This year

... is impossible to sum up in one post. It's one of those years that truly felt like it had a few different ones packed in. And it's not just the earlier bits that don't feel like 2023. Even things from as recent as Q3 feel like they happened long ago in a different lifetime. And yet, this year passed in a flash.

Maybe this means that I spent most of it in a state of excitement haha. 2022-me predicted correctly that this year would be full of change. Some I wanted, some I didn't ask for, but all of it served to make life far from boring.

What is true is that there were good times and tough times this year. But there were no bad times. With bad times defined (maybe a little simplistically) as tough times with no end in sight. 

There were things I enjoyed. Old things and new things. Like, dunno what took me so long to find out about crocheting. Turns out it's something I'm good at. Got to enjoy concerts (read: seeing the sujus) more up close than before coz I heeded 2022-me's advice to exercise. Still can't say I love running, but it works. 

The solo wanderer stepped aside a little to leave more space for companions. As a result, there was enough shared happiness to make up for the drought in previous bad times. From extravagant overseas adventures to simpler hangouts over food and drink, amidst the urban and the greenery.

And there were things to navigate. Like bringing the change I wanted to reality. When I was the first choice of others, I had the privilege and support to pursue my own first choice. To my future selves, remember what it took.

Also, yes universe, I take the (very strong) hint that the world is very small. It's one thing for second degree connections to become first degree, but to finally cross paths with people moving along close parallels in the past is on another level. It's quite stunning when these revelations occur. And this year, I was stunned enough to fill a drama plot. From a queue in Manila to many a fine day across my offices.

Can only say I was fated to end up where I am, after taking the route I ended up taking. Or maybe 30 is the magic age where connections surface after a decent buildup. But yes ok, I shall strive to remain friendly and likeable.

So at the end of it, I definitely can say I did all I could with my allotted time in 2023. 17 posts is a sign of it haha, 3rd most in a year since I started blogging wow. And now it's time to look ahead.

Well, I know 2024 will be a test. But knowing what I've been through is the same as knowing things will be ok. Also there's already things to look forward to!

So the only thing I can tell 2024-me is this: remember to rest i.e. set aside enough time for it. At times, 아무것도 하지 않아도 돼, as Ryeowook said. 

Happy New Year! And also (slightly in advance), happy 10th blogging anniversary!

Hawaii+Cali 2023 (Part 4~Big Island~)

Made it within 2023. And that makes this my 100th post here on blogger! Plus the oldest ones over on LJ, that's a few million words written over the years. It also just happens that this milestone arrives on the cusp of 2024, 10 years since I decided to start documenting the best bits in life. As it turns out, there's been quite a lot of that :D

This post won't be complicated since we spent the least amount of time on the Island of Hawaii aka Big Island (about 2 days in total), disproportionate to its size. So in a way, I enjoyed myself disproportionately much here. After the ancient jungles of the previous 2 islands, we took a break from Jurassic Park and went into space~

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6 Oct

We got to see sunset through the grimy plane windows. That meant that only dinner was left on the agenda for the first day on Big Island.

A sunset is a sunset haha.

At dinner, the way the food tasted was the absolute least interesting thing. I was very intrigued to see a coconut weather indicator, serving vessels in the form of giant dimsum baskets, and fried wonton skin in the poke. Sadly, though we didn't know it then, that was also our final poke.

This was funny. Though I think not just the coconut will be gone in a hurricane xD

Dunno why the sudden Asian concept.

Nothing left for the night other than the drive across the island from Kona to our hotel in Hilo. I thinkkk we visited Target along the way coz J1 wanted to show me the impressive fall/halloween-themed stuff on sale. I was impressed. And just to note, no alcohol was bought haha (at least from my records).

Big Island roads tended to be winding and hilly and very dark at night. Parts like these felt like we were on a launch strip heading straight for space~ 

7 Oct

To put on record: 7 Oct was my favouritest day not just in Hawaii but in the entire trip. And that's after almost a full week of excitement on 2 other islands. True that it's hard to top a heli tour in terms of flashiness, but this day was memorable in a sort of deeper, more grounded, and more familiar way.

Good days tend to start with a good breakfast! Ken's House of Pancakes was my first American diner experience. While I struggled to finish my half-portion, the food was good. I sampled their signature coconut and passionfruit syrups too for the pancake but still went back to the conventional maple in the end. 

This looked like macs breakfast deluxe actually.

