All's well that ends well

This morning we flew from Honolulu to the Big Island. We flew into Kona and drove around the northern side of the island and ended up in Hilo. We had planned to stay at the Inn at Kulanaiapia Falls near Hilo. We rented the pagoda house which looks like this from the outside:

Looks cute, right? Now look at what we found on the inside:

Yep, that is mold and dirt on the main edge of the staircase. What was even better was that the spiral staircase wasn't installed correctly so that when we walked up or down the entire thing shook. In addition, there was no air conditioning (not noted on their website) and in the first 10 minutes we were inside we both got multiple mosquito bites. Not what you expect from a 'luxury bed and breakfast' (their words, not mine).

We decided pretty quickly that we weren't going to stay there. We went up to the main house to let them know and on the way in I slipped and fell banging up both of my knees. We were greeted by the wife of the owner. When I mentioned I had just fallen her first response was "where?" and she neither asked me if I was okay nor apologized. We explained the reasons we were wanting to leave and she said we'd have to speak to her husband. She asked us to wait an hour until he returned from running errands and when we said we didn't want to she reluctantly gave us his phone number.

After getting him on the phone he promptly told me that they had reserved the room for us for quite awhile and that there wasn't anything he could do. I explained that his website was not representative of the actual product we were receiving mainly because there is no air conditioning. We discussed things for about two more minutes and he got extremely rude and then he told me that it was probably best that I dispute the charges with my credit card company. Seriously? I then asked if I should share my experience with Lonely Planet, the B&B associations and the local Chamber of Commerce and he actually said yes. To be fair, I can be a complete pain in the ass when I want to be...I know that and so does everybody that knows me...but Alan listened in on the entire conversation and will attest to the fact that I was actually being pleasant to this complete ass.

So, for the first time in almost 15 years of traveling the world together we walked out on a reservation. I have not ever been treated so poorly by a business owner in my life and will definitely be disputing the charges and writing a review on every website I can find. I know I shouldn't let him get to me...and I won't let it ruin our vacation...but there is no way I'm going to let this guy get the last word or any of my money.

We ended up finding a great local hotel with an oceanfront room for much less money. The people here at this hotel are so friendly and it is actually clean and well maintained. After checking-in we promptly headed to the hotel bar to have a drink to calm our nerves a bit. Here is me with a fruity cocktail:

When we left the hotel bar the waitress was so sweet she offered me all of the colors of the umbrellas since I was enjoying mine so much.

We then headed into the town and stopped at Cafe Pesto which our friend Claire recommended to us. Holy cow...it is by far the best all around meal I have had since I was in Durham at Nana's back in June. We sat at the bar in front of the open kitchen so had some fun chats with the staff. We will likely be back there for dinner tomorrow night it was that good.

So, after a crappy experience at that horrible inn we have ended up at a nice hotel and found a great place for drinks and another great place for drinks, food, and service.

All is well that ends well...

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Hawaii - Day 2

We started the day today with a drive to the central part of the island to the Dole Plantation. It was pretty to see all of the pineapple fields but we were a little disappointed in the plantation itself. It was much more of a shop for Dole versus teaching us about farming pineapples. We did learn that it takes about 18 months for a pineapple plant to reach it's first fruit. The plants produce three different pineapples before they are pulled and new ones are planted. A few pictures from the plantation:
Probably the best part about the plantation was the garden area. There were some beautiful hibiscus plants.

We left the pineapple plantation and headed up to the North Shore. This is an area that is famous for its surfing. The weather today had some nice swells coming in so there were quite a few surfers out. We drove along the shore and enjoyed the view and ended up stopping to just sit and watch the surfers for a bit. The balance the surfers have is just amazing to me we had a good time watching them. If you double-click on the second picture below you'll see four surfers catching the same wave.

After leaving the North Shore we drove along the coast and headed back down to Waikiki. When we planned the trip we had a couple of friends ask us why we were staying on O'ahu for more than a day. We figured there would be plenty to see and do but have quickly realized that this is not the beautiful part of Hawaii. We're hoping that the next week on the Big Island brings us much more of the beauty that we have seen and heard about Hawaii.

On another note, today is our 11th anniversary. Woohoo!

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Hawaii - Day 1

This morning we headed out to see Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. It was pretty amazing to see but I have to say was pretty small in comparison to what I had imagined after seeing it on television all of these years. Regardless, it was still very interesting to visit.

What is amazing is that after 60+ years there is still oil leaking from the sunken ship. When we first arrived at the memorial there were quite a few oil spots as well as the sheen left in the water.

It is hard to believe that after all of these years there is still an active oil leak. However, over 1100 lives were lost when the USS Arizona sank on December 7, 1941 so I have to wonder if it is a good thing that the oil is still leaking to remind us that while it is a part of history it wasn't really all that long ago.

After leaving the USS Arizona Memorial we went on a tour of the USS Bowfin. The Bowfin was a WWII era submarine. It was quite small to what the current day nuclear submarines are in size but was still interesting to tour.

From there we headed over to the USS Missouri which was the battleship that the Japanese surrendered to the US to put an end to WWII. What is interesting is that it was decommissioned and then put back into service during the first Iraq War. Both Alan and I thought it odd that they put it back into service and after having toured it you could tell it was ready to be docked. It was fun to tour a battleship (my first time) but realized that they are quite different to what the Navy uses these days.
I was amazed at the size of the guns on the ship. These things could shoot ammunition up to 23 miles. Holy cow! Can you just imagine the noise it made when they fired??? The people on the ship surely would have known when they were at combat. After being put back in service the USS Missouri was the first ship to fire upon a vessel in the first Iraq War.

After touring these WWII memorials we headed back up the coast from Waikiki. We drove past the lighthouse at Diamond Head but realized it was a private house so didn't stop. We then headed up the coast and stopped at a couple of lookout points to see the views of the water. Our primary stop was at the Makapu'u Point Lighthouse. The guidebook says it is an uphill, not difficult, mile long walk to see the lighthouse. It seemed far longer than a mile.

To be fair to Alan, I should probably take a moment to point out that no matter where we go on vacation I tend to choose at least one thing that is a vertical climb. It happens on every vacation and Alan always humors me but it is not always the easiest climb. Today it was more than 650 feet up but have to admit it was worth the climb...when we finally made it to the top. It is hard to see in the picture below, but if you double click on it you can see the faint rainbow in the upper right hand corner.
When we finally made it to the top it was totally worth it because it is one of the best lighthouses we have seen in awhile.

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Birthday

I had a very long but fun birthday yesterday. The best part was certainly seeing Alan for the first time in a few months. He managed to sneak away at the airport and buy me a lei for my birthday. It is made of beautiful purple orchids and it just smells amazing. Here's a picture of me wearing it on the balcony of our hotel:

After we got settled in to the hotel we headed out for a bite to eat. Just around the corner from our hotel is a great bar with a million beers on tap. We ended up having some nachos, lettuce wraps, pizza, and beer from there. I know, doesn't sound like local fare but they are all things that are really hard to get in Singapore so were a nice change for me.

After dinner we went for a short walk along Waikiki Beach. It was really nice weather (hot for Alan but nice for me since there was no humidity) and very pretty along the water. A few shots from the walk:


Headed down for some breakfast now and our first full day of exploring. More later...

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Long trip - good day for it though

Aloha from Waikiki Beach in Hawaii! I arrived at the hotel about an hour ago after a long trip.

My alarm went off in Singapore at 3am on Thursday (9am on Wednesday in Hawaii). I flew to Tokyo where I had an 8 hour layover. Thankfully they have what they call dayrooms. You rent them by the hour and you get a private room with a bed, shower, bathroom, etc. It only cost $30 US for 6 hours. Initially I wasn't too sure but it was super clean and was so incredibly nice to have a quiet place to nap instead of sitting around the airport lounge area with lots of other people. Here's a picture of what it looks like:

I would highly recommend on of these if you have a layover of longer than 3 hours. It is well worth the peace and quiet and especially nice to be able to lie down instead of sitting.

