Honeymoon Part IV - Rising Sun

The next day began earlier than most; at 2:30am. Richel and I had to wake up early for the shuttle service that was coming to get us at 3:15am. We had a trip to Mt. Haleakala to watch the sunrise. I had heard that the road to Haleakala was long and quite dangerous and so decided that I would rather not drive there myself, being unfamiliar with the roads. Richel was determinted to bring a blanket because that's what it said on the activities receipt: "bring blankets". Richel likes to be prepared, unlike me who likes to go on the fly and improvise (maybe that's why I'm always in trouble - but I had brought my ski-jacket. I looked ridiculous on the plane to Hawaii, but so what?). So we weren't leaving the room without a blanket. The problem was we didn't bring blankets with us on our trip, so Richel had to "borrow" the hotel blanket for the time being. That's okay, the maids wouldn't miss it at 3am and we would be back before housekeeping would get to the rooms.

So down to the lobby we went stealing the hotel blanket, and in the lobby we met Ewi, our driver and guide. He was a nice and friendly guy, conversational, and quite knowledgeable. We had to stop off at another hotel to pick up one other couple, and then we were on our way to the summit. It would have been nice to just enjoy the quite ride, but our driver kept talking and talking all the way to the mountain top. He wouldn't stop!

We finally made it to a point that was almost the summit. We were at about 10,000ft up, even above the clouds. At first, looking down from the mountain nothing could be seen except a vast and dark emptiness that swallowed everything up including the sounds of our voices.



Off on the horizon a sliver of orange light slowly appeared. It was still dark but at least there was something to look at, now. But the novelty soon wore off, as the same orange line on the horizon didn't change for the better part of an hour and the 39 degree temperature was a shock to our system.



I started taking pictures every ten minutes or so as it slowly became brighter and brighter. So slow in fact that I made snoring noises while we waited, and the couple beside us started laughing.





It finally got bright enough to see the mountain top with the clouds behind it. A lot of people thought it was the ocean at first. In any case, we continued to wait until...



The sun came up and it came up blazing fast (pun intended)! I almost missed it: it started as a reddish sliver and before I knew it it was half way above the horizon.




In any case, after taking pictures of the sunrise for the past hour, I concluded that perhaps all the theories of the sun and planetary bodies being spherical were all wrong. Apparently, we have a square sun.



Okay, time to go up even higher. We went another half mile up the road to the pinnacle and looked down. It was nice up there because the clouds covered all the buildings and development and all you could see was the ocean with the neighboring mountain and sky. It was then that I decided to carry on Goh's and Gah's tradition and have my picture taken. Without explanation, only Gah and Goh would understand these pictures.



As Gah and Goh had their photos taken while they were "creating the world" at Yosemite Park, I would continue that tradition and have my picture taken here creating the world at Mt. Haleakala.



And Richel would help with some creations, too. She put in all the butterflies.

Anyway, now that the world was sufficiently created, it was picture time.

After we had taken enough photos and our guide got bored and came looking for us, we rode back down the mountain to a small little cafe/diner to have breakfast. It had a beautiful view, and we had a prime spot right in the corner.

On our way, however, we saw a series of bunkers on the side of Mt. Haleakala. According to our guide, these bunkers were built back in the days of WWII to defend against the Japanese. So I presume those were built in the late 1940's-1950's. Ironic that 30 years later Japanese would take over just about all of the Hawaiian islands without firing a single shot. For those of you who've been to Hawaii, you know what I'm talking about - during the 80's when Japan's economy exploded they came in to Hawaii and bought and invested just about everything and dominated the islands until 9-11. But the influence of their presence and culture still remains, as there are still store signs and shops, street names, newspapers, restaurants, etc., etc. all in Japanese (in fact, I bought my sunglasses from a very nice Japanese lady named Misako).


There was actually a small community in the area, as well. Can you imagine living in this area? The view would be awesome; the commute would not.

