This is pretty long...watch out!

Finally getting to posting up my Maui review. By now my 'Memento' memory has erased most of my memories (which is why I started this blog in the first place - so I remember things) but lucky for me, I jotted down some notes in the airplane. But I have to write this soon because Manny and Rachel are planning on going, and I promised Manny I'd tell him where to go...

So here's little snippets of what I remember, things that you should do and shouldn't do, etc.

Before we start, click here if you want to see the galleries. I just wanted to say that now in case you didn't make it to the end of my Hawaiian novel.

- When we first got there, it was raining. The locals said it was rare that it rained that hard for that length of time. We had planned on doing our snorkeling on the first day, but we were told that it's hard to do when it's raining and that we need wait a couple days for the water to clear up. So we had to rearrange our schedule.

- It's a plus to be Filipino. We got our parking for free after the old Filipino attendant asked us if we were Filipino. When I took out my money to pay, he just shook his head and pointed us to the door. Most of the locals we met there thought we were local, too.

- We went to a luau, I forgot which one, but since it was raining, it was indoors, so it felt more like a Hawaiian wedding than a luau. If you want to go to the most popular luau on Maui, the Old Lahaina luau, you'll need to make reservations before traveling there because spaces take taken up quickly. If I was going to go back to Maui, I think I'd rather check out the Feast at Lele, which is a more intimate luau, with food that represents the different islands of Polynesia. It's also a sit down dinner, rather than a buffet, like most luaus. But we had a great time at our luau, and the food was awesome, even though at the time I had given up beef and Dave was raving about how good it was. Oh, I remember now, it was at the Hyatt. I love me some kalua pork!

- Our breakfast of choice - the spam, egg and rice breakfast from McDonalds. Only in Hawaii can you get spam at Micky D's!

- Lahaina was a great place to shop and just check out the scene. We stopped by Whaler's Village, and ate at the Rusty Harpoon - their seared ahi wrap was delicious. Don't bother going to the museum, it's kinda boring. Though we did get a good laugh when we watched the whale movie, and the lady said that looking at a whale was like 'looking at the eyes of God'. Um, it's cool, but not THAT cool!

- Everyone told us to do the Road to Hana, and since it was raining, we thought we might as well do the trek, since we'd be going through the rain forest anyway. It was really beautiful, but I guess from the hype everyone was giving us we expected more. Due to the rains from the previous days, the waterfalls were in full effect, and the rainforest was lush and green. We did one of those mini-bus tours, and we had a fun bunch of people. Our tourguide, Wes, was awesome. He was this 40 something old surfer guy who had grown up on the north side of the island, and he had the best stories. He gave us a crash course in Hawaiian history, local legends, his own memories in different spots, and partying with celebs like Willie Armstrong and Steven Tyler. He was ultra cool. In any other environment I would have been intimidated by his coolness. He took us to his favorite spots along the way, and my favorite was this area right along the coast with hardened lava all over the place and a blowhole that let the water through. It was pretty and all you could hear was the waves crashing against the shore.

- We also stopped by the Seven Sacred Pools, which were beautiful. Since we were on a tour, we were crunched for time, so rather than explore the whole trail around the pools, me and Dave went to the bottom pool to swim for a bit. The bottom was uneven, and I don't know how to swim, so I never made it to the waterfall side. But it was a beautiful view. I only wish I got shots from the bridge that people jump from!

- Bring water socks, sometimes the beaches have rocks, and they could hurt your feet. You may also want to invest in some of your own snorkel gear, because there's some great snorkeling spots along the beach.

- Make sure to catch a sunset. There's a lot of places you can turn off the highway that have some spectacular views.

- We got up at 2:30 am to drive up to Haleakala crater, which took about 2 hours, which wasn't as long as we thought it would take. It was an windy way up the mountain in the dark, but lucky for us there was a full moon to guide our way. We wore long sleeves and brought our jackets, because we were forewarned that it would be chilly at the top of the crater. When we got there, there were about 4 or 5 other cars at the summit already. We got out of the car and IT WAS FREEZING! It was cold and the wind was howling. I was almost afraid to go to the observation area because I didn't want to blow off the mountain. We stood around for a bit and finally went back in the car to warm up and nap a little. By the time we decided to get out of the car, the parking lot was packed and there were tons of people there. Dave went into the observation room and I decided to brave the biting cold and wind outside so I could get better pictures. At around 5:30am, the sun started to rise. It was the most incredible thing. Being so high up on the mountain, we were above the clouds, so when the sun came up, it slowly painted the sea of clouds below it. When it finally broke through, the world around us was covered in this golden glow. It was really amazing to see. I must have taken a million pictures. We really were on top of the word. After that, we took a nap in the car and didn't end up waking up til 9. We toured around the crater after that, and it's pretty amazing. You feel like you're on another planet looking out into the red earth and the craters left by the extinct volcano. Not something you expect from Hawaii!

