TravBlog: May 2012

I can’t believe it took me 16 months of living in Europe to finally visit Venice. Usually it’s one of the first destinations people go to. I guess I’m not romantic hehe. This time around, we had a perfect excuse to make the trip – Miz Jenn’s bday coupled with the famous Venice Carnival.

We got in bright and early Saturday morning and took the water taxi into Venice. The idea of a water taxi still amuses me to no extent – they actually have ‘lanes’ in the water marked by long posts...how neat is that?! Right away we were hit with the Carnival feel, so I never got to experience the romantic side of Venice. The Carnival is an annual masquerade ball, a tradition from centuries ago where once a year people of all levels of society can mix and mingle together and not worry about being accepted since everyone can hide behind a mask. I would have to say that the tradition has been kept up pretty well throughout the years. The streets were teeming with people: ogling tourists like us, families out for the occasion, and of course, people from all over Italy and the world parading their extravagant costumes around for the crowd. Every store was open and selling masks and costumes, and the streets were filled with stalls selling masks of every colour and for every taste. I was amazed by how elaborate and grand some of the costumes were...we saw a tea set, a chicken coup, mother earth, a zoo, and everything in between. Our own Vi opted for a Marie Antoinette outfit, while Van was...not sure who, but I think it was a jester hehe.

We started our Venice Carnival experience with a proper visit to a seafood tapas place where we feasted and got into the mood with some Prosecco. The rest of the day involved dancing with fellow ‘carnies’ in the town square, more Prosecco and other regional drinks, such as Jenn’s fave – bellini hehehe. We continued the pattern until we made our way to the main square where the costume competition was taking place. We used it as an opportunity to take loads of pictures with all sorts of crazy costumes out there. Miraculously, we also managed to meet with the rest of our Venice crew, only to lose each other in the crowds a little later...we managed to keep Marion, however :D

They party got more fun in the evening. We met up with the late arrivals, Agnes and Dave, and managed to go for a very nice dinner. What made the dinner especially nice is all the alcoholic freebies that they gave out, including glasses of bellini, lemoncello and grappa. We then followed our ears to the main square (that is the largest one in Europe, btw! Who knew!) that was turned into an outdoor club complete with a stage, a dj blasting house beats, and thousands of happy dancing people. We opted for a smaller square party a few blocks away, still complete with a stage and a dj. Who knew that you can meet so many people just drinking in the streets as we met people from all over the world as we were looking for the rest of our group. 2 hours and lots of dance moves later, we managed to find the rest of the group, but lost Dave who disappeared into the crowd...In the best Hangover style, the next morning we learned that he had an epic adventure leaving the island, but then heroically finding his way back to rescue the locked out Agnes hehe. Speaking of epic adventures, special notice goes to Van as well, who managed to find a street afterparty where he rocked out to house until sunset with his new friends. Crazy boys!

Needless to say, we needed a quiet morning, and a quiet day for that matter. We had a lovely brunch and went back to the main square to watch the costume contest finals (and ogle at some more outrageous/elaborate outfits).We finished the day by walking around the waterfront taking as many pictures of weird things and people as we could. It was a lovely lazy finish to a day and a half of action!

I guess I need to go back to experience that special romantic side of Venice. In the meanwhile, here’s a recap of our trip in pictures!

The infamous (and infamously expensive) gondolas

Suiting up!

Ah, the costumes!

...and who can forget the party!

This is another belated entry (4 months belated at that :S), but the memories of this wonderful vacation are still fresh in my mind (except for the day order perhaps). This was mine and Mark’s first trip to Hawaii and we did it in the company of great friends: Anna, Steve, Pat and Joanna, joined by new friends Lydia and Mac.

Day 1 started with some scuba diving for the more active of us (A, S, P and J), and a more leisurely ‘lets explore the beach’ activity for the rest of (Mark and I) hehe. We opted to stay at the Westin Residences near Lahaina, and our beach area was located at the very start of a coral reef. What that meant for us is that all you had to do was swim 10 meters from the beach, and you were surrounded by colourful tropical fish and corals. A couple of hundred meters up the beach was the Black Rock – a place favoured for snorkelling as well as turtle spotting since turtles prefer the rock as a hangout spot. And snorkelling we did! It was my very first time (which means it was a little terrifying), but all the nerves went away when I saw what’s below the water. I may be a snorkelling newbie, but I thought that the corals and the fish, and the schools of fish that we saw was one of the coolest things ever...and I can’t believe that I’d ever say anything like that about a water activity :D

Our morning water activities were proceeded by afternoon land activities when we visited the Iao Valley National Park. The park was very green and Jurassic Park-like, but we didn’t get why it was rated top attraction on Tripadvisor...we were promised a 30 min hike but we found a 5 min trail instead...Although, Mark still managed to find an adventure by climbing into a river, so it’s not like we didn’t have a good time hehe.

Day 2 was very adventurous as this was the day we climbed (or drove up) the volcano Haleakala to watch the sign rise over the clouds. We woke up at 3 to make our 90 min journey to the top of the mountain. We arrived 30 min before sunset and got to enjoy the starriest night sky I’ve ever seen, completely cloud and light pollution free. What wasn’t pleasing is the night temperatures which was close to 0. It is actually quite crazy – the difference in temperature between the top of the mountain and the beach is almost 25 degrees! The sun started to rise around 5:30 and emerged from the clouds at 7, so we got a couple of hours of spectacular views of its journey. After the sunrise, we had a very ‘rustic’ breakfast in the parking lot in the mountains, followed by an attempted hike to the crater. I say the hike was attempted because only I actually wanted to do it, and we turned back 20 min into it. Of course, later I was accused of not being convincing enough to continue hiking once everyone saw pix of the crater on postcards hehe.