After breakfast, we were dropped off at our hotel at 10:30am, just as our guide had promised. Richel and I hurried back to our room, not because we were exhausted and wanted to take a nap, but didn't want to get caught in the lobby with the hotel's blanket. If we did get caught, I was planning on denying any association or relationship with Richel.

"I don't know who she is, officer. We were just walking in the same direction. Honest!" After taking her away, I'd go to the beach and check out all the hotties - j/k

According to our guide, the drive from Makena to Lahaina was a pain in the butt and we would no doubt get caught in traffic if we left any later than 2:30pm. So after getting back to the Maui Prince and putting the blanket back, we...crap! I don't remember what we did! Uh...apparently we had a 4 hour memory lapse, brought on no doubt by our insane hour of revelry. I do remember that we did shopping stuff for a while, and then drove over to Lahaina.

The drive over wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. We got there fairly quickly and had quite a bit of spare time. We had gone there for the show Ulalena, a musical/dance show which described the history of the Hawaiian islands through song and dance. Sort of like a musical, I guess. But we had gotten there with an hour-and-a-half to spare and since we hadn't eaten lunch, we decided to look for food.....at close to 3pm. I was doing okay without sustenance, having survived internship and residency without regular meals on a daily basis and working all day. But Richel wasn't accustomed to that form of torture, so we ate at this place called Cilantro, a Mexican/Hawaiian fast food place that was surprisingly good.

Afterwards we watched the show, which was entertaining and very different from any musical I had seen in the past. I guess that was because of all the theology, culture, and legend. Richel and I actually got front row seats, which was something I didn't want. I wanted to sit a few rows back so that I could see everything all at once. You know, the big picture. There was this one underwater "scene" where the actors/dancers had large sticks with large fish and sea animals attached at the top, and they would run around and wave the sticks to give the appearance of the fish swimming around. And I swear some girl almost took my head off flinging that thing around.

When we got out, we went to go eat at this restaurant that the people at the theatre recommended. The menu looked okay, but didn't realize it was a fancy-shmancy restaurant. I felt just a bit underdressed with the shorts, sandals, and T-shirt attire, even if the T-shirt was a Banana Republic dry-fit shirt. It was quite pricey, but Richel and I had the best seared Ahi tuna there I've ever tasted. It was like butter melting in your mouth.

With dinner's end, we drove the treacherous rode home. I didn't realize how dangerous the roads were in Hawaii because it's so dark, especially when they have areas with no street lights. The roads are winding and it's pitch black. But we made it back in one piece.

Another fun-filled day had gone by. Part V to come...(anyone out there actually reading all this? Besides Richel?)

Honeymoon Part III - The Adventure Begins

I'm not sure why all these activities start so friggin early in the morning, but they do. On Tuesday we had to be at the Kihei Boat Ramp at 7:15am. Which was fine, because our hotel was about 15 minutes away. When Richel and I were getting ready in the morning, she had convinced me to wear my swim trunks to the boat ramp, which I thought was ridiculous. Of course they would give us a place to change in to our swimming trunks later on, right? Well, whatever. I guess it couldn't hurt to wear the swim trunks to the boat ramp.


This was our mode of transportation: a water raft named the Kanaloa. It looked fairly benign.

After checking in, our guide and our captain both warned us that this raft ride was not for those with back or neck pain, or pregnant women. They also told us that we had to hold on to the raft's life-lines tightly. Yikes! What did I get us in to? But it was a raft, right? How fast could a mere raft go? Especially one that looked like that? It wasn't anything sleek and sporty like on Miami Vice.

Well, I had my answer. As soon as we cleared the docks we were flying along at 45 knots. Thank God the waters were relatively calm that day. I was even more thankful that Richel was sitting in front of me, shielding me from the wind and water in my face. We continued to zip along the water traveling faster and faster until we reached our max speed at Warp 9. In all manliness I hid down further behind Richel from the wind and water that splashed up upon us as we continued to bounce along.