- Later that day, we went to Kamaole Beach I, II, and III. Not very imaginative names, but very good beaches!

- The next day, we checked out Big Beach and Wailea Beach. Dave wanted to find Little Beach, which was the topless beach, but unfortunately couldn't find it. I'd have to say my favorite was Wailea beach, because it wasn't too huge, but not too small.

- During our honeymoon, we did the most romantic thing possible - watched 'The Passion of Christ'. OK, I'm just kidding. But it was a bit weird, but we didn't have anything to do one night and saw a late showing of it at the theater. Great movie. Though I wouldn't suggest seeing it on your honeymoon.

- We went on a dolphin excursion, but unfortunately, it started to rain again and the prime snorkeling spot was pretty rocky, so we never did see our dolphins. (One day, dammit! One day I'll see one of you pesky little sea mammals!) We did get to do some snorkeling at Molokini crater, where the water was pretty clear, outside of some debris from the storm. Our captain told us there were many whales in the area. There was a little snorkeling fish class, where we swam (I had my little tube floaty and looked REALLY cool) with a marine biologist and she pointed fish out to us. That was neat, because most of the time you see the fish, but you have no idea what they are, or what they do. She told us that if we stick our heads underwater, we could hear the whales sing from far away. I went off on my own and put my head underwater, and I could hear them singing, very softly. That rocked.

- After that, we went snorkeling in Turtle Town, and I never thought the turtles would be so huge! One swam right by me. They are just the cutest things, and their swimming is just so effortless. One day I'll get my underwater camera developed.

- So there's this law that says that boats cannot sail to within 300 yards of a whale. If it happens that a whale should swim within that 300 yards (they stay underwater and sometimes pop up), then the boats must stop their motors and wait for a whale to pass. On our way back to the dock, we saw many whales in the distance, their dorsal fins in the water or breeching (launching their bodies out of the water and slapping back in). Our boat had a captain, co-captain and several marine biologists. We were sailing along then we saw this mother whale and her baby within that 300 yards. The captain turned off the motors, and we sat there and waited for them to pass by. The suddenly the crew started getting really excited. The mother and baby were going to pass right underneath the ship! Everyone was running around, pulling out their cameras, and the captain was ringing the bell. I never thought a whale could be so huge, but she was almost as big as our boat. So the two of them passed, and after, the little baby launched herself out of the water, learning how to breech. Soon after, mama whale showed baby how it was done and breeched out of the water as well. The whole crew was laughing and smiling and said that had never happened before. To me, it totally made up for not seeing the dolphins!

- My last day in town, I got a cold. I was all sniffles and sore throat. But all we had left was the whale watch. We already had whales the day before, and had debated on going since nothing could top our experience. But we paid for it, so went on the ship. So we got to the boat and headed out of the harbor, and we saw some whales on one side. We watched them and ohh'd and ahh'd. Then the captain exclaimed, 'There's one right on the side!'. We then had to stop the boat, since the whale had come in range. We were excited to see her come closer, and had our camera's ready to take pictures as she passed us. But she didn't. She came right up to our boat and stayed there. The guide theorized that the whale like the sound of the motor, or maybe was using our boat as a shield to get away from any whale suitors. Nonetheless, we were ecstatic. She stayed next to our boat and surfaced every now and then, blowing air out of her blowhole and wetting us, coming above water to take a peep at us, and just chillin on the side of the boat. It was so awesome I can't even put it into words. And the coolest thing is, we couldn't get away because she was by us. We had to wait it out until she got bored of us and went away. I guess this is called a 'whale mugging', where people on a boat are stuck with a whale until it goes away. But hey, we weren't complaining having our own personal whale to hang out with! She was gigantic, and I swear, she winked at me. Finally, an abandoned boat that was moored to the dock passed by us, and Whalea got confused and went and followed that boat. We started to sail away, but then she found us again. We stopped the motors. By this time I think she was tired of us, so she went away. But it was the BEST experience!

- Try the seared ahi tuna at The Lahaina Fish company. You don't even need a meal, just order two plates of those and you're to go!

Posted by Yano at May 22, 2004 07:56 PM

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