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Summited Half Dome again!

I summited half dome for the second time on Sept 29th this year. It was a great feeling to have done it again in the space of 5 weeks, which also included the time I was on vacation at Maui. However, this time it took me longer than I thought- nearly 13.5 hours. I do not yet have the picture I took at the summit, but do have the ones from the first trip. The first time is the real charm.

Yosemite looked very dry and like any other park when I visited the first two times, but after getting to the half dome it brings in a whole new perspective. I am loving this park more than ever. I intend to snowshoe and visit again in winter to admire its beauty. And next year, I should be attempting this hike in May when there is lotsa water at the falls, the weather is still pleasant and should aim for a sub-11 hour round trip.

Hawaiian 101

Learn some basic hawaiian…

There are only 13 characters in the Hawaiian language, the 5 vowels and 8 more consonants – d, k, p, l, m, etc… One thing I observed in their names was the way the consonants and the vowels alternate, like Kipahulu, Kamehameha (that’s the king)… And many times the words are repetitive, like, humuhumunukunukupua’a, pronounced as hu-mu hu-mu nu-ku nu-ku a pu-a-’a.

Aloha Hi, Good bye

Mahalo Thank you

Nui Loa very much, like in mahalo nui loa

mauka mountain side

makai ocean side

lei garland

dakine just a word filler
hoele local, mostly a white guy

kane male

wahine female , useful while going to the restrooms to figure out which way to go!

and my favorite, honu turtle

This should do, unless you are passionate to learning some more!!

Things you should consider doing at Maui

May be I should have titled this “An Idiot’s guide to Maui” I hope you will find information in this post that will make your things easy and worth the time at Maui. Aloha!!

#1 Drive through the Road to Hana. Stop at as much waterfalls on the way. This place is absolutely gorgeous. First trough a quaint town, Pa’ia, and then through a rain forest, then to a bay and then you hit a beach and then some lava formations and caves and back to a rain forest. The road is lined with dense tree growth of trees in most of the stretches in this 60 mile drive from Kahului. I would say it is worth doing this over 2 days. There is a YMCA lodge at Kenae peninsula which can offer affordable lodging right in the middle of this drive. Look out for an upcoming blog post on Hana alone, which will detail all the places to visit en route.

#2 Catch the sunrise at Haleakala. This is worth the effort for getting up at 2 in the morning and driving for 3 hours to catch a 10 minutes sunrise show. Do not go if it is NOT cloudy. Fortunately, the day we went up, we hit the clouds at about the 11-12th mile marker (around 5000ft) . In a nutshell, the sunrise here is an experience and cannot be out in words or in pictures/video!! Be there.

#3 Snorkel. Do not return without doing this unless you nauseate on looking down through the water or you do not swim.

#4 Relax, relax, relax. This could be anything from laying out on the beach under the sun. If you are worried about tanning, forget it and pack your bags to Alaska.

#5 Drink tender coconut water. Its amazing and brings back the life at Madras.

#6 Catch a Luau (Hawaiian family dinner) show. Forget the food if you are a vegetarian, but go for the show. Royal Lahaina at Ka’anapalli had a show only ticket that was worth it. Needless to say, this is highly commercialized and looks very close to a las vegas show minus the lights. On a lighter note, Do not expect a show if you are being invited by a localite for a family dinner . Stop dreaming about girls in grass skirts putting on a hula dance:)

#7 Lahaina cannery mall has hula dance show every tuesdays and thursdays at 7pm. Catch that if you can if you are in for some Hawaiian dancing and music. This will be a softer, more graceful version of the Hula show.

#8 Watch the Cliff diving ceremony at Maui Sheraton, Ka’anapalli. This happens at the sunset when a cliff diver of Hawaiian descent would perform a ceremonial bowing to his forefathers and the Gods and jump off the black rock. It is worth the wait. Parking is available at Maui Sheraton and walk your way to the beach. There is quite some crowd at this time – so get early and do not forget your camera. The nicer thing is they play Hawaiian music and a lady dances at the Maui Sheraton just before this event. So if you are early you will catch it too. Free limited parking is available at Maui Sheraton. The entrance is between the main Maui parking lot and the Ka’anapalli shopping area. If you are wondering, why I am giving you such a detailed description on parking, wait till you get there, You will appreciate it!