Then, we went to my favourite beach of the trip! Punaluu beach was the far opposite of a disappointment. It wasn't our first time at a black sand beach (that was Santorini circa 2015) but still we were awestruck. I'd seen many gorgeous blue skies-over-seas in 2023 alone but the sapphire view of that day was totally an upgrade. 

We stood a long time watching this view.

See how mesmerising!

The sea somehow managed to display a duality of deep blue and crystal clear which probably had something to do the black foundations. 

We moved to a sort of platform of hardened lava where we spent a long time taking what must've been hundreds of photos haha. A large part of it involved trying to catch the waves breaking high against the rocky strata. That took some balance between staying put long enough for #newprofilepic and scuttling back when in high risk of getting splashed.

One of the 2% successful photos that captured a high splash! With me for scale.

At this area, I especially liked watching the crevices fill up with white foam. Together with the sky and sea in the background, it made a very pretty mcflurry-themed view.

Also took some time to appreciate the unique rock I was walking on which looked like elephant skin.

Mandatory post selfie and it must be from the prettiest place!

On the drive to the next stop. In a place as full of beaches as Hawaii, I'm glad we managed to see a really memorable one.

After my favourite beach, we went on to my favourite hike of the trip! This was J1-selected, and its concept had me hooked right away. The Kilauea Iki Trail, inside the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, would take us along the rim of said volcano/caldera before a descent right to the crater floor. The reviews said like it would be like going to the moon! That was what I was so extremely excited about. Not like I'll be going to the real moon in my lifetime right xD

A little tunnel provided some extra variety at the start of the trail.

The first leg along the crater rim was the usual forest trail, but with a special view. One thing the reviews warned about was the exposure to elements on the crater floor. That was quite clear from our elevated POV, watching the tiny people inch across the flat grey landscape on a slightly lighter grey path cutting straight through. We thought it looked hot and imagined the tiny people to be suffering, since the sun was on full blast in that cloudless afternoon. J1 might've been having her personal second thoughts then, but I 200% still wanted to go down there hahaha.

While bubbling with excitement, even the rather regular forest felt especially nice to me.

This is the kind of view that makes one go "whoaaaaaaa". Or me at least. And bear in mind that this was also our preview for the second half of the hike.

Presenting the "suffering people" and the zoom capabilities of the S23 Ultra. It's like finding the performers from back-of-the-arena concert seats haha.

Things would go on to defy our expectations, starting from the descent. It is easy to over-simplify the trail into 2 halves: forest rim and crater floor. So the descent between the two was like an unexpected boss encounter. Of all the segments throughout our hikes this trip, I think this portion was one of the trickiest.

Getting closer to the moon surface...

Black broken glass. The landscape was coated in it. Talk about a unique terrain I'd never been on before. The gifs don't have it, but the trail responded with a ceramic-like crunching sound as we picked our way across following stacks of rocks (ahu) acting as trail markers. That in itself provided a sort of warning. The descent wasn't that steep but it sloped enough to warrant caution, especially due to patches of glass-coated pebbles that slid around. At one point I wobbled and reached out instinctively to steady myself... My palm came away with 3 neat little pierces where I'd merely gently laid my hand on a nearby rock. No blood spilt then, but I took the hint that taking even a mild fall on that jagged landscape would've been nastyyyy.

Following the path of the lava as it poured happily downhill all those years ago.

Might look smooth and rounded here but it was anything but.

So that was interesting and soon enough we reached the anticipated crater floor! Wow it was Epic. And it also became clear very fast that the crater rim view was a total scam haha. Because the very first noticeable difference was that it wasn't flat at all. Sort of like... a giant playground floor with its mounds and undulations (on hard black surface instead of colourful rubber) but also with edges and crevices from where the lava hardened into slabs and broke apart. 

Made it to the moon!

The preview showed a "nice flat path" but this was so much more interesting!

Though I must say, very much like the gap between the MRT door and platform, I wouldn't have wanted to get my leg caught in one of these~

I was totally enjoying myself haha. Most of the credit for that goes to how solid and grippy the terrain was. And it wasn't boring thanks to all those crevices and shrubs that acted like mini obstacles. Basically, a very engaging terrain where I could bound around confidently and freely to my heart's content, in almost any direction I wanted! No slippy slidey nonsense to worry about. 