"Captain! I think my head blew off about half a league back. Could we circle back and get it?"

Finally, we slowed down to the speed of sound so that I could hear myself screaming. We were now off the Southern coast of Maui, looking at old lava flow that had come down off the mountain and directly in to the ocean.














With the overflow of lava in to the ocean and with the ocean pounding away at the shore, many caves were created, called the Kanaio Sea Caves. There was even a cave large enough for the whole raft to go inside of.


Hey, proof that I was actually there for once. Cool shades, huh? Note: that ugly 70's hair part in the middle is the product of blasting across the ocean on the raft, not because of my poor fashion sense.


Some parts of the caves were large enough for the raft to go inside.


A rare picture together with the famous archway behind us.

After what seemed to be a couple of hours of looking at rocks and coastline (okay, this is getting kinda old) we sped away to La Perouse Bay for snorkeling. Richel and I, being the two snorkeling newbies on the raft, fumbled around with our equipment while everyone else suited up and jumped in the water. Thank God Richel insisted that I wear my trunks on the boat trip. I was going to wear my long sleeve Banana Republic dry fit shirt while I snorkeled so that I wouldn't get sunburned, but I wasn't sure how the dye would react with the salt water. Besides, we would only be in the water for a few minutes or so, right? So I took it off.

Ah yes, stick to the plan: pretend to be slow in getting the gear on, let everyone else jump in the water and if it's safe and no sharks are sighted and no one is attacked, then get in.

Everyone else was about 20 meters out and it was at that point I felt safe enough to get in the water. So in I went! Splash one. The first thing I noticed was how warm the water was. The second thing I noticed was how salty the water was. Hey! Did those 20 people relieve themselves around the boat before swimming off or something? I could only pray that the warm salty fluid I had inadvertently swallowed was ocean water and not our shipmates' pee.

The next task was getting Richel in to the water. Splash two (hmm...why is she flailing around in the water so much with her arms and legs? She has a floating belt on, flippers, and snorkel gear). With all that flailing around I was sure there was something out there that noticed us. I dunked my face in the water to look around for any blood-thirsty predators but didn't see any. Whew! Okay, let's swim a little more.




We went about 3 meters before Richel made a mad dash back to the boat side. What? Was there a shark or something?! I didn't see anything.



"I dont' want any more!"

Aw, you gotta be kidding me. Well, at least she got in the water. That's a big first step. But our tour guide and captain were very supportive. They continued to encourage her and reassure her that she was doing great, and that was enough to get her back out, again. I was treading about 3 meters off the side of the boat (no life-jacket, no float belt, just me with snorkel goggles and flippers) so I was unable to really cheer her on.



This time we went about 5 meters from the boat before Richel made a mad dash back to the boat. Shark? This time Richel was adamant about getting out of the water. I was obliged to follow, as the rules for snorkeling say always go in pairs and never leave your partner. And we all know about the valuable lesson that Maverick learned in Top Gun: Don't leave your wingman.

So I climbed aboard and dried off. I wanted to do more snorkeling, but oh well. Anyway, I was so proud of Richel for jumping in the ocean and snorkeling, even if it was for just 5 minutes. After about 20 minutes or so, our guide Dante called everyone back in and off we went to Molokini Bay at Warp 6. I actually thought the trip was over, but to my delight it wasn't. We were just going to another area to snorkel. Alright! We would have another chance.

Molokini Island is a partially submerged volcano crater that looks like a crescent moon. Anyway, we went there and this time Richel and I stayed in the water much longer. There were already other boats and snorkelers in the area, so it appeared safe. We swam around looking at all the schools of friendly colorful fish that swam mere inches away from us. I actually reached out to try and touch one, but couldn't; they wouldn't allow themselves to get any closer than 2 inches. While swimming around, I took pictures of some fish and Richel underwater - now we had proof that Richel was actually in the water swimming. I was hoping to see a sea turtle, and other people did see them including Richel. She also saw a manta ray. The only interesting thing I saw was a tube fish. Or at least I think it was a tube fish. I did see something about 30 meters away on the ocean floor crawling along but it was vague and it disappeared before I could catch up with it.

