Aloha

Wow, it's been some time since I lasted posted anything. Especially anything related to my day-to-day travels instead of stuff from what feels as weeks ago. Today I hope to do that differently and cover both Hawaii and my first days in LA (as they have been rather uneventful travel-wise: just getting my bearings, getting the van fitted out completely).

We start off on the same day as I left Japan and did a day-hike there: the 15th of March. So incredible how much you can do in a day that has 33 hours! You'd think that Honolulu is a small tropical paradise, but you'd be mistaken. I only learned this from on board the aircraft as I didn't spend any time in Honolulu itself:

After landing in Honolulu at 10:00 am in the morning (while having left at 22:00 o' clock at night) I waited around the airport a little bit for my connecting flight to Kona, Big Island. The airport was a completely different type than I had expected from a hugely trafficked american airport: kinda old and badly organized, reminding me of landing in Jakarta. Also: Americans want to be paid for anything: luggage carts costs $5, wifi is avilable, but only via creditcard, airline food and beverages only for a fee, etc.
The connecting flight to Kona was on Go! airlines, your typical Hawaiian Ryanair. One problem with Big Island is that there is zero-to-none public transportation. Only one near-free bus that runs to the airport only once a day at 08:00 in the morning. I had sent out requests for a quote for a rental car in Kona, but since I couldn't get any wifi to check the quotes out and because I was so incredibly tired I just took a cab to the hotel. The place got pretty bad reviews online (it has 'royal' and 'resort') in its name, but is actually just a good hotel in a nice place, with some postponed maintenance in various places. You've seen the pictures already: perfect ocean view from the balcony on the 6th floor, airco, a great shower and a fine bed: perfect for these couple of days. The first thing I did after sundown: sleeeeeep, finally!

The next day was half-full of arranging stuff: getting the latest blogpost online, orienting on activities in Kona, and finding out how I could get the rental car from the airport, where to get a pre-paid phone and mifi for my 2,5 months in the US, etc. Halfway the afternoon I got out to explore Kona a little bit, and ask around for the possibility of diving. The company that got the best reviews didn't want to cut me a deal for a full day of diving, so I first walked the village to find maybe a better deal somewhere else. In the village there was some kind of market going on, which gave a good atmosphere and also a good view of all the too fat and too badly dressed (me also) tourists. There was live music, fresh fruits, shaved ice, lots of trinkets, generally just fun to (slowly because of the heat) walk through. As I was in America I treated myself to a good American style pizza for dinner :-D.

The next morning started really early, around 06:40, because I had decided on getting on the free local bus to the airport. I had found a bus stop nearby, and luckily enough the bus also turned up! Getting on the driver waited for me to pay 1 dollar... which I luckily had... never trust the online publications from the Hawaiian authorities for being true ;-). We dropped off several locals in various places and I ended up being the only one going to the airport. There I picked up the rental car and used it to get to the few places I had on the to-do list: check where the cheap fuel station was, check in the harbor for one of the boat dive companies (I found the boat, but there was no one there to inform me about possible tours), and get the T-mobile Mifi. This last action took almost an hour because the bloody IT system at T-mobile doesn't work: the guy thought it had to do with his account, so a colleague tried, another colleague tried, and then ofcourse the manager also had to try... in the end we had to do the whole registration process by phone with the mainland (by now the clerk had memorized my birthday, requested pin-code and address...). Afterwards I booked a diving trip with the original company I had visited, but now only for half a day (the others were full, and with my limited time I wanted to spend not a full day diving). What I had planned for the end of the afternoon was a snorkelling trek in one of the natural reserves that one of the locals had told me about in the Captain Cook area. 

I got underway but after about half an hour driving I still wasn't in the area and it was getting darker so I turned around. No-use snorkeling in the dark, and also not such a good idea for the first day of driving in a new country.

Next morning I had another go: at 14:00 I had to be at the dive-shop to prepare for the evening and night dive, so I used the morning to snorkel the bay a little bit. Getting in was quite a challenge due to all the rocks, but once in the bay there were some nice fishes to be seen. However, nothing really spectacular and quite a bad visibility due to the nearby shore break. This did not promise very well for the dives.

Normally, the daytrip dives go to sites where they take huge loads of tourists, and especially tourists with very basic, or no dive skills at all. This means that the reef gets damaged and that there is much less wildlife to see. Since you pay a lot of money to go diving I especially asked the clerk at the dive shop if this would be the case, but he of course ensured me that the Big Island reefs are in pristine condition and the best of the whole Hawaiian chain of islands...

Meeting the divemaster and fellow divers was fun. The crew provided a good atmosphere with lots of joking around, funny stories etc. My fellow divers were also quite interesting people, all with totally different kind of lifes: Scott, a young entrepreneur from Portland Oregon would be my buddy. He owns two karaoke bars and has travelled the world before settling down in Portland. Hila, a Israelian girl also on a round the world trip (and ticket) after serving in the military for 10 years. Tim, owner of a family business car dealership in Ohio and Peter, a cook turned electrical engineer, working in an interesting semicon startup in San Fransisco. It was fun sharing our different lifes, adventures and challenges. But ofcourse we were here to do diving:

The trip I booked was the evening and night Manta dive. The Manta dive is something you really have to do here because, well, Manta's are amazing. However, I wanted another dive to also explore some of the beautiful coral and lava formations on Big Island. First bad news: we would do both dives on the same location as there were some people in the group who had never done a night dive before. This was bad news, because the Manta spot gets 35.000 visitors per year: so the chance of it being destroyed were high.

When we got in the water my expectations were kind of confirmed: no spectacular coral, a lot of damage and very few fish, although more than I would expect on such a reef. I saw some nice fish, got quite cold which was unexpected, and altogether didn't really find the dive worthwhile. Until, while we were ascending near the boat our dive guide made the ticking noise he had explained would mean that he was seeing something awesome (you can hear it):

http://youtu.be/yW0z4sp1mag

As you can see this Manta chose me to swim to and dove up and down right before me: what an amazing sight! The dive guide later told me her name, as they know about 150 Manta's here. This one is very recognizable because there is a fishing hook stuck to the right of her head. Anyway, this totally made up for the rest of the dive: what an amazing sight, such an enormous and graceful creature turning loops right on front of you: wow! 

The atmosphere on deck after this dive was kind of the same: everyone was awe-struck. During our safety stop there were even 2 more Manta's swimming by: we were very lucky to have seen this. On deck we had some snacks and a sandwich and more chats with each other while waiting for the night dive.

Big Island pictures on Picasa:

<SPOILER ALERT> Big island

I will continue with the night dive in another post, because it is getting bedtime and the post is already long again! Darn: this means Hawaii will also need at least three posts. Let's at least add a spoiler of what my bed looks like for the coming two months: