Little Black Guidebook

We walked downstairs to the lobby and got in a van driven by a local surfer-boy. He rolled-down the windows and turned on the radio for the short 1 hour drive East from Waikiki beach. We drove-up through the mountains and the radio died as we popped into a tunnel and sat in silence for a few moments before popping out on the other-side to a view of the ocean meeting the mountains.

The small town of Kailua on Oahu’s East Coast is full of surfers like our van driver. In the summer the windy coastline allows them to kite-surf and in the winter the increased waves on the North-shore drive the scuba divers to the East side of the island in search of wrecks and whales. That morning our surfer-boy was taking us on a sea kayaking tour to look for Honu (Green Sea Turtles) and other marine animals in beautiful Kailua Bay while visiting the Mokulua islands.

Because of the time of year, the economy or maybe just sheer luck our group tour included just the two of us and our guide. There was another group with another company on the water that morning with 20 something kayaks to one guide. They had to go at the pace of the slowest kayakers and we quickly outpaced them, tacking on a trip to Popoia Island, a dedicated sea bird sanctuary on the way out to the Mokulaa Islands.

Once we reached the Mokulaa Islands and finished our lunch our guide turned to us and said, “Ok, now its time to jump off a cliff.” Now if you knew me personally you would know the fear that struck into the bottom of my heart. Falling and heights are some of my worst fears. But I’m trying to make life an adventure so I let him guide us on a hike around the island, climbing hand over hand along volcanic rock and barely clinging on at times. We reached a little cove with a rocky-ledge and sat down to take a break. The ledge was too high up for me to imagine jumping from so I sat there watching the waves and resting up for the hike to my inevitable jump. I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. We stood up to keep hiking and our guide asked: “Are you ready to jump?” “Say what?, huh?” I turned to my husband and said: “You first.” Without blinking he went for it, taking away my excuses, so I jumped.

Back on the beach we threw on our snorkels and found some sea turtles to watch. Even if you don’t feel like jumping off of a cliff you should stop baking on Waikiki and see more of this amazing island. If you want to hang with the same amazing surfer dudes that we did you should look up Hawaiian Water Sports.

All prices include life-vests, paddles, snorkel, seats, backrests, dry-bags, lunch, and transportation to and from your Waikiki hotel. $99 4 Hour Group Tour if you book online, about $30 more each if you book in person. If you’ve had experience kayaking before you can rent out a double kayak without a guide for just $39 a day + $10/day for a snorkel set. For us, that was a little too much adventure for our first time sea-kayaking, but we would definitely try a rental if we did it again.

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If you look at the tagline for this blog you’ll see that it is about making life an adventure. To me making life an adventure means that I do things that are sometimes outside my comfort zone. In Hawaii this meant trying scuba.

I swam in high school and snorkeled before, but had never tried scuba. I didn’t want a big group class, but I didn’t want to spend too much either. I ended up finding a structural engineer on sabbatical who is a professional scuba diver and under-water photographer in his new-found free-time. He teaches through Deep Ecology on the North Shore of Hawaii.

Deep Ecology is a full-service, five-star PADI Dive Center and a National Geographic recognized dive center, located on Oahu’s famous North Shore in historic Haleiwa. In addition to the classes they give they participate in environmental activism activities such as turtle rescues, ghost net recoveries and the creation of the North Shore’s first marine sanctuary.

Our intro to scuba class was held at Shark’s Cove on the North Shore. (so named because of the shape of the rock formations in the caves not because of the number of sharks) There were a bunch of other classes out there that day, but most of them were groups of 6-8 whereas ours cost no more and was just the two of us and the instructor. Also, they were all out of the water before us and didn’t go as far away from the shore. Since we weren’t held back by whoever was the least comfortable in our class we got to progress a lot further in our class, learning a few extra skills including confined diving in a lava cave with sea turtles.

After our class we chatted with our instructor about life on the North Shore, being an engineer in Hawaii and got a lunch recommendation. If you’re ever on the North Shore of Oahu with a hankering for Mexican look up Chollos Authentic Mexican. They have the best nachos and margaritas. I would drive the hour from Waikiki just for their nachos. Hubby loved their mojito as well.