The purpose of this wide shot was to show scale. The scale of freedom and happiness :D

There was one more difference-from-observation. The afternoon sun was indeed at full blast (cap+sunglasses kinda sun) but we were far from baking in the crater. Somehow, there was a very convenient breeze down there that we didn't feel up at the rim. And coz we were out in the open with not much vegetation or other barriers, the wind stayed with us all the way through. On top of the uniqueness of it all, it was genuinely a very comfortable hike. Like a chit-chatty fun-walk on a very special terrain. As said a lot in my line of work, cannot just take a top-down view of things, need to go down to the ground to understand realities ;)

Looking back where we came. Oh yes, there was no sign of the light grey path slicing right through the dark grey although we probably were walking right on it all the time. All the greys just looked the same grey. 

The climb back up to the crater rim at the end was relatively straightforward (zig zag forest trail). It was more common to find families with children coming in from that end, just for the crater floor experience. No need to go through the broken glass portion at the other end.

On the drive out, we stopped by the souvenir shop (both J1 and I got t-shirts of my favourite hike) and a viewing point for some steam vents. The vents themselves were at a distance, but this stop was worthwhile for a few other reasons. The sun was setting by that time, and at that altitude, the temperature was falling just about as steeply. I hadn't been in cold temps in a while since most of my trips in 2023 were concentrated in summer-ish periods and places, so the cold wind was a joy! Not sure if it's got something to do with living on a summer island, but I've generally liked being in cold weather (as long as not too extreme). It's like a physical proof of having the freedom to see the world.

That's prob Mauna Kea in the background, so gentle(-looking) and yet hulking enough to be above the clouds.

Wisps of steam with unblocked view of sunset colours in the background <3

Dinner was one giant bowl of ramen + one normal-sized bowl of rice as an accompaniment. We did our best haha. 

To round off my favourite day of the trip, came my favourite night of the trip. Preface: we did randomly bump into the milky way one fine night in Kauai (as briefly featured in Part 3). At that time, I found out that those crazy well-defined galaxy photos were not something the human eye could perceive - the stars were definitely there but it took camera work to bring them out. The best the milky way looked in real life was this faint grey band across the sky. So I had my expectations internally moderated for this night. Nevertheless, we headed up Mauna Kea. 

This was either fog or driving through the clouds but in any case it was creepyyy.

There was an observatory up there but we didn't go (it was closed or need to pay or smth). Stopping at a carpark somewhere up the road was good enough. As someone who'd had to pack for a temp range of -6 to 31 deg C, I was glad to break out some pieces from the other end of the spectrum. 

So I zipped up and got out of the car first to test out the temps. Right then, I looked upwards and let out an "OMG". J1, who clearly had other concerns, asked if it was cold. Yes, it was cold. But this was the true reason for the exclamation:

🌟满天星星🌟

The above heavily edited photo is an attempt (the best of many tries) to replicate the sky as I saw it that night. The pictorial equivalent of writing a post. Yet it's still not quite the same as the image seared into my mind (and reinforced during a second round on mainland), but I think there's only so far technology can go to preserve memories. The description "diamonds on black velvet" is not wrong but it barely scratches the surface. It's more like someone spilled glowing salt on that black velvet. And the most outstanding of that salt sparkled in chains of silver in the sky.

After some initial marveling on my part, it was time to let some equipment do their job. Enter the S23 Ultra. I'd gladly abandoned my lousy (S$900) S21 FE on my 30th bday in favour of this (S$1.1k) S23 Ultra which was superior in just about every way except the hefty size. The concert season of 2023 had mostly passed by the time I got my hands on it, but it still got its chance to excel on this trip. While paired with my almost decade-old gorillapod from the UK days, and the car as a solid foundation, I could capture almost any angle of the sky I wanted. Take note that the following photos are not as the eye sees, but seeing how they turned out was thrilling.

We arrived in good time to see the core of the milky way which "sets" just like the sun. In real life, it looked like an obvious grey band, like a dense cluster of that glowing salt in the night.

Same angle as the above (I liked the way the signpost jutted out in the rocky foreground) but after playing around with the warmth settings. On the phone, I was getting really cold in real life haha.

More salt! This was the view of milky way extending directly overhead, which I spent a long time craning my neck to look at.

There was lots of waiting in the cold, since every shot required 30s of exposure. More time to just look and admire. On nights like the one on 7 Oct, I was just bursting with gratitude to be where I was.

