It was a saturday morning, bright and early. My hiking plans had fallen through last minute the night before so I was sitting around the house at 6am watching the sun rise. Hmm, gym, long bike ride, run? I just wasn't terribly motivated to do any of the same old things. I made myself some tea and did what any young person does these days to kill time...internet. I logged onto facebook, my instant messaging accounts, and my itouch. Surprisingly, not many people were online that early in the morning, except for the people in later timezones. I saw that one of my friend Shogo's friends was online, and I struck!
"Hi, what are you doing up so early?" I said.
"Just up, deciding what to do." he replied
"Yeah, I had hiking plans that fell through so now I'm deciding what to do."
"I'll go hiking with you"
"Cool! Here's my address, come by and I'll drive to the hike."
Simple as that, I now had a last-minute hiking buddy. We had only met once before, so on the short drive over to the hike we caught up on general chit chat. Some people I find hard to carry on conversations with, but we seemed to be maintaining a decent conversation without too many long silent pauses. I for some reason began pulling onto the wrong street to go to the hike. I had never been on this hike, but new the streets to turn on, somehow I spaced out and turned onto another street that had an equal number of syllables and lettering. After sitting and waiting for the light to changed I looked at the light again and realized I was turning on the completely wrong street. I pulled back onto the main road, and shortly we were at the trailhead after a couple turns and twists.
The trail is well maintained the whole way and since it was still only around 730am it was nice and quiet. There was an option for the ridge hike or the valley hike. I think the valley hike has a couple waterfalls, but we were more interested in the ridge hike. We started on the hike and it starts as a number of switchbacks running back and forth up the side of the mountain. It ascends at a good pace so that we weren't too out of breath but it was a good workout. Once you get up a decent elevation the flora turns from arid shrubbery to more mountain-like. It started reminding me of california with the large numbers of pine trees and the smell of the cool damp air and soft pine needles underfoot. We only passed one older couple before a young couple with a dog ran past us. I always find trail runners fascinating, especially when they're running uphill. I can easily run downhill, and usually do, but the uphills are killer. I'd dye after a 1/4 and there were these two trotting up the hill with their dog.
Towards the top of the hill we stopped for a second to relax and enjoy the cool breeze coming over the mountain. The entire ground was covered with soft pine needles and we sank down into them to rest our legs for a bit. I could easily have thrown down a pillow for a nap, but my hiking buddy had buffet lunch plans in waikiki at 11am which at this point only gave us three hours to get up to the top (wherever that was), back down the mountain, then drop him off at his car in time to get to waikiki. We hopped back up after about 10 minutes and headed up the hill again.
The pines began to fade away and soon we were in the lush tropical area. This is my favorite part of any hike, where one type of foliage fades away and transitions almost immediately into a new type. This jungle foliage is my favorite; it's dense and lush and the colors are spectacular. Occasionally there are wild orchids there, which I saw a few of while we were hiking. It was at this point that the terrain turned steep. We huffed and puffed and I made sure to stop every once and a while and turn down as the views kept getting better and better. There were views all the way to the ocean on the south side, and the mountains all around. Its so nice to see that some of the beauty of hawaii hasn't been paved over for a shopping mall or disgusting townhomes.
We were getting shorter and shorter on time. It was almost 930am at this point and I had set a mental target of 940am before we would have to start heading down the mountain to make it back on time. I could see that we were getting closer and closer to the top, but every time we turned a corner it seemed as though there were more steps. About 20 feet from the top I saw the couple that had run past us on the way up. They were just starting on their way down. I gave out a yell as I made it to the top of the hike. The top of the hike was the payoff; a view straddling both sides of the island right at the ridge. It was of course windy which helped to dry off my now wet tshirt. I took a minute to rest and snap a bunch of pictures. The breeze, the clouds, the views of the mountains and oceans on both sides were spectacular. We only had about 15 minuted to enjoy the view however as we had to immediately start back down the trail. The trip down took about 1/2 as long as the trip up which put us right on time getting back to the car. It was a good workout and great views, definitely glad that I got to go on the hike instead of sitting at home drinking tea (which I did after).
Don't ever let me go on a hike with a hungover Kaui again. Apparently it zaps her memory. I wanted to do a long hike, but after getting ahold of Kaui in the morning she decided what she wanted to do was a short hike, then go to the beach. That was fine with me really, as a good short hike is just as good as a good long hike. Unfortunately this hike wasn't as short as she remembered.
We started out at the top of Tantalus and parked on the side of the road to gain access to this hike. I actually don't remember the name of it, other than it was past the bridge at the top of Tantalus. We started walking, but it had rained the night before. The nice part was that it cleared up so the air was crisp and the sun was shining. The unfortunate side effect of the rain was muddy trails. We squished along for about a mile or so before i got fed up with sliding all over my slippers (flip flops). The ground was soft and the trail was going to be short so I ditched my slippers and put them by the side of a tree to be picked up on the way back. Now, for some reason it didn't even occur to me to carry them with me or snap them into my backpack, but I guess lesson learned.
I squished along through the mud for a while. We stopped and took pictures of moss, and flowers, and looked for snails. Then we continued walking. And then we walked a little more. And then a bit more. I was assured a