I will admit I freaked out a little bit before getting used to it. But looking back it was one of the most amazing things I’ve done in a long time. We saw so much wildlife and a totally different view of our world. If we get another chance to go back to Hawaii we’ll definitely try and do our Open Water dive certification in 3 days.

Cost $109.00 for 1/2 day of scuba. $20 for lunch.

Not that I really have a choice of airlines most of the time, given Alaska Airlines near monopoly, but I found this table interesting:

via: http://lifehacker.com/5344215/the-safest-airlines-to-fly-on

I recently lost my iPod Video on a flight back from Mexico. After being mad at myself for a couple days for my carelessness I began to get excited because this would be my excuse to finally get an iPod Touch. I love my Nokia N95 phone, but I feel a little pang sometimes when I see an iPhone. Of course their battery life and general international pain-in-the-***ness keeps me from getting one, but I’ve been wanting to get an iPod touch and start using some of the nice apps and touch-screen goodness for awhile. Of course Alaska Airlines had to go and crush my dream by finding my iPod in my seat pocket and next day airing it to me. I didn’t even report it missing! That darn airline, they are too nice to their customers. Oh well. I’ll just have to wait. And I was so happy to read this post on iPhone/iPod Touch travel apps. *sigh* The list should also include the Tripit app, which as an avid Tripit user I’m dying to use.

I felt slightly guilty for going to Chicago and not posting anything about here. Since it is my third trip there I didn’t feel the need to take another day off of work to see the city so I just bugged in and out over a three day weekend. However, I don’t want to leave you empty handed. Here is a Matador network post on Chicago on a Budget and I will add the following. Staying downtown can be pricey. If you’re going for a short trip you’ll be going to and from downtown in a cab or on the “L” at least once to stay downtown. Instead I would suggest staying at the airport, taking the “L” downtown and seeing your sights and then taking the “L” back. If you’re only going to do this once roundtrip then you’ll save time as you already would have had one roundtrip just getting to your downtown hotel. Even if your event is downtown you can take the train downtown, go to your meeting or whatever, do your sight-seeing and return. Sleeping by the airport is also pretty convenient for early flights as you can’t depend on Chicago traffic if you’re in a cab and the “L” can be a pain the morning, especially with baggage. Waking up, checking out and walking straight to your gate after getting your boarding pass in the lobby couldn’t be easier. It really makes Chicago so much less of a hassle.

Any locals have some tips? I have always found Chicago to be difficult to budget travel.

Yesterday’s post on traveling to the Bush reminded me of this website on travel etiquette. Some people have really negative experiences when they travel because they have expectations that aren’t met and because they don’t make the effort to understand the culture they are going to before they travel. Check it out here.

Sorry for the general lack of posting in the last week. I got back from a quick 3 day trip to Chicago (not really worth posting about because I spent the entire trip in the Airport hotel) and then flung myself into work before going out on a work trip. This was my first time visiting an Alaskan village and I wish I had more time to explore. My biggest experience was with village travel and small planes.

Left FAI (Fairbanks) for ANC (Anchorage) the night before, slept in ANC for a few hours and then flew to BET (Bethel) at 7am in a 737 which was half full of cargo. Then was put on a 4 man Cessna charter and flew at about 500 ft. out to MOU (Mountain Village) which took about an hour. It was like a flight-seeing tour over a completely alien landscape. I fly over Alaska all the time, but the view is different when you’re above the clouds in a 737 than it is when you can see the moose a couple of hundred feet below you. The flight out was freezing cold as the door barely closed and the window leaked air through a couple inch gap. I plugged some of the holes in the plane with napkins so that I wasn’t being sprayed with water that was running through the gap in the window and that helped a bit. Pretty miserable, but got great views. Unfortunately my camera was in my bag below the plane so I was taking photos with my camera phone. The N95 takes pretty good photos, but I would still have preferred by camera. I about lost it out the door when I dropped it during some turbulence, but rescued it just in time.