8 Oct

This was an interesting day that I'd summarise it as a sort of road trip around the northern part of Big Island. A day of long drives and long talks to wrap up a very mixed bag of sights. 

Our itinerary for that day had faced a complete overhaul. One thing we did not do was to go to the green sand beach that had been hanging around in our plans from a very early stage. We switched tack to another trail that seemed more interesting. But mostly it was because I didn't want to end up at another potentially disappointing beach. It was a 9km hike in-and-back some more. And what could top or even match the black sand beach really hahaha.

So first up for real was the Akaka Falls. A short, easy walk to see a very tall waterfall. Since we seemed to have gotten a late start that day, that was shortly followed by lunch at this place called GJ's Huli Chicken where we got ribs. Yup, the chicken was all sold out by the time we got there and the "place" was sorta like a roadside cooking shack next to a greenfield parking lot. It wasn't bad tho!

Through the short jungle walk with its very tall trees and hanging roots.

Falls so tall that the bottom wasn't in sight. 

I'd describe this as ang moh char siew. This was also our final in-car meal~

The post-lunch drives took us up and around the mountain. As we climbed up those long winding roads, the weather was being funny. It was like driving through some sort of checkerboard of rainy and sunny patches lol. The below series of views are in chronological order xD

Could see far and wide from that high up, and watch the clouds pick their places to offload.

Windows 2000 default desktop background hahaha.

Pololu Valley lookout. We'd planned to do the short trail down to the beach but were strongly discouraged by the park ranger due to muddy, slippery conditions. But actually the ominous weather was deterrence enough.

About 50% blue sky rate on this day haha.

We zoomed to the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company about 15 mins before it closed. It was what it was but I wanted to immortalise some comedy concerning the macadamias I bought here. Specifically, the dark choc and island onion-flavoured ones that were meant for my ex-office. Two different bags!! I must've been unclear at some point while announcing it, coz an ex-colleague commented what an interesting food I'd brought back - chocolate-covered onions. I hastened to set the record straight and insisted that those weren't onion-covered chocolates. It took some pointing out before my jetlagged brain registered the mis-phrasing and that led to a decent 5 mins of laughing our lungs out. We definitely made Hawaii more exotic than it really was there.

No more chickens, but we were treated to goats at the macadamia place.

I'd had the privilege of selecting the final hike of the Hawaii leg, though even while searching it was clear to me that nothing could top Kilauea Iki. Since meadows was the only terrain we hadn't yet seen on Hawaii, and a terrain I personally missed a lot from the Peak District days, I selected the Puu Waawaa Cinder Cone trail. It fell short of expectations. From the reviews I'd imagined nice green meadows with sheep. But instead we got a rough yellow scrubland and I only spotted 2 suspicious-looking sheep skulking around. 

Must be another job hazard but on the drive there all I could think was "they could do soooo much with all this land".

The trail up the cinder cone looked like this. Packaged with the secludedness and overcast skies, it was downright eerie. I felt strangely uncomfortable taking the view side to side from the path (full of dried grass and dead-looking trees), like hidden things were watching. We went a short ways up the (3km straight) road before turning back.

We attempted to find a sunset spot but had to settle for the roadside after running out of time haha.

And suddenly, all that was left was the final dinner in Hawaii before our red-eye back to mainland. We attempted and failed to find poke *sadded*. As puzzling as it was, there was only one poke shop open and it had sold out except for some dried oyster poke that didn't look appetising. So Japanese it was again, and it was elaborate!

We ordered a sushi and sashimi platter and didn't expect it to come in this huge boat! It attracted looks from other tables hahaha. And I'm proud to confirm that we managed to finish everything ^^

9 Oct

We got back to J1's inn after my most uncomfortable red-eye ever. There was a short stretch for us to wash clothes and nap before commencing the Cali leg that very same evening. I was told that I knocked out in the guestroom.

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See why I couldn't confirm if Kauai was my favourite island, even after all the larger-than-life things we did there? While there's a larger number things I could recommend others to do on Kauai, I like what we did on Big Island a lot. At least on 7 Oct. So in the end, I have no answer to the question (my own lol) of which was my favourite island. It just depends on what is important~

And that wraps up the Hawaii leg and the second last post of 2023~ If life allows, this series will resume in 2024. Anyway, Merry Christmas!

