ocean.  The only occupation in Hawaii is agriculture and tourism.  They mainly have sugarcane, pineapple, macademia nuts plantations.  They aso have lots of palm, coconut, plantain, hibiscus, bamboo and tons of other tropical plants/trees.

We left Pgh on Friday morning around 6am, and reached our resort by 6pm Hawaiin time.  We were pretty tired, and just had a shower, and headed to find dinner.  There was a kutti food court just behind our resort, so we found something to eat there.  Our resort had a lot of facilities, including swimming pools, spa where one could get massages and use the sauna/steam room etc.  They also had a fitness center with tons of treadmills, and other equipment.  It was well designed with water running all through the resort.  The people there were super-friendly, and most people are tourists in Hawaii.  We hit the  bed pretty early that nite (around 8pm).

Next day morning (Saturday), we realized how good the view from our room was, we had a partial view of the ocean and a partial view of the moutains and a golf course.  We went down for breakfast, which was very filling, then ventured out to see what all tours/packages they offered.  We signed up for some of the tours.  The same day around noon, we went on a submarine ride that took us about 150 feet underground.  We could feel the difference in air pressure, as my ears started popping.  But it was one of the few passenger submarines, it was small and cramped, but fun giong under the water to see the different sea life.  It was an amaznig experience.  Now, since the submarine itself was way into the ocean, we had to take a small boat to reach the Submarine.

After we were done with the submarine, we just hung around the grand old banyan tree, which is over a 150 years old.  Apparently some king brought it from India.  It has many roots and covers quite a lot of space in that area, providing shade and lots of activities take place over there through the years.

We came back after that, rested for a while.  Then I went in for a massage, for about 50 minutes.  It was great, a full body massage.  They do a good job, for sure !!  Came back, then Kamesh and I went to the beach, saw the sunset, and then just relaxed for a while.  Had a quick dinner and in the mall by our resort, there was this program that we saw.  Kids that learn the hula dance performed, and it was so cute.  The kids ranged from 7-15 years in age, I think.

Next day (Sunday), we took a bus to visit Hana.  Hana is just a small town with nothing to boast of, but the road to get there is what the ride is all about.  The raod is mostly one-lane, but 2 way traffic, very narrow roads, right by the cliff.  Sometimes, we were so close to the water, that I was sure we would fall in.   It was a scary drive, am glad it was not Kamesh that was driving it.  There were some unpaved roads as well.  The tour bus driver stopped at a few waterfalls, some pools where people could swim, some good landscape points to take pictures etc.  We spent the whole day on this tour, and came back around 6pm.     We headed out to dinner to a nearby mall, and as I was sitting in the car, I hurt my ear real bad on the car door.  The backscrew of my earring was jammed in all the way to the stem, and I couldnt remove my ear-ring.  It also hurt quite a bit.  We tried to borrow tools from some jewelery store to see if Kamesh could take it out, but he couldnt, and I wouldnt let him because of the pain.  Then, we came back to the resort after dinner, and asked if the concierge could help.  She couldnt, but she got me an appt with a doctor in the resort for the next day.  so, after dinner, we just slept off as I was still hurting and a little dizzy.   Next morning (Monday), we woke up, relaxed at the beach till the doc's appt, met the doc.  The doc managed to cut through the stem, so I cant use the thOdu anymore, and he applied some antiseptic cream over there... Slightly hurt, he also gave me antibiotics just in case, for a couple of days.   After that, we headed to our helicopter ride.  This was scary initially, I was sitting with the pilot in the first row, and Kamesh in the second row.   it was fun, once I got comfortable.  The pilot took us to the top of the crater, and also showed us the cliffs, and some of the coastline.   It was really breathtaking to view some of the things from up there...  We came back, and enjoyed the sunset once again.   Next day (Tuesday), we woke up at 2am and headed to the top of the crater where there's an observation deck from where the sunrise is said to be awesome.  We reached there around 5am, and then waited for the sun to come out.  Just as the sun was cmoing out, a big cloud came in front, so we couldnt see the sunrise that well.  But it was nice, and very cold, freezing over there.  The drive back was very scenic, since we could see the clouds beneath us.  We came back and slept off till about 4pm.  Then we got dressed and went to the luau (Hawaiin feast with dancing) program, that was on the beach for about 3 hours.  They had dances from 4 different Polynesian islands, and it was fun to be there...   We got back to our room around 9:30 and slept off.  Next day, we woke up early and headed back to Pgh.  The travel takes almost 15 hours with all the flight changes and layover time.  We were pretty tired when we landed this morning at 8am at home.  We just slept for a few more hours and came to work around noon.   In all, it was a relaxing trip and we had lots of fun.  Good place to relax with family.