Hawaii Trip (Part 2-Big Island)

Contd... from Part 1.....

The previous post was about the first part of our trip to Hawaii. The first three days were spent in Maui and we planned to spend the next three days in Big Island. This post is about our trip in Big Island..

So, Big Island... one thing is for sure. This island is really bigggg.. atleast comparing the Maui island.
Big Island has two airports and we decided to fly to Hilo (the eastern airport). Luckily, flying to Hilo was cheaper and also all the activities that we planned were close to Hilo. This worked in our favor. Going in to trip details...

Day 4: 
We were lucky to get a nice hotel in the budget and the views from the hotel were amazing. After checking in to the hotel, we took some rest and decided to go to Mauna Kea visitor center to check out the star gazing program they had for the visitors. My suggestion is.. the FREE star gazing program is not worth the effort. First of all, it is at a higher elevation about 9000ft. Next, it gets so cold during night. And finally, the people who talk about the stars did not do a good job at it. So, if you want to go for star gazing, try paying a professional group who can explain you well. However, one thing about the drive to Mauna Kea was that we had to drive through the clouds and it was a new experience. Also, after reaching the top, we walk through the clouds and it was fun.

View from Hotel lobby

Day 5: 
We planned Day 5 for ziplining. None of us did zip lining before and we can say this is the HIGHLIGHT of the entire trip. It was amazing and fun. We did the one where the last zip line would go over Akaka falls and the sight of Akaka falls from the zip line is awesome. The good thing about the Skyadventures eco tours is that they have a total of 7 zip lines and the lines gradually become longer and fun. This way when the time for the 7th and final zip line comes, we are ready and prepared to enjoy the view of the waterfall... Highly recommended if you like zip lining..

During zip lining

Zip lining

Akaka Falls in the background

Day 6: 
This day was the day to visit Volcano National Park. It was hot that day. So, we planned to take the drive route to the Sea arch (Also the starting point of hike to visit flowing lava). On the way we saw craters, lava tube and older lava flows. From the top looking at the previous lava flows shows how we are insignificant in front of the nature. Those lava flows ensured the removal of two villages.

View from Sea Arch

View from Jaggar Museum

Inside a lava tube

In the evening of Day 6, we caught a return flight to San Diego from Hilo. We reached San Diego the next day morning, took some rest and finally headed back to Phoenix and Tucson that afternoon after lunch in San Diego.

Overall, it was fun and all of us enjoyed a lott. Next time, maybe we will plan to spend for more days in Maui as both myself and Munny liked Maui...

Hawaii Trip (Part 1-Maui)

So, finally decided to go on a trip to Hawaii in September, 2017.

We started our trip by driving from Tucson to Phoenix to pick up one of our friends, Kundana. All three of us started driving to San Diego. We met Prasad in San Diego and caught a flight to Maui the next day morning.

For the first time, we tried airbnb for accomodation and all of us were presently surprised. The condo is pretty good and it has a wonderful view of the beach from the patio.

View from the Balcony...

Day 1:

After waking up, we decided to drive to Kaanapali Beach and Napili Beach. On the way, we had a stop at a scenic point and drank fresh coconut water. The coconut was soo huge, it was more than sufficient for two people. Later, we had a stop at the Banyan Tree park. The place was very good to hang out with good shade. We spent most of the time there that day until around 3-4pm. Later we started to the beaches. Had a nice view of the Napili beach and later finally got to the Kanapali beach for sunset view. I expected a lot I guess for the sunset. However, it was not very great compared to some wonderful sunset views in Tucson. After dinner, we went early to bed as we had to wake up early the following day.

Sunset at Kaanapali Beach

Day 2: 

This day was reserved for viewing the sunrise from Haleakala Mountain. We had to wake up around 2:30AM and start to Haleakala. The drive has many curves and we had to drive carefully. It was super cold on the top. We had to stand for about 30 minutes on the mountain above the clouds to view the sunrise. And finally, when the sun started to rise above the clouds it was an amazing experience. I loved this and would definitely recommend this. Later, we started down to the hotel.

Sunrise from Haleakala

Sunrise from Haleakala

Day 3: 

We planned to do the "Road to Hana" on this day. The drive was very good and we had stops at the Keaneu Arboretum, Keanue peninsula, Wainapanapa State park. Visiting the Arboretum was kind of ok. It was like hiking as we do not know much about all the different plants in there. The peninsula was good. The view was nice and we had banana bread in one of the stalls there. It was delicious and all of us liked it. The best thing in Wainapanapa state park was the black sand beach. We get to see some picturesque locations there. Later we went to the final stop. The goal was to hike to have a look at Waimoku falls. On the way, we came across the bamboo forest which was spectacular. Never did I see such tall and dense Bamboo trees. Finally, after hiking about an hour and 15 minutes, we reached Waimoku Falls. The falls was awesome. It was falling from so much height and it was the tallest falls that I have seen so far. So, it was spectacular and the hike was worth it. Finally, we started back after staying there for about 30-45 minutes.