Cheers to the good times past and the good times ahead! ✨

Hawaii+Cali 2023 (Part 3~Kauai~)

From Oahu we hopped over to Kauai, the greenest and smallest of the 3 islands we visited. Oh btw, it's pronounced "kawaii" haha - suits its small size (still about twice as big as SG). I liked this island very much but will wait till Part 4 to confirm if it's my favourite one. What I can say for certain is that the trip highlight was on this island, it is a must-go in Hawaii for nature lovers, and there was never a dull moment while we were there!

This kind of view doesn't come easy.

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3 Oct

It was about noon. We'd gotten off the plane with good enough buffer for lunch but that was foiled by the car rental company. Akin to waiting at JB immigrations, only 1 or 2 out of 3 desks were ever open to serve a snaking queue. And so our first ~2h on Kauai was spent waiting to get the car.

Thus we barely made it in time for the first activity in Kauai which was also the highlight of the entire trip haha. There was lunch, but it had to be left in the car for later - we had a heli to catch! Admin deets first: we were told to bring along a jacket and keep no loose stuff in our pockets. The tour company also provided lanyards to keep our phones secured. All these... because our heli would be doorless~

USD325 per pax for a ~1h ride on a Hughes 500 Doors-Off Helicopter - ALL WINDOW SEATS by Airborne Aviation Tours it was. And it was worth every single cent! On hindsight now, it definitely was a much better deal than USD250 for a heli with windows/doors. So all I can say is, I'm thankful for being in a good place to spend this kind of money.

Watching the first heli just... go away.

The heli! With us for scale. It looked so cute like a ladybird, with a similar colour scheme even.We were the tiniest 2 out of the 5 people (including the pilot) squeezed in the heli. So we were assigned to sit in front with the pilot in a space that was about 1.5 seats wide. 

My view from the centre of the front row. This meant I had more structures around my view but that wasn't too bad. Also, hadn't seen flight instruments as close as this since the aero days.

Gotta preface that no photo or video can do justice to actually sitting there squashed in that cute little bug of a heli watching paradise unfold below, paired with wind and various forms of precipitation. But I shall try anyway - a bit of spam coming up!

Yes, this is the view that comes with a doorless heli! I was the only one really ensconced in the middle, everyone else was literally living on the edge for that hour. Apparently the wind was very strong too and tried to snatch J1's phone away. But I was well-protected from all that haha.

The pilot provided commentary along the way tho I can't remember much except a few key moments. The first was when we crested a ridge and he went "Welcome~ to Paradise~~~".

It really was Paradise~~~ All those lush land formations and countless waterfalls as far as the eye could see. Nature's wonders!

From velvety green valleys to edgy red ones.

The Jurassic Park theme song played at some point over the transmission which added to the feels. One of those falls was used as a filming location after all. Another thing that added to the feels was the way the pilot kept calling the landscape gorgeous except that it came out like "guooorgeous" xD I think this is one job that is never boring.

Since it was a small heli, we felt every movement quite keenly. Particularly when the pilot banked hard (on purpose) such that the "door" opened in the direction of gravity xD In those moments, J1 was the only thing blocking me from dropping into open air. Aside from my seatbelt. 

Example of some mild-ish banking.

We felt the clouds quite keenly too at some points! It was super cool to go right through them (pun intended), like mid-air fog.

The tour took us from the lush valleys to out above the Na Pali coast. This portion was crazy stunning. I think my english will never be good enough to properly describe those scenes from that day. So it's a good thing we live in an age of technology good enough to capture at least a decent fraction of the experience! 

The following series of gifs (4-5x speed) depicts the journey out over the greens towards the knife-edge coast, nipping in and back out of an incut valley along the side and spinning one round above the North Pacific just coz.

My favourite part of that whole sequence was turning around inside the incut valley to face out towards the unreal turquoise ocean, and then flying straight out over the red carpet of rippled rock.

That was the climax of the tour. It's natural to think that we'd zoom straight back to base after that and end the tour but nooo there was still more to see! After hugging the coast for a bit, it was time to re-enter the greenery. 

The return leg was mistier (since we were entering one of the wettest places on earth) and the landscape rougher, such that I kept thinking of matcha-powdered dessert while looking at the hills. Then our little heli-bug flew us into the ancient crater of Mt Waialeale. Writing this, I wonder if those larger 6-seater helis (with doors) would even be able to get that far in. I guess we got what we paid for!

We spun one round in the misty crater and I happily enjoyed the aircon conditions while J1 claimed that she was getting drenched xD

Then, it was time to head back for real with some last views of waterfalls and farmland.