I boarded the flight to Honolulu at 8:00 pm Tokyo time Thursday (7 pm Singapore and 1 pm on Wednesday in Hawaii). It was a packed flight and other than the flight crew I think I was one of less than 20 Westerners on the plane. It was an uneventful flight and we landed in Honolulu at around 9 am on Thursday in Hawaii (3 am Friday in Singapore).

I am now at the hotel waiting to head back to the airport to pick-up Alan. According to Delta's website he is scheduled to land at 2 pm local time (8 pm EDT). I can't wait!!!

So, in case any of you don't know, today is my birthday. This will truly be the longest birthday that I have ever had. I've already been awake (on and off) for 26 hours and have another 13 left in the day here in Hawaii. I'm guessing I won't make it to midnight but is pretty cool to be able to celebrate my birthday near both sides of the international date line. Also, I'm thinking this may be payback to me for all of those days that I have lost flying from the US to Asia.

Am going to go relax for a bit...I'll leave you with the view from our hotel room...

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Quick post from Tokyo

In Tokyo. Will board my flight to Honolulu in 2 hours. More later...

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How did I miss this?

Just in case you forgot, I love going to the post office (feel like I needed to remind you since it's been awhile). I had to drop off a couple of letters at the post office today. An odd thing about the post offices here are that they don't accept letters inside. You have to take them to the giant mailbox outside. Not sure why, and you have to walk out of the building to leave so isn't too inconvenient but is just different. Anyway, I only needed to drop some letters in the mailbox and then was heading across the street to grab some lunch. Somehow, in all of my many visits to the post office I have missed this:


How cool is it that they've kept one of the old fashioned mailboxes out in front? They should still use this kind because the current mailboxes are pretty boring. And just because I talk about this place so much I decided to post some pictures of the post office:

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Local food

Since I'm only in town until Thursday morning I opted not to do any cooking this week...are you sick of me hinting at my vacation yet? Anyway, I am a little tired of sandwiches which I have been eating for the past few weeks. On my way home tonight I decided to swing by Killiney Road to grab something to eat. Killiney Road is one of the places that both locals and tourists go to eat. It is a relatively short block but there are a good number of restaurants to choose from. I had noodles on my mind so stopped at a place that sells noodles and curry puffs. They only have about six things on their menu and it was quiet tonight so the nice lady explained them all to me. I ended up choosing the very first thing she explained.

It was a bowl of spaghetti type noodles that were made of rice. There were veggies and what appeared to be bacon and some other things I'm not sure what they were. In addition, there was a half of lime for flavor and entire hard boiled egg. The broth was really flavorful. I should have paid more attention when I was eating it to describe the flavors but all I can really remember is that it was yummy.

It was a nice change from the sandwiches and I had fun with the little Asian lady who was explaining all of the dishes to me. The best part is that it is right around the corner from my house so I can go back again...maybe tomorrow night...

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Long weekend

Wow! What a difference an extra day on the weekend can make for your mental health. Today was a national holiday to honor Hari Raya. I had planned to work from home today but ended up having just another relaxing day. And I shouldn't say that I didn't work - I just didn't do business work...instead, I cleaned the apartment and did laundry. The only time I left the apartment today was to go for a walk. I figured it'd be busy out since it is a holiday but there actually seemed to be less people out.

I probably should have done some business work today since I leave on Thursday for vacation but I just really needed the break. It'll be full-on the next two days but there is a very bright and shiny light at the end of the tunnel...Hawaii!

For any of you that may be race fans, there is a Formula One race here later this week. I believe that it is the only night race on that circuit but could be wrong. It is also a tough race for the drivers because there are quite a few left hand turns which apparently are harder for the drivers. Anywho...the city is all set-up for the race which includes the fences and lighting. Just thought I'd share a picture of what it looks like. For anybody who knows Singapore, I am standing next to the Fullerton Hotel.

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Lantern Lighting?

Last night I went dragon hunting so tonight I decided to go lantern hunting. As I mentioned yesterday, part of the Mid-Autumn Festival are all sorts of lanterns. The Chinese Gardens in Singapore apparently have quite a few lanterns during the festival so we headed out there to see them.