#9 Everyone talks about the chopper ride. But from what we heard, Kauai and the Big Island are way better to look at from choppers. So decide before you get pulled over by the numerous sales agents at Lahaina think again. But should you decide to do one, take the Jurassic pak tour that includes the trip to West Maui mountains and Molokai.

#10 Take an easy stroll through Lahaina downtown to the huge Banyan tree. Guess where they brought it from – hehehe… India of course. I know some of you are already dreaming of the Adyaru aalamaram (Adyar banyan tree, Madras)

#11 Drive the road past Kapalua in the North and go all round the West Maui mountains in the clockwise direction to Iao Valley Needle. You can also consider visiting Iao Valley on another day, but why drive back all again when you can do it in one go. The highlights here are the drive in itself, Nakalele blowhole, may be Olivine pools. There is also an excellent place to have some fruit juices on a road side stand that resembles a makeshift school bus and the banana nut bread at the village, right where the road curves. More on this in another post.

#12 Hike the Sliding Sands trail to the first Haleakala crater at 10000ft. above sea level. This is a moderately strenuous hike of 4 miles round trip that takes roughly 1 hr to descend and 2 hrs on the ascent. I would rate this moderately strenuous given this happens at low oxygen levels and the ascent is steeper than you think. Nevertheless, if you are used to hiking, it is not a big deal. If you have summitted the half dome, this one is rather easy. ou should probably consider doing the longer day hike to the Halemau’u trail head from the sliding sands.
If you can invest in the book, Maui Revealed, do it. It’s worth every penny. I have heard Frommer’s guide is a good one too.

Good beaches on the west side – Ka’anapalli beach, Kapalua beach

On the south side : Walk the pedestrian walk along the beach at Grand wailea. (Trivia: Wailea, I was told, is the poshest place at Maui. Tiger Woods has a house there which values only 17M:) ). Makena beach state park is also a great place where we found a whole lot of people boogie boarding. South side also provides some amazing views of Kahoolawe and Molokin. In fact Molokini looks so close that you could swim along, but have been told that the currents are very stronger here.

My favorite beaches: Napili bay/beach, Slaughterhouse beach, Ka’anapalli beach .

Fast/Good places to eat at Lahaina: Thai Chef (Great Pad Thai), Penny’s pasta(we did not try heard but heard and read it’s good), Maui Tacos (Awesome burrito), BJ’s pizzeria (okay, okay pizza . It was not saucy and was anything but the Chicago style pizza you would get at Giordanos. But the Mai Tai is great), Kahuna Kabob (Awesome coconut curry w/Tofu Kabob), Compadres at the Lahaina Cannery mall (Don’t miss the”taco tuesdays”. Its also a decent sports bar), Cilantro (Good one but nowhere close to Chipotle) . In addition, you would also find the usual Taco bell, Subway, etc… If you are a coffee drinker , do not miss Maui Grown Coffee (Try the Lava Flow) at Lahaina and Maui Coffee at Kihei (The 4Island Blend kicks ass).

Day 1 – Forward flight to Kahului, Maui.

What’s the best way to start a vacation?

Delayed flight, of course!! After a 2 hr delay in the forward journey at Oakland, we eventually got into the ATA flight to Kahului. By the time we reached at Maui, it was about 4pm HST, 2.5 hrs behind original schedule. Eventually after a car rental at Thrifty, we got out of the airport area around 5 pm and we knew for sure that it was gonna get dark by the time we reached home. So we decide to get some stuff on the way and we hit the 1st super shop we found – hooray! costco and then stopping again on the way at the Lahaina cannery mall to get some dinner and after a short visit to the safeway there , we finally reached our condo at 9pm. It was a long long day and we decide to call it a night and hit the bed straight on.