What a beginning to the Kauai leg that was. All that was left for the day was to check in and eat the abandoned lunch at the balcony. I somehow remember that the Kauai hotel was the first in a long string that required us to lug our luggage up and down stairs. Speaking about hotels, one thing I liked about Hawaii hotels was the free ice and water refill stations at the lobby (no such thing on mainland). Otherwise, and especially considering what they cost, US hotels were just plain lousy compared to other countries. The best accoms of the entire trip was J1's house.

Hotels in Kauai were veryyy expensive, but at least the view at our chosen one was pretty good.

There was also a beach almost right downstairs, not that we had the time for it...

That night's activity revolved around the shopping mall just across the road, with shopping mall referring to a cluster of shops around a huge parking lot rather than a single multistorey building. I.e. what can be done with an abundance of land haha. 

Shaved ice is a thing in Hawaii. This strawberry thing from Wailua Shaved Ice was surprisingly nice and easy to eat for an artificially flavoured thing. We finished the entire bowl. It could be due to the calculated fineness of the shaved ice, somewhere between ice kacang (too rough) and bingsu (too fine), for an optimal melt-in-mouth experience.

And then there was an impromptu Milky Way viewing at the lawn just downstairs from our room! We'd gone to the beach first but there was too much light interference from a nearby luau, so below the trees for a unique view it was. The thing about sky-viewing activities is that you can plan all you want but the clouds have the final say, so take what you can~

Forgot to mention previously another of our regular habits (aside from eating in the car): Devil's Plan! It wasn't always easy keeping up with the complex rules and interpersonal dynamics of this show, but it was engaging enough for us to watch ~2.5 episodes each night. Then we ran out and had to wait for the release of the final 3 episodes.

Chromecasted onto various hotel TVs which sometimes took some effort.

And of course there was usually some form of alcohol. Pictured here with supermarket cheese and crackers and snacks from Narita duty free.

4 Oct

We did the first of 2 hikes on Kauai on this day, but not without going for some specific breakfast - musubi! It was intriguingly like a giant sushi/kimbap haha. they all share the same seaweed-wrapped-over-rice concept, save for the very different fillings. That was followed by some interesting viewpoints enroute to the hike.

Breakfast was a rather tasty miso chicken musubi from The Musubi Truck and we got the OG spam version to go for lunch. Even with limited stomach capacity, I quite appreciated the large variety of food + abundance of poke on Hawaii. Eating all sorts of different food really brought out the holiday feels!

While established on google maps, The Red Dirt Falls were literally a roadside stop (park and climb over the barrier). After the previous day's matcha hills, we had heaped milo powder! There is no scale here and I realised it looks small, but the waterfall was a good 3m tall. It took some careful footwork to shuffle over the shifting milo powder to go up for a picture.

Quick stop at Waimea Canyon viewpoint for a closer-to ground view of the red and greens!

The hike itself was freshly selected the day before. I think I was given dibs since J1 had already pre-determined the second hike. For me, variety is king (besides worthwhileness and doability of course). Out of the top 10 hikes in Kauai according to AllTrails, there was only one that really attracted my attention - the Alakai Swamp Trail. The issue was that even getting to the trailhead required a 4WD and some driving skill+guts. So we found an alternative in the Pihea Vista Trail which would bring us on a different route to the swamp, with supposedly good views all through. 

Well it started out decently!

The Vista quickly went missing hahaha. We did see the Kalalau Valley floor a little, and then the fog curtain closed in and remained firmly shut the whole way. So all that's left is to talk more about the trail and terrain coz that was quite fun for me (which may not be the case for anyone who dislikes jungle bashing, J1 included).

Oh no...

The trail began with a dirt/mud path closely flanked by greenery. It definitely felt like we entered Jurassic Park hurhur. Coz fog aside, the vegetation even looked like those ferny types rustling with hidden dinosaurs. From behind my shades, it also took on this vibrant, almost unreal verdant tint. 

Into Jurassic Park! Tell me this doesn't look like a path to find dinosaurs.

The path got narrower the deeper we went.

There were some interesting features on this trail, such as the fence. And there was only one "correct" answer to the natural question hahaha. We were later educated that the fence was made to keep away rather more mundane invasive species like pigs and goats. Well, imagination made the experience more interesting xD

"What's beyond the fence?"
"Dinosaurs."