Here is what we found:
Lots and lots of lanterns in the trees...just none of them lit. Apparently we were either early or late for the lantern lighting. Oh well...we stumbled upon the festivities in Chinatown last night so I don't feel so bad that we didn't find what we were looking for tonight. Plus, the weather in the Chinese Gardens was beautiful and we had a nice walk.

There are some great pagodas which were lit up. I didn't know about this place so will certainly be coming back during the daylight hours.

Today is Hari Raya which marks the end of Ramadan. Hari raya translates to "day of celebration" which seems only fitting after a month of fasting. There were quite a few people out in the traditional Muslim attire. The men wear Eastern style suits with pants and tunic-type tops that have a stiff collar and round caps on their head. The women wear ankle length skirts with knee length tunic tops. Both men and women wear bright colors. I saw orange, pink, purple, and red on both men and women. I wish I could have gotten some pictures but I hate taking pictures without asking. Since today was a religious holiday for them I just didn't feel comfortable asking.

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Dragon hunting

After a nice dinner with a friend we wandered up to Chinatown. There is apparently a really long lantern that is shaped like a dragon and we went hunting for it. We never did find the dragon lantern but did come across some great festival activities.

It was sort of like a parade but there was a narrator and a couple of areas where the performers would stop and dance or sing. It appeared that they were telling a story but since it was mostly in Chinese it was hard to follow.

There were five of these guys. They were so heavy and large that it took two guys to carry them, however, only one guy would wear this on his shoulders and dance around in it. They were called the Five Warriors.

These next few photos are of these giant puppets. In one of the photos you can see the guy wearing the puppet. What was fun about these is that the crowd was actually shaking the hands of the puppets. The last photo shows you just how large these were in relation to the crowd.



There were also a bunch of dragon dancers. They move so much to animate the dragons that it is hard to take still photos of them. So, here's a video of one of the really pretty ones. I'm not sure if you can tell but the body of the dragon is made out of butterflies.



After watching some of the performances we wandered through the night market. One of the items that is popular during this festival is the lantern. They sell these really interesting and colorful lanterns that children carry around. They are lit internally either by candles or by battery operated lights. It is fun to see the kids with them.

These next few photos are from wandering through the night market in Chinatown.

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Relaxing at home

Flew home from Sydney yesterday. The trip itself was uneventful and I was on Singapore Airlines again. This time I was in economy on the upper deck of the A380. I watched a couple of movies and generally just decompressed from the craziness of work the past few weeks.

It is nice to be home again and to know that I'll be here for longer than 24 hours. I've got no food in the house and have about a month's worth of dust to take care of but it is still good to be home. And to be quite honest, it will be nice to have some domestic things to take care of instead of just packing suitcases. More importantly, I can now shift my focus fully to preparing for vacation...woohoo! I depart for Hawaii on Thursday morning...I imagine that the next few days are going to be very, very long.

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Phew!

The past few weeks have been beyond crazy at work. Won't get into specifics here but I am happy to report that all the problems have been sorted and am feeling quite positive about things moving forward. As you have seen, I haven't been blogging at all this week. I've been in the office by 7am and not leaving until 8pm each day. We got resolution to our issue this morning and I woke up feeling a bit more relaxed today...still had to be at the office at 7am but am in a good mood.

It is a warm and sunny day here in Sydney. I've had a few meetings this morning and then am heading out to the local Employee Appreciation Day cookout at a local park. Will only be there for a few hours before having to head to the airport to return to Singapore.

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Quick turn

After getting home last night around 7 pm, I am already starting to pack my luggage so that I can be ready for my 6 pm taxi to the airport. I'm headed back to Australia, this time to Sydney for the week. This means I'll physically be in Singapore for only about 24 hours.

When I realized late Friday that I had to be in Sydney on Monday morning, I thought about just staying in Australia for the weekend. I opted against it and am glad I did. There is something nice about being at your home with all of your own things that can even make two separate 8 hour flights in a 36 hour period seem worth it. I've been able to do laundry, relax on my sofa (remember that most hotel rooms don't have them so it is a nice change), and most importantly sleep in my own bed. Well worth the miles both ways.