Waimoku Falls

Black Sand Beach @ Wainapanapa State Park

Bamboo forest

That was the end of our Maui trip. On Day 4, we had to get ready to take a flight to Hilo on Big Island. More about this in the next blog.....

Mt. Humphrey's Hike

So, the final hike of the season is here. The hike to Mt. Humphrey's is recommended to be done sometime after May and before July as the peak gets cold, windy and snowy otherwise. Mt. Humphrey's is the tallest point in whole of Arizona standing at around 12600 ft.

We chose the 3rd weekend of July to hike it. Started on the Friday to Flagstaff, crashed that night and started in the morning to the trail head. We started the hike around 9:00 AM. 

Initially the hike was ok. However, it got challenging slowly. We took a break at around 12:00 PM for lunch. After lunch, when we started it really was super challenging. I thought of giving up several times as it was getting difficult for me and also the trail is not great. However, Srikanth (colleague) was there with me and he encouraged me to keep moving. So, finally reached a saddle point in between. 

From the saddle point, we need to cross about 4 to 5 false peaks to finally reach the top. Many of my colleagues reached the top by 2:00PM. Myself and Srikanth reached the top finally by 2:45 PM. On the way to the top the air gets thin and all of us felt a slight headache. However, once we reached the top it was great. Had a great view from the top, stayed there for about an hour and started back around 3:30.

The way back was so tiring as we could never see the end, how much ever we hiked. Finally at around 6:30 we saw the end and finished the hike.

The hike was the most tiring hike I ever did. After the hike, ate a cold stone ice cream and started back to Tucson. We finally reached Tucson around 12;00 AM and crashed at our home.

Grand Canyon Hike 2016

After hiking some of the trails in Tucson, on a Friday some of my colleagues from office have started to hike the Grand Canyon. We started in the evening, stopped for dinner at Flagstaff around 9 PM. Before leaving we packed ourselves some lunch (Vegetable Biryani) for the hike next day. We reached the camp ground around 11:30PM, camped the night.

All of us got ready and with some minor delays, we finally started the hike around 8:00AM. We started to get down using the South Kaibab trail. This trail is more steeped than the Bright Angels (BA) trail. But it is way beautiful than the BA trail. The views are extra-ordinary as can be seen from some of the pictures attached with the post. We also got a look at the mule train that carries the essentials to the Phantom ranch (the hotel next to the river).

We reached the river around 12:00PM. All of us had a break at the beach next to the river. We had our Biryani there, took some rest till 1:30PM.

We then started on our way back using the Bright Angels trail. The trail is relatively less steeper, but we had to cover 9 miles uphill. We reached the mid-point (Indian Garden) around 4:30PM and waited for some of our friends there till 5:30PM. Later we started uphill slowly and finally reached the trail head around 11:30PM.

It was very tiring and we were lucky to ask one of our colleagues who reached earlier to get us dinner (Pizza). Once we had dinner, we had a nice sleep. The next day morning, we had breakfast and started our way back to Tucson.

On the way back, we were shown Mt. Humphreys (last picture) and it was mentioned that it is the highest peak in Arizona and we all should hike it too................... (That's next..)

Preparation for Grand Canyon Hike 2016

So, the idea of hiking Grand Canyon started when a couple of colleagues asked if I would join them for a hike. As usual, I was lazy and did not confirm until 6 weeks before the D-day (Weekend before May long weekend).

The preparation included hiking some medium to strenuous hikes in Tucson. First we started with Mt. Wrightson (Figure 1) which is about 11 miles round trip with an elevation gain of about 4200 feet. The hike was hectic, but the views from the top were amazing. We also saw some ice on the mountain on our way up (yes in April).

That followed by a hike on Mt. Lemmon's Wilderness of the Rocks (Figure 2). This hike is similar to that of Grand Canyon as we first go down and then come back up.

The third weekend we hiked Finger Rock trail. The trail at the top was not great. We had to leave our hiking poles and do rock climbing to reach the top. The views were great from the top. The summit of the trail is always visible when leaving our home for groceries, etc. So, after doing this hike, I started bothering others showing the peak and telling them we did it. :). Below (Figure 3) is a view of Tucson from the Finger rock trail.

Later, on 5th weekend (missed 4th weekend) we again did the Wilderness of the Rocks trail on Mt. Lemmon to prepare for the hike. 

The overall experience was tiring and fun. Every time I climb on a hike I always feel "Why am I doing it?" But, by the end of the day it is not that bad. So, with all this preparation we started to our Grand Canyon hike.