Another feature that made this trail unboring was this steep section that required a bit of scrambling (video from the way back).

The second part of the trail took us over wooden planks in varied states of maintenance. The worst of them were creaking broken see-saws with rusty exposed nails. We made sure to go one by one over each plank, just in case. Some of the planks were also raised some ways above the forest floor, like knee-height, so having a sense of balance was necessary not to go tumbling headfirst into the greens. But to me, this was all part of the fun haha. Since I hadn't done plank-in-jungle terrain before, it felt like a whole new playground to me! There weren't much views in there but we were well-occupied with watching our feet anyway.

It was 3.15pm by the time we reached the little river. Just across would've been the most intense uphill section of the trail, connecting directly to the start of the Alakai Swamp. So that was where we made the executive decision to turn back haha, also to get back in good time before dark. Anyway the whole reason I wanted to see the swamp was simply that it'd be interesting. The terrain would've been something like the planks portion except over bog. Overall, something different from rolling greenery and coastal views. But since the Pihea trail itself had proved interesting enough, I left without much disappointment. 

Selfie to commemorate the endpoint.

Still foggy when we exited Jurassic Park.

Another car-meal in the carpark with the spam musubi which was much tastier than it sounds.

Here, I would like to mention the chickens. Besides Pasir Ris, I've never been to a location so overrun with chickens. On Oahu and Kauai both, chickens (not dinosaurs) ruled the land~ It also happened that the roosters were especially handsome, much more so than our SG varieties, and they strutted as though they knew it. The resident rooster of Pihea carpark was particularly attention-seeking. While chewing my musubi, I found great amusement in watching it go up to every single car (including ours) and circle around the visitors' legs until they took notice. Eventually I got out of the car to entertain it too. Please see below, along with a selection of other eye-catching birbs.

There was still some sunlight left, and the drive out had its own memorable bits.

Notice the bumpy "horizon". There were times where the sky and the sea seemed to blend into one, especially when a layer of cloud sat just over the water a long distance away.

There was a farmer who flagged us down...

And managed to make us buy a very ugly, USD10 papaya.

And there were some goats.

We uh somehow almost drove into a military base and then we went to catch the sunset! Or at least we attempted to. Apparently I'm a very powerful cloud bringer (tho maybe I simply used up my own sunset luck on my solo trips......). Our fate was quite clear when we went to Kekaha Beach and saw the layer of clouds firmly settled in place, but we waited anyway. And it was nice, just to sit peacefully for a while at the beachside pavilion. That was when the rainbow appeared 🌈

Calming waves while we waited.

Not quite ending at the white car (ours) so no magical pot of gold appeared in there to offset my trip costs.

Maybe got hope?

Ok nope, but still a pretty timelapse haha, with some intruders.

And upon turning around from the "sunset", we confirmed our suspicions that (however faint) it was a double rainbow after all 🌈🌈

The day out ended with some expensive Japanese food then it was back to the hotel for more Devil's Plan.

Expensive raw fish on an island in the middle of the Pacific... most of these ingredients prob had to be imported, as with many things in Hawaii. Gotta be thankful for whatever trade channels help us keep our Sushi Express alive.

5 Oct

We went north after spending the previous day in the south of Kauai. One more hike to go too. But first, breakfast! Apparently acai bowls are also a thing in Hawaii, so I got my inaugural taste right there in Kauai after being put off by the price so often before in SG.

Can't remember what exactly we got from Kalalea Juice Hale (a Malaysia-esque roadside establishment), but it was good. With bonus mountain view!

Agriculture, from afar.

Artistic tree-shot at one of the beaches near Princeville. Those blue skies 💙

The day's hike was the Kalalau Trail which, according to wiki, is one of the most beautiful and dangerous hikes in the US. We hardly reached the dangerous bits coz hiking the full way (35km in and back out) required a permit and some body and mind of steel. So as with most other regular people, we did only the first section towards Hanakapiai Beach and back out (total about 6km). The trail was very popular and we took a shuttle in from a further meeting point since the trailhead carpark was prone to running out of lots. 

Agriculture, up close.

The start of the trail already screamed "tropical jungle". True to appearances, it was extremely humid along this coast-hugging trail, much more so than when we were deep in the ferns the previous day. I'm not learned enough in geography to explain why.