The Big Beach was our next stop after the volcano adventures. The Big Beach is very well described by its name. It’s a beach, it’s big, and it’s great! I did attempt playing in the waves, but after a near death experience, opted for snoozing on the sand instead – a much deserved rest after all the morning adventures!

Day 3 was New Year’s eve! We had a lot of partying planned for the evening (and party we did!), but we started the day by boarding a boat and driving out into the ocean to do some whale watching! Unfortunately the rules are that a boat cannot get closer than 100 m from the whales, so we didn’t see them up close. We did get to see one particularly friendly whale who kept circling our boat and waving to us for a good 30 minutes.

The New Year’s was a b-l-a-s-t! Hands down, the top 3 new years of my life! There’s something really awesome about celebrating in a club right next to a balcony that overlooks the beach, palm trees and moonlit water. The theme of the night was black and white, and we rocked it with our tiaras, top hats, boas and leis. That night is best described a pix, an array of which is presented below for everyone’s viewing pleasure.

I’m starting to lose track of days here, so I will stop counting hehe. One of our biggest adventure days was doing the road to Hana route. Hana is a city on the eastern tip on the island, and the road leading to it from the west coast of the island is considered to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. I would happily second that opinion; the road passes through mountains, valleys, rainforest, rivers and waterfalls and even a black beach. It’s not an easy drive with its narrow roads, sharp turns and one lanes at some places. I've also seen the most double rainbows I’ve seen in my life. Hawaiian rain is stop and go, while the sun is still shining, making for some stunning single and even double rainbows. We printed a road to Hana guide, which marks places of interest where one should stop and explore. Using it, we managed to find a waterfall reachable only by climbing the empty waterbed for half an hour. Our reward at the end of the climb was beautiful as we discovered a 100% private swimming pool. Other gems along the way include beautiful scenery, more waterfalls, tasty banana bread stand and finding the black beach! I have to say that that black beach was my personal fave find of the whole trip as I’ve never seen anything like it. The beach was made of literally black rock and sand, and littered with caves that you can climb through for some spectacular views - truly a nature’s miracle. Our biggest adventure of the drive, however, has been driving back. The thing is, the road to Hana is considered the middle of nowhere, which means that there’s nothing along it, including the gas stations. We weren’t very good at planning, so our road FROM Hana drive ended up being on an empty tank and sitting on the edge of the seat guessing whether or not we will end up being stuck in the middle of a rainforest. To add to the stress, Pat and Joanna were rushing to the airport to catch their flight...All in all, it was a happy ending and everyone made with a story to tell hehe.

Our last days were lovely, although we were missing our partners in crime Pat and Joanna because they had to leave two days before us. Equipped with Lydia’s very carefully and very useful guide, we decided to spend the last days exploring, starting with the blowhole. The blowhole was in the middle of nowhere on a rocky beach, and was made of a hole in the rocks that spat out water whenever a large wave crushed into it. It was a climb down the hill to get to it, so the views were stunning. It turns out that those blowholes are quite dangerous, being able to suck people in, so we kept our distance while still trying to get some photos with it. The coolest thing was that mini rainbows kept forming around us as the light kept reflecting all the water particles from the impact...but we never managed to catch one L We also disproved the theory that there’s a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow...we wish! Stop 2 on our exploration tour were private swimming pools – shallow pools naturally carved in the cliffs that fill up with ocean water from the waves. Those things are actually quite fascinating as they have their own ecosystem with plants, small fish and other critters finding home in them. We enjoyed some swimming, but quickly realized the danger when a strong wave came pushing us into some very jaggedy rocks hehe. We escaped with no injuries but all learned our lesson and went to play further away from the water.

The grand finish to our Maui adventures was stalking (and finding!) turtles to swim with! We drove around the island and tried various snorkelling spots in an attempt to find turtles, only to find them right under our nose at Black Rock. Supposedly turtles like that location because they can easily hide there. The turtle finding prize goes to Mark who found it and gathered everyone around in a turtle swim/chase. With me being the slowest (and stupidest in water), he had to drag me along with him in turtle pursuit – very sweet! I have to say, for massive monsters that they are, they swim very quickly!

I cannot not talk about the food in Hawaii! Not going into the details of every resto, but we’ve had some delicious meals in Maui! The good thing about being on the island is that you have plentiful supplies of fresh fish, all waiting to be made into delicious fish steaks, sushi, grilled, fried, etc. Yum! We got to go to a Hawaiian Luau as well, getting the full experience including unlimited tropical drinks, authentic Hawaiian food incl a ‘pig roast’ (I put that in quotation marks because they don’t actually roast the pig; the traditional way is to bake it in the ground, covered by palm leaves and taro root, which gives the meat a very smoky flavour), and dancing complete with coconut bras! J In fact, we almost missed our flight back because we had to stop at the Paia Fish Market to get our last meal in Hawaii (gotta go out with a bang!). All I got to say is that all the panicking, rushing, running, and finishing our dinner hobo style on the floor by the gate was well worth it!

This brings me to an end of this Mau adventures recap. Here are some pix to illustrate it! :)

Beach views featuring 2 faves: Airport Beach and the Big Beach