Anyway, we did the same thing a few more times: travel to a different spot at warp speed, stop, snorkel, look at the fish and coral, take pictures of Richel, and then get out of the water. We then came back aboard and were given a sandwhich lunch and drinks. It was about 2pm about this time, and we welcomed the nourishment after having gone the entire morning without food or drink.

Refreshed and envigorated from our meal, we now had enough strength to hang on for dear life as we blasted back to the Kihei Boat Ramp at Warp 9. We docked, disembarked, and kissed the ground. Amazing that Richel and I had gone snorkeling and had a good time without incident. With my luck, I was expecting to get mauled by a shark, impaled by a sting ray, or attacked by a sea turtle. But none of that happened. And now that Richel and I were safely back on dry land we both had one thing on our minds: shower. We climbed in the car and sped home, still damp from the ocean water (eh, it's okay. We had a rental).

After getting cleaned up, I was quite distraught to discover that I had been badly sunburned. Aw, not good. My back was strawberry red and tender. I should have kept the shirt on - who cares if the salt ate away the logo?

Anyway, Richel and I were so tired afterwards that we napped in the afternoon. After all, this was the most exercise we had had for months, and in her case, years. For the rest of the day, Richel repeatedly told me how she could not go kayaking on Friday because of my sunburn and because she didn't have the right shoes. Nevermind the fact that it was another snorkeling trip and that my sunburn and her shoes had absolutely nothing to do with kayaking.

Our evening was nothing special. We went to the Whaler's Store, another convenient store/chain in Hawaii and bought a nice cheap but tasty dinner which we ate in the hotel room. We then went to bed quite early, for we had to get up at 2:30am the next morning...

Stay tuned for Part IV

Honeymoon Part II - The Eternal Travelers

So we arrived at the luxurious Maui Prince Hotel. We did check in about 45 minutes early and our room wasn't ready, yet, so Richel and I went down to the pool and ordered some food while the room's finishing touches were made. While lounging by the pool, I noticed a definite difference in demographics compared to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The Hilton was always full of activity, regardless of what time of day or night it was. Ages varied from what seemed to be 20's to 50's. But more people in their 20's and 30's, thin, and good-looking (I contributed to that population); it was a considerably young and energetic crowd. At the Maui Prince Hotel, however, on that Monday the area was occupied by a bunch of lethargic old fat people in their 50's to 70's, lying around the pool like a herd of sea lions on the beach. What the....am I back in Indiana?

Well, anyway, we finally retired to our luxurious room with the fantastic view and settled in. Richel wasted no time in falling asleep, while I called around to different places I found in an activities magazine to try and book activities. But no such luck, as many things were booked, already. Frustrated, I left the room and headed down to the lobby to look for someone who could help me organize some activities. Perhaps the concierge who looked like Kelly Chen could help me with that.

Instead, I met Jennifer who worked at the Expediafun desk. She worked with me for about an hour organizing events, calling up different places for availability and making reservations for Richel and I for the entire week. We booked 5 events for 2 people, costing an arm and a leg. Ouch. But hey, you only have one honeymoon (at least I only plan on one). Little did I know, however, that I could have gone to a small marketplace in Kihei or Lahaina, booked the same activities and pay about 1/3 the price. Well, perhaps on our next trip we'll go to one of those activity stands and make the most of it. It was too late to do anything about it at that time, though.