Also unlike the Pihea trail, this one was more on familiar terrain: forest floor and rocks. But mix in some mud and there were sections that really tested my footing. As a generally un-surefooted person, those slick rocks really were my personal bane. While shuffling around gingerly with my hiking sticks, I couldn't understand how other people were moving about so niftily in sports shoes and even crocs and even slippers (?!) 

Coast-side forest floor was nice. And these were the non-treacherous bits that I managed to keep my hands free enough to record.

Anyway, I had my views on this one (pun intended haha). Even this first "easy" section of the Kalalau Trail was quite undulating so me and my poor condition suffered. But the path brought us around the cliffside with generous views of the Na Pali Coast! 

Those ridges! Different view from the heli tour but still spectacular.

All those views were truly worth the effort, and we did have a great deal of those for about 3/4 the way. But after the bend with the red lalangs... Everything went downhill lol, literally. If I'd known what lay ahead... I'd have refused to budge an inch further down that path. That was the best place to soak in the vast beauty of the Na Pali coast, before turning back. 

This was my favourite point of the entire trail, and also my personal recommended turnback point.

Me being very happy right there.

Because beyond that, the trail brought us very far downwards (through a forest so no more views), across a sketchy river crossing, over a field of huge pebbles, to a beach. Hanakapiai Beach was just a beach. I'm not sure it would've made it to the top 50 beaches in the whole of Hawaii. Ok I guess the waves were something. The main problem was that after a short break, we had to turn around and go back through everything I described 4 sentences ago. This time, upwards. If desirous of a more positive view on this final section (if any), please consult J1 who was definitely surviving better than me haha.

Had a hard time on this one. The rocks were in no way flat and the water was knee-deep so we definitely minded falling in. There were 3 types of river-crossers observed here: (1) those who wobbled awkwardly over the rocks like us, (2) those who hecked it and went straight into the water and (3) those mountain goat-people who deftly walked over the rocks like they were everyday concrete pavements. I was super impressed by (3).

The beach. Only putting this here coz of the effort it took to get here.

The waves.

That night we rewarded ourselves with an interesting, and more atas than usual dinner at JO2 Natural Cuisine. That was also my 30th birthday treat, courtesy of J1. On the other hand, my gift to her had been a tube of Urah cream hahaha. Shabby by comparison but definitely helpful for 2 pairs of battered knees. Highly recommended for people ≥ 30 planning to do consecutive days of hiking, speaking from experience(s)~

Pretty drinks! We'd spotted the pinkish one at the neighbouring table and asked about it since it matched none of the descriptions on the menu. Turns out it was limited edition!

Pardon the ripped fish, I chose this photo coz I wanted to show the insides of a seared tuna since it was my first time trying such a thing!

The other main also featured a seared tuna. I was slightly apprehensive at first since I'd had half-cooked sashimi before and it was the worst thing ever... But thankfully this was nothing like that hahaha.

Then, back to the hotel for the nightly serving of alcohol and Devil's Plan! We also ate the ugly papaya which was at least very sweet and fleshy.

Would've been a healthy supper if not for the alcohol~

6 Oct

This was the day for island-hopping again so we kept the daytime plan simple, starting with brunch at Java Kai. There, we came across another Singaporean living in the US who recognised us from JO2 the previous night, seated just a table away. This is a good juncture to point out something I realised was so different from my other travels. The SG accent was non-existent in Hawaii. Not surprising given how inconvenient it was to get there. So that was how we got identified, happily chatting without restraint of an accent once described by a French classmate as "curving in weird ways".

One savoury, one sweet, both good!

We must've been shopping around for things to do when we settled on Smith's Tropical Paradise, a botanical garden conveniently distanced from the airport. The landscaping was pretty nice. 

It was very hot.

But the birds were the highlight. Specifically, the behaviour of the birds. It was Pavlovian Conditioning at its finest~ Observe:

Note that we went in without buying any birdfeed and yet were followed like Kpop stars. From the pigeons to the chickens to the peacocks and even the Jurassic ducks. It was highlyyyy amusing, especially when J1 got specifically followed by a family of chickens. Prob should've basked in it more since when/where else in life would we have gotten such fanfare xD

Time to bid goodbye to the greenery of Kauai.

Now that I've laid everything out like that it's plain to see - Kauai was exciting! Or maybe it was just us haha. Up next in Part 4, Big Island, which had its own special moments too! But let's see if we get to that in 2023, since there's still the year-end post coming up.

Kauai's alcohol~