Two people who have not been on the road for long finally departed. Destination is Kauai.

Our plan is to stay on Kauai island for 8 days. I do have something to say about this plan, why Kauai? Prior to leaving, a friend asked me if we’ve ever been in Hawaii? Why Kauai for the first time? Why spend whole 8 days in one place? For most people, 2 or 3 days should be enough, let along Kauai island, a place that most frequent Hawaii fans may not recommend. For us, it’s straight forward. Kauai is the north most island of Hawaii islands and thus safest place to stay. My limited geology knowledge only allows me to think this far. Why 8 days? We don’t want to be busy traveling during vacation. We definitely try to avoid “enjoying” vacation in Kauai and then “resting” back in Seattle. By the way, this is our first trip to Hawaii.

Meanwhile, this is not a travel note. It should be a memo. So, it starts with itinerary.

Friday, December 30th, 2012. We departed from home about 6am in the morning. Arrived in Lihue about 3pm. Saturday, we drove north aiming to the north most place on the road. Surprisingly, we discovered that the coconut is way sweeter than we ever expected. In the beach park at the end of the road, we walked along the beach for a while. There is a dried sea cave across the road. The inside is dark and cold while the ripple marks going up and down. On the way back, there were taro festival. We were out of cashes and only got 2 dishes after paying off the tickets. One of the dish was taro with dipping condensed milk which is really yummy and inspiring. Afterwards, we got more cashes in a small town on the way. In the evening, we stopped in another beach park and sat there looking into the sea which turned from bright to dim, from dim to dark. Sunday, we drove in an opposite direction and arrived in Waimea cannon. There was a trailing believed to lead to a spring. We thought it should be no more than 20 minutes walking, which turned out to be a 3 hours hiking. Thanks to our underestimation, we did not take water with us. A senior couple noticed us who is empty-handed and kindly give a bottle of water to us. Monday, we visited the national tropical botanical garden. Tuesday, kayaking on Wailua river. Wednesday, shopping in local farmer market. Thursday, went out for snorkeling. We saw ray and dolphin swimming in the sea. We swam along with turtles. Friday, rested in hotel and went to Roy’s for dinner again. Saturday, headed to the harbor where we gathered for snorkeling and tried to remember everything, the sky, the clouds, the hills and the waves. In the noon, boarded on flight back to Seattle.

Tour notes are not needed. Let me fill the rest of this blog with some feelings and thoughts from this visit.

Vacation

Vacation is not mass tourism, particularly not in the form of group tourism which is very popular in mainland China. However, it’s also not backpacking of course. Vacation can be relaxing, leisure, and without worrying of anything. Yes, the Kauai trip was a vacation in such sense. We had ideas but no plans. Not trying to gain certain experiences while not wanted to miss anything new. It felt like fully disconnected from this world and it also felt like the first close involvement for ever. The whole vacation is nothing but purely breathing, in a most relaxing way, besides occasional excitements caused by realization of staying in a place all surrounded by ocean.

Sightseeing

It’s hard to avoid the irresistible curiosity when you are approaching closer to nature, for those who have been living in cities for too long. The sea cave next to the beach, the wide valley, the endless ocean, and the tireless waves, they all make you slow down your steps, wonder, and contemplate. Actually, what you see most in such places, are people taking picture. We are not big funs to it. Instead, we choose a good view and enjoy the unlimited beauty. We just pore silently, except one word or two. Staring at the sky, the earth, the mountain, the see, those unrepeated views in the past billions of years, and the nature that is always in motion. The mind gradually calms down, stiller and stiller, and close to a state of meditation. We try to remember all the feelings at that moment as if everything could come back right away when you close your eye.

Snorkeling

Snorkeling is a special sport in the sea. I was thinking snorkeling should be in an area not deeper than a person but reality was that 10 meters in depth. I’m not good at swimming and fins on feet make it hard to float. One major reason should be water in the nose and it made me feel devastating fear. The words above is just the half of the story, it’s easy to get strong fears when you are approaching closer to nature, for those who have been living in cities. The fear was so strong that it made people start panic. Struggling in the water made you a different person. However, the sea water is so clear and you can look through the 10 meters without noticing the water itself. Although many fishes stay in the bottom, you can still figure out different species. Sea turtles are much braver, swimming aside with us as we are not there. The tour guide can enjoy the freedom as fishes, diving and floating as her wishes. Thanks to the guide telling me to pinch the nose that I got able to float and look around. Water in nose is not as harmful as I thought. After a few hours back on land, sea water still came out from my nose whenever I lowered my head.

Tropical food

At the very beginning, I do no have any particular expectations for the foods in Hawaii. The first thing that came into my attention was coconut. The first coconut we tasted in Hawaii is freshly tasty and very sweet and changed my impression of coconut completely. Similar thing happened to pineapple, which was very juicy and absolutely pucker free. A small surprise is a local hut serving for breakfast and lunch. The English style breakfast tasted just good for us. A big surprise is Roy’s, a famous local restaurant that cooked everything in a right way. If asked for any recommendations for Kauai trip, my answer will be “don’t miss that restaurant” and its cocktail.

Night sky

If I have to say anything unexpected, that should be the amazing night sky. We had known that everyday of our trip will be raining or cloudy, before we left. It’s never expected to see stars in night time. During the first a few days swimming in the sea, we rested on the bench near the shore. Most of the time, we can see lots of stars in the sky which is more than what we have in impressions. We did not make the decision to find a dark place for a better observation until we were about to leave. It’s much more than we have expected. In cities, we saw the seven stars of northern dippers most. In winter, Orion will be another one. In a dark place of Hawaii, it’s full of stars in the sky and you can get lost and do not know where to start. Orion is still the first one to be seen. However, the northern dipper is not there. It’s probably because of the low latitude. We saw Cassiopeia instead. There was a bright star near the top. With the help from a modern communication device, we got to know that it was Jupiter. Not far from Orion, there is another bright star and the result from the device told us that it was Sirius. All of a sudden, both us were surprised by the lines of “gazing at northwest and shooting Sirius” by Su Shi (a Chinese poet of Song Dynasty) and felt fooled. Around the top, there was a cluster of six or seven stars. We searched on the device and found out that was the famous Pleiades. Last but not least, I saw a shooting star for the first time in my life.

That’s all the major memories I carried back from Kauai.