Our first activity was water rafting/cave touring and snorkeling. Tough to do without a pair of swim trunks. As I mentioned in part I of this series, I had to break down and buy a pair of swim trunks. So we visited a number of different swimwear stores at the shops of Waileia, which had a lot of high end stores. The cheapest pair of swim trunks I saw went for 40 bucks. 40 bucks for a pair of swim trunks? Remember this is the same guy who slept on the floor throughout med school and on an air mattress during residency. I wasn't sure what the going rate for swim trunks were, so I called up the fashion expert/econimic advisor, Q. I told him that I needed a pair of swim trunks to go snorkeling and asked what was a reasonable price to pay for swim trunks.

"I got a cheap pair for about 20 bucks. That's reasonable. 40 is a little steep. You're going snorkeling? Did you hear about the shark attack that just occurred on Maui?" Bloody hell! NO, I didn't hear of any bloody shark attack at Maui! Would I be crazy or stupid enough to go snorkeling if I had? But being that I paid a pretty penny for it in advance, I guess the answer to that would be yes. So for the next 30 minutes Q proceded to read to me over the phone all the shark attacks that occurred in Maui over the past few years.

"Having said all that, have fun!" said Q. Gee, thanks. Can't wait. I really wasn't afraid for myself, though. I was more afraid for Richel. But I figured when we went snorkeling, we would let all the other people get in the water and swim around first to make sure it was safe, and then we would get in. Sounded like a good plan.

Anyway, I finally found an ABC store, which is like the 7-Eleven of Hawaii that sells everything, including clothes. I bought a pair of swim trunks (black, of course) for 20 bucks and I was set for the next day's dismemberment.

Stay tuned for Part III

Honeymoon Part I - First Contact

No, this piece isn't about the Star Trek movie with the Borg, but about the honeymoon that Richel and I just returned home from.

Planning for this actually began last year when it was announced that the 67th Annual AAPM&R would be located at Hawaii. I thought, hey, what a perfect place and time to honeymoon! I can go on vacation/honeymoon, earn CME credits and learn stuff at the same time, see old friends I haven't seen in a while, and legally deduct part of the trip! Killing 5 birds with 1 stone; you can't beat that. So it was settled; Hawaii it was. Well, that plus the fact that Richel wanted to go to Hawaii instead of Montreal or Quebec for our honeymoon.

This honeymoon/conference was more of an adventure than a relaxing vacation. If you want to make comparisons, an Indiana Jones movie would be very comparable.

November 8 - Richel and I packed up and headed to the airport in Indy. Now, for those of you who don't know, I'm actually afraid of running in to my patients outside of the clinic/hospital because I never know what my patient's reaction will be like. It can be either 1 of 2 reactions: friendly gratitude or intense hatred. I can totally understand how actors or professional athletes feel, now when they're spotted by fans. They're either loved or hated. But anyway, thank goodness the patient we ran in to was one of the ones who did well and was very happy and pleasant. And it was good to see her smiling, too, instead of being in pain.

The 3.5 hour plane ride was uneventful. We flew from Indy to Houston at the George Bush International Airport for our transfer flight. Of all places to fly to...In any case, from there we flew another 7 hours to Oahu. Right off the plane, my cel phone started ringing with a caller from Indy. Against my better judgement, I answered and found that it was the answering service for my work group. The caller was relieved that he had gotten a hold of me, and started telling me how he was trying all day to get in touch with me and about one of my patients who was calling, all in one breath! I told him that I was sorry, but I couldn't really do anything from the airport in Oahu and that I was on vacation. Mortified, he apologized repeatedly and told me he would take care of it.

We then picked up our rental car from Hertz. Ironically, they gave me a Pontiac Grand Prix. One would think that driving a car is no different from one car to the next and that they are all the same. But I had never driven an American car before in my 16 year driving career. So it was quite different but not impossible to figure out. I felt a little like Scotty in Star Trek III and IV:

"Where's the damn anti-matter inducer?"

"Fixing the warp drive, that's easy. Reading Klingon, that's hard."