Mt. Lemmon

One of my friends from Iowa State University, AndP (A.N.D. Prasad) visited us in Tucson for a weekend. All of us (Myself, Munny, Bharath and Prasad) decided to go to Mount Lemmon on Saturday.

That saturday, we first took Prasad to one of the well talked about restaurants in Tucson called Saffron Bistro for lunch buffet. None of us liked the buffet though :P. After that we started to go to Mt. Lemmon. Overall, I can say we are lucky to have such a place close to Tucson. It is a pretty good place and as expected, the temperature keeps dropping as we increase the elevation.

The view from the top is as usual amazing. Also, there is a small lake on the mountain where people can fish. Here are some of the pics.

Telangana and Andhra

Since independence, several states in India have been separated and united. The marathi speaking region in erst while Hyderabad state was united with Bombay state to form Maharashtra. Gujarat was separatd from Bombay state. Similarly, I remember reading news about the separation of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. On the same lines, the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956 after merging the Andhra State and the telugu speaking region in Hyderabad state. Now, I hear telugu speaking region in Andhra Pradesh (read telangana) is going to be separated. Till then, its fine. What amazes me is the amount of publicity (both positive and negative) this separation has created.

When the three states (UP, MP and Bihar) were separated all I could remember was reading about it in the news and looking at pictures that show people enjoying the result (read bifurcation). However, the issue with creation of Telangana is something uncommon.We see a lot of people both opposing and supporting the bifurcation. So, this lead to some introspection as to how is this bifurcation different from the other states.

Looking back, when Bombay state was divided, the capital city of Bombay state (Bombay) was still in Maharashtra. So, the new state Gujarat had to find its own capital city. Since, they are the ones asking for the division of the state, it is their problem and hence the people of Maharashtra did not oppose. Similar is the case (I feel) with UP (Lucknow), MP (Bhopal) and Bihar (Patna). All the new states were carved out of the three states without much friction from the parent state as the capital city stayed with the parent state after bifurcation. However, the issue with Andhra Pradesh is not the same.

The parent state (Andhra) is loosing the capital city to the daughter state (Telangana) and hence there is huge friction from the parent state. People in the parent state feel like loosing the stability, their epi-center :). Also, it will be a herculean task to find and develop a new capital in the parent state. As a result, we see huge agitations from Andhra region to oppose the bifurcation. Also, majority of the people in Andhra region feel they are mainly responsible for the development of Hyderabad and for them loosing Hyderabad to Telangana is a bitter news.

I personally feel that if the people of Telangana wants to part, they should be separated. We cannot force people who wants to separate to stay with us. It might not be good in the long run. It already created enough hatred between people in both regions. The whole energy of people in Andhra region should be focused in developing the new Andhra state rather than agitating for United Andhra. I feel developing a new state is challenging and time consuming, but is do-able with the talent and resources (as Andhra people boast of developing Hyd :) :P).

In the end, there is no point in agitating for United Andhra or Telangana. If separated, accept it and move on to develop what we have.

Workout

Finally.. I was able to let my body listen to my mind. Did brisk walk on treadmill for the first time and felt fine until I was walking. After I finished it (after 30 minutes), I was not able to believe myself. I seem to be walking very slowly. I only felt normal if I ran. :) strange but nice feeling to experience. Took about 10 minutes to get back to the normal frame.

Scary Sunday (July15)

Right now, am in Tucson for an internship. I had to leave my apartment in Ames, Iowa without any sub-lease from May to July, 2012.

Today morning I woke up and saw a missed call from one of my friends in Ames, Iowa. So, I called him back to find out the reason for his call. And he says " Sorry bhaya.., one bad news.. your apartment is completely on fire. If you have left any belongings in the house, let me know. I will try to help. I guess it is not possible to find any belongings as the whole building with 55 apartments is under fire". What a scary thing to start the day. Immediately, my thoughts went to my other friend who stays in the same building.

When Munny called him, the first thing he says is "You people are lucky you are not here.". Damn... another scary info. Later asked about him and felt sad to hear that he had to leave all his belongings (including the Passport) in his house. And the hope of getting his Passport back is zero. After talking to him, Munny kept on thinking what should be done to get the Passport back, where will they stay, etc., until we received a call from him that the Passport was found. It was then we thought that it is nice to hear something good. It was strange that nothing (literally nothing) happened to the passport. Its clean and new. That's called luck. Passport in between huge fire and ash for about 5-8 hours and still comes out clean without any damages. So, a some what decent ending to the day.

We are lucky we are not in Ames, but feel terribly bad for my friends out there. Hope everything gets normal as soon as possible.
http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_357565ea-ce8a-11e1-af61-001a4bcf887a.html