I was boots on the ground from 11am until 3:45pm when it was time to go meet the plane. Now if you’ve only flown commercial flights in and out of major cities you need to reset your mental picture of this. Basically 3 trucks with people who were on the outgoing flight pull up to this big gravel pad a little ways outside the village. There are some lights stuck in the ground and a windsock, no terminal, no staff, nothing. Eventually one of the other trucks pull up and say they just spoke to the airline on their radio (from their car) and that the plane is delayed by an hour (or so) so we continue sitting there. Eventually everyone gets out of their trucks and starts talking, a few people walk off to the side of the gravel pad an pick some wild blueberries for snack food on the plane. Nobody stresses, because really there isn’t anything you can do about it. Eventually someone hears something and we all go quiet. You can hear a motor coming and eventually someone spots the plane. When it lands and the passengers get out, we realize its full of all the teachers who are coming back to work at the village school. Talk about packing light, they have to live for a school year out of a duffle bag, no rollybags in sight and no, there won’t be any other bags coming on future flights. At $1.35/pound, you learn to condense your needs into as little luggage as possible.

This plane is huge compared to the one I came in on, it holds all of 8 people and is a slightly larger Cessna. Still no oxygen masks or boarding passes, but hey the doors actually seal. The only thing they ask before boarding is “How much do you weight?” This time I have my camera, but the flight is higher off of the ground since the plane is larger. Midflight the pilot turns around and yells back that our connection from BET back to ANC is still good as they are delayed an hour there as well. Nobody stresses. My biggest concern on this flight is that since we are at a slightly higher altitude we are basically flying through, not above, not below the clouds the whole time. And since its such a small plane, I see what the pilots are seeing, which is not much besides white puffy clouds. Good thing they have instruments. The air is also choppier since we are going through the clouds, blech. Eventually the heater kicks on and my jaw stops chattering and we arrive safe and sound in BET.

BET feels far more civilized after leaving MOU. It has a counter and boarding passes and everything. Well the computer can’t print my boarding pass so nobody worries about it. Again I’m asked my weight and we all board another plane, this time it probably held almost 20 people and felt enormous. The altitude went up again to just above the clouds and the ride was smooth enough that I got a few winks on the flight. Having been up since 5 am and on my 4th flight of the day I was wiped. ANC to FAI was uneventful and I look back on the whole day as a pretty unique experience. Life is just different in the village. It isn’t rude to stare, everybody knows everybody, mot people are related and half of the construction crew had the same last name. They were genuinely friendly and would strike up a conversation without reserve. I was offered more food than I could ever eat and genuinely felt welcome to be there. I wish the trip could have been longer so I could have seen more of the village than the project.

A few lessons learned:

1. Be friendly, it pays in having a richer experience
2. Be flexible, you can’t control the weather/flights
3. You’re on village time now, the bush has its own pace, speak more slowly and learn to listen
4. Nothing stays clean for long, be prepared for mud
5. If you need it, bring it with you, be prepared to stay longer than you planned if the weather doesn’t cooperate and pack accordingly
6. Bring cash, if you do need anything don’t expect either an ATM or credit being accepted

   

   Our baby plane

   

   Beautiful changing colors

   
   

   

   The pilot’s view

   

   Leaving Mountain Village, what a beautiful airport

   
   
   

I feel like I’m the only Russian studies major who hasn’t actually been to Russia. After 5 years of studying the language and getting my Bachelor of Arts in Russian Studies, countless culture, language and literature classes, my most exposure to Russia/Russians since I graduated was haggling over a TV stand at my garage sale this weekend. Russia is at the very top of my wishlist of places to go. But on my own dime I rarely go anywhere other than to see family so it may be awhile. I feel like my Russian fluency is fading and I need to find a way to reactivate and maintain it. In the meantime I keep dreaming by reading articles on Russia, Russian news and best of all Russian travel and keep up with my Russian literature appreciate with a steadily growing collection of Russian language books salvaged from used bookstores. This week I was disjointed to find this article on: “Should People of Color Go to Russia?” I am not surprised by this article at all. My Russian literature professor was from Bangladesh and even 20 years ago when she went to school she dealt with hooligans and Russian nationalistic attitudes. In some ways since the fall of the USSR the issues with Aryan supremacy have become worse. I know I am glad of my blonde hair and blue/green eyes when going through customs in most countries and only think it would serve me more in Russia. In South America I hate my hair because I get unwanted advances constantly, but I think it would make me more comfortable in Russia.

This was only a half-day because our flight was at 1600 so we had to be at the airport by 1400 and of course, nothing in Hong Kong really opens before 1000.