But like Sulu, Master of Navigation I was able to drive the car without getting in to a wreck. That same evening, we met up with Krishna, Roxanna, little Izzy, Kevin, Wayne, Qamar, Ernie, Rose, Xuong, Jafar, their significant ones, and some other dude I had never met before. Tired, exhausted, sleep deprived, and starving, we headed over to Phuket Thai. Interesting place with great food, but even more interesting was the name of the restaurant. Afterwards, we headed back to our room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which was a very nice place. But our room smelled like wet socks and had a view of a construction site. To think I paid $229/night for that. Paris, I want my money back!












The next few days were pretty much all the same: Krishna, Kevin, and I went to lectures in the morning while Richel, Roxanna, and Izzy went to the malls (I guess they're starting Izzy out early). I jest regarding the whole shopping issue, even though I did a considerable amount of shopping, myself. Why? As Krishna pointed out, I didn't bring my shoes, hat, sunglasses, or swimming trunks. The only things I did bring were my dry-fit shirts. What was I thinking? So to avoid further sun damage and heat discomfort, I ended up buying sunglasses, swimming trunks, a hat, and yes, another dry-fit shirt. My sly way of buying things for a purpose.

In the afternoons, the men met up with the women and we would all go out to dinner somewhere. Friday night was no exception when we celebrated Krishna's birthday at a pretty cool restaurant. It was an open air restaurant situated right off the water that was supposed to have pretty good seafood. We had a pretty good time there.

The next day was the same. Lecture in the morning and afternoon and dinner in the evening. We went shopping later with the women and then headed back to the hotel. One thing that I wanted to do in Oahu was hang out on the beach for a little while. Unfortunately, Richel was so tired she fell asleep and Roxanna and Izzy were napping as well. So I guess that it was no surprise that on my honeymoon/vacation I was hanging out on the beach with my good buddy Krishna.











Later on that evening Krishna, Roxanna, Izzy, Richel and I went to a Luau. Our bus tour entertainer, who dubbed himself "the Rock" was quite amusing and tried to get us in to the party spirit, along with 50 other people in the bus. We were hoping for traditional/ culturally interesting dancing and entertainment. But the show started off more like an MTV Spring Break episode, which was funny but somewhat disappointing.

"Everyone wave your hands in the air and say 'HO'!".

Hmmm...is THIS how native Hawaiians celebrated the Luau for the past thousand years? A comparable analogy would be watching Lord of the Rings with a rock band playing the soundtrack (- can you imagine Gandalf casting spells, whirling his staff and sword to the sounds of an electric guitar?). But the dancing, especially the fire-dance, made up for the MTV commercialism.







On Sunday, I wasted 50 bucks on a stupid lecture-workshop (which I won't get in to, but can you tell I'm bitter about it?) and then had brunch with our friends before they returned home. For the rest of the day in Oahu, Richel and I went over to Diamond Head to hike the trail to the top.

It started off pretty basic with a nice paved but steep path winding towards the summit. But very quickly, this nice paved trail turned in to a rocky dirt trail with stairs and ladders and tunnels to climb and crawl through. Alright! Exactly what I was hoping for. So we reached the highest allowable point but the euphoria of our achievement was blunted by the fact that Richel was feeling sick. After some shade and water she did okay, though. Let the picture-taking begin. Descending was no problem.


Next, Mt. Everest.

The next day, Richel and I flew over to Maui. It was just as hot there, but the beauty of the island far surpassed anything that we had seen on Oahu (we only stayed in Waikiki, though). We picked up the rental car and drove over to the Maui Prince Hotel located in Makena. This was a hotel that was strongly recommended by Q so it's something that I had insisted on, and it didn't disappoint, as the hotel was magnificent with it's large open hallways and lounge and open courtyard with waterfalls, streams, and pond. Our room was located on the top floor with a view of the ocean with a large mountain in the background. And the room didn't smell. Much better than the Hilton.

Stay tuned for Part II