I also came home yesterday to a pretty full mailbox. I had been away 10 days in total so had a good mix of things when I returned. Thanks to everybody who keeps sending me things - I do really enjoy them all! Included in the mail were a couple of bills that had I not come home for today would have ended up being late on. Of course, that required a trip to the Singapore post office to pay them and also to send some things out in return for the mail I received.

I was even able to squeeze in some 'me' time and managed to get a manicure and pedicure this afternoon. With all of the craziness at work lately it was nice to have a little time for myself.

I hope everybody enjoys the rest of their weekend and my next post will be from Sydney...again...

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Happy Birthday Bram

As my September 12th is rapidly drawing to a close, I have to take time out and make a special post to my nephew Bram. Today is his 6th birthday! He is my first nephew and I can still remember getting the news of his birth. This is a really old picture of the two of us being goofy together:

Happy birthday Bram! Have a great day and hope your package made it to you in time.

Love,
Aunt Kate

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It pays to be loyal

By mostly default, I do most of my flying on Singapore Airlines although, I do have another great option to Australia with Qantas. I've been trying to build up my frequent flyer miles on Singapore Airlines so I have just stuck with them. Today it not only paid off but it also reminded me why I like flying them so much.

I arrived at the Adelaide airport the required 2 hours before my international flight. It quickly became clear that the flight was going to be full by the really long line of people waiting to check-in. Since I have preferred status I strolled right by them all and was able to check-in at the business class counter where there was nobody waiting. I think I ended up having the most pleasant airline worker ever. She was just the right amount of chatty (she commented on the winery I had been to) and was really nice. She also upgraded me to business class without my even noticing it. She then directed me to the business class lounge so I could wait out the rest of my 2 hours in comfort.

As an aside, I had to clear security, immigration/customs, and then security again to reach the lounge. I am continually surprised at how people just don't follow the rules and try and get away with not complying with them. Some of them even act as if they have never heard of them...I guess it is possible but just seems so unlikely.

Anyway, arrived at the lounge without any delays in immigration. The gentleman behind the counter politely verified my account and then got up and walked me to the lounge area. He pointed out the food and drinks as well as the restrooms. He then told me he'd let us know when it was time to board. He did this for everybody who entered the lounge. It may not seem like much but most of the time they just leave you to fend for yourselves. Even the waitress was exceptionally friendly.

As mentioned, I was upgraded to business class which is always nice...especially on Singapore Airlines. Very early on in the flight it became clear that the entertainment system was having some issues. The head steward re-booted the system four times and actually got on the phone with the manufacturer in Singapore but just couldn't get it to work. He and the rest of the crew apologized to each person individually. What can you do? It was a little annoying since it is an 8 hour flight but no reason to dwell on it. A couple of hours later the head steward stopped by and gave me a $100 voucher for the in-flight duty free as an apology for any inconvenience the non-functioning entertainment system may have caused me.

When I arrived in Singapore I didn't have to wait longer than 5 minutes for my luggage. And to add to this great travel day that I was having, my bags were the first two that came out. It was great!

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A week of work

Apologies for so few posts this week. I had an insane week at the office here which I won't go into as it would likely bore you all. Needless to say, I am glad to be done with the week and am heading back to Singapore today. Thankfully there is a direct flight to Singapore from Adelaide. I watched a beautiful sunrise over the Adelaide hills this morning so was nice as a goodbye to this lovely city.

On Wednesday I had a morning of meetings and training and then took my team out on a team building. The team building consisted of visits to a few wineries, a chocolate shop, a jam shop, and then dinner in a great little town.

The first stop was to the Nepenthe winery. They had a small building for operations but a ton of land for their vineyards. Australia is just moving into their spring so things are just beginning to bloom. I am always interested in the age of the vines. They had a good variety young and old vines. I ended up buying some nice Pinot Gris from Nepenthe.

The next stop was to the Bird in Hand winery. Another relatively small winery. They are actually not named after the common phrase but actually named for a local mine. There are quite a few mines in the area and the the first vineyard for them was planted on the Bird in Hand mine property. We had fun tasting their wines and I have to say I liked most of their wine better than the first winery. I helped out the local economy and got some nice Merlot from them.