0830 Hong Kong Park – We watched an early morning Tai Chi class at the observatory and then wandered through their indoor Arid (cactus), semi-arid, and humid gardens. It was an indoor paradise of totally free and well groomed flora and we had it totally to ourselves at this early hour.

Next was the Hong Kong Park Aviary which felt like it was an exhibit straight out of Jurassic Park. It is a enormous net dome with a raised boardwalk going through the trees. You look down on the birds swimming for their breakfast as you walk past the ones in the trees eye to eye a waterfall beats down the side of the enclosure on one side. Again, we had it totally to ourselves as it was so early and everyone else who was up that early must have thought the warm sprinkles were going to turn into something more sinister after looking at the clouds.

Walked past the Hong Kong wedding registry where a bunch of beautiful brides were having their photos taken after registering their marriages. It must have been an auspicious date to get married as we saw at least 5 couples. This was right next to the koi ponds and gardens which we wandered through on our way to the…

1000 Teaware Museum – The guidebook we read before going said we would spend 30 minutes tops here, but I read everything and watched all the movies for a full two hours. I thoroughly enjoyed learning everything there was to learn about the history of tea and the process of purple clay pot making and picked up a souvenir tea pot. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside the museum.

1200 Lunch at cafe under the mall at the Admiralty MTR station. There is a cute little grocery store there where you can pick up cheap eats for a picnic as well as a cafe for those who need to take a load off.

1300 Back at the hotel for a quick shower and then off to the airport early. This gave me time to wander in the Muiji To Go store for travel accessories.

2100 Land in Singapore and super cheap taxi to the hotel, dinner at the hotel and then straight to bed

Hong Kong day 2 was actually July 14th, but hubby took me to dinner that night which lasted 3 hours so I didn’t have a chance to post this until I got back.

0930 Morning walk to East Tsim Shau Station and metro to Wong Tai Sin Temple. The best part of this temple is actually its garden the Garden of Wishes. The temple and its courtyard are full to the brim with bus loads of local tourists seeking Taoist guidance on their fates, but the garden costs HK$2/US$.25 and somehow that deters enough people to make it extremely quiet and peaceful. It also has insanely large Koi.

1100 MTR from temple to Prince Edward Station

Flower Market – The amount of flowers in quantity and variety were impressive.

Snack at Patissierie shop – These little fresh pastry shops are everywhere and make a great cheap and yummy lunch on the run when taking time for Dim Sum isn’t in the cards.

Bird Market – Right after the flower market we took our pastries and walked through the bird market, thousands of tiny birds singing their hearts out.

Royal Palace hotel for a break (this hotel is so posh), we wanted to get out of the heat and consult our map, turned out we didn’t want to keep walking down to the Jade market in the heat so we grabbed the metro again.

1300 MTR to East Tsim Shau Station

Walk to Avenue of Stars (Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat, etc), Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade by the shore for pictures of the skyline, Clock tower (last bit of old Army barracks)

The best part of this whole walk wass the Chinese Arts and Crafts store. The first floor of this store has HK$1,000,000 jade pieces and objects de art everywhere which we couldn’t even max out our credit cards to buy, it was better than most museums.

Upstairs were pricey, but high quality items that we could actually afford. Hubby picked up a lacquer box to store his nicknacks in and I glanced through the hand embroidered table linens. But I really started to enjoy myself when I got to the tea section full of hand painted teacups. I lingered so long that the department floor manager wandered over and sat us down for a tea ceremony. We had just had our tea appreciation course the day before so we totally knew what to do as far as drinking traditions, what to look for when we were smelling things and what pots are worth what. It was tons of fun and we walked out with a set of tea cups which I will always treasure.

1500 Walk to hotel passing Penninsula Hotel, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Shanghai Tang clothing store, and Nathan Road

1530 Shower, siesta

1600 Kowloon Park with Aviary (more flamingos), Sculpture garden, Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Center (tiny as it was under renovation and only part of it was only)

1800-2100 Anniversary Dinner @ Aspasia Restaurant in our hotel, absolutely amazing, although the formal service threw hubby off for awhile. Definitely the most expensive dinner we have ever had but the Master Chef was from Venice and his 3 Michelin stars look like they are well deserved, it was truly a unique culinary experience. My one regret is we missed the Symphony of Lights laser show both nights we were there as a result.