The next stop was to a local chocolate and candy factory. It was another small operation but they made everything on site and you could watch them doing it. I didn't make any purchases here but did have fun wandering around looking at everything. In South Australia they are big into chocolate frogs. They have different flavors and a bunch of different sizes. They also had a bunch of fairy floss - commonly known in the US as cotton candy.

Our last stop was to a town settled by Germans named Hahndorf. It is probably more of a village than a town. They have done a nice job of maintaining the original feel of the town by keeping the buildings as the original structures instead of building modern buildings.

The shops are all local and most only sell locally made products. This is what most of them look like from the inside:

We finished the day with dinner at a local pub called the Hahndorf Inn. Traditional German fare with some Australian twist thrown in.

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Tram ride home

I had a late start this morning in order to have one final morning of relaxation. It was nice but was then back to the grind. I headed into our office in Adelaide. It is a pretty small office but everybody is very friendly. I finished up the preparations for the next three days of meetings and then headed out.

Instead of taking a taxi ride back to the hotel, I opted for a 10 minute walk to the tram stop. It was a beautiful day today. Started out rainy but the sun came out this afternoon and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The temps were still pretty chilly but that made my walk even more enjoyable. I had a short wait at the tram stop and then a 15 minute tram ride back to the hotel. It was a nice option to be able to take the tram instead of being in another taxi.

Am just finishing up some work for the evening and will be heading to bed soon. They are replaying all of the center court matches from the US Open so have had them on in the background. Go Kim Clijsters on your comeback! It was actually a great match to watch and I think I spent more time watching it instead of watching my computer screen. But hey, it is the evening so I shouldn't feel bad about it.

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Adelaide

I had a more active day than yesterday. I still didn't do a heck of a lot but I did wander around downtown Adelaide and found parts of the city I haven't seen before. To get from Glenelg to Adelaide you can take a tram for $4 each way. When Alan and I were first here 7 years ago it was an old fashioned one car tram. Unfortunately and fortunately, now it is a modern three car tram that looks more like a train. It carries more people and was certainly being heavily used but I miss the nostalgia of the old-fashioned tram.

I got off the tram at the Rundle Mall stop. Rundle Mall is a pedestrian street that is about 8 blocks long and has lots and lots of shops. I wandered through a few of them and didn't really find anything to buy. Within Rundle Mall are a couple of traditional shopping arcades. I always like wandering through them because it is kind of like stepping back in time. Here is are a couple of shots from one of the arcades:

As a side note, I went into a couple of bookstores since I finished my book yesterday. Holy cow are books expensive here! A simple crime novel that is a small paperback would typically run you about $7 in the US - here they were $20 each. I really need something new to read but couldn't stomach spending more than twice what I would spend in the US. Most of the books that are here in Australia are actually published here so the cost isn't due to importing them. Who knows...

After doing a bit of shopping I decided to wander a couple of streets over. I ended up walking through the festival and arts area that is right on the river. It is really nicely done and there is some great outdoor art there as well. It is Father's Day here today so there were quite a few families out picnicking on the lawn and out on paddle boats on the river.

Right near this area is the Railway Station. I figured it was just the old rail station building and wasn't in use. To my surprise, it is still a functioning rail station. Here are pictures of the building as well as the clock within the station:

From the railway station I stopped in to the South Australian Museum. There was free entry today since it was Father's Day. It was an interesting museum but it was such a nice day outside that I didn't spend too much time inside. I did a bit more shopping to pick up some groceries for the hotel room and some local chocolates for Alan and I to enjoy when we are in Hawaii in a few weeks.

I headed back to the hotel in Glenelg on the return tram. I realized that in order to eat the salad I bought at the grocery store I needed a fork so headed back out to the local grocery store. On the way back from what was supposed to be a quick trip I got pulled into the local bookstore. Thank goodness for local bookstores! Their normal prices were the same as the other shops in Adelaide, however, they had two great big sale tables and I found a new book for $5.95. I also found some greeting cards that were on sale (these are also insanely priced in Singapore). I'll start reading the new book tonight and if I like it may go back and get a couple of the other books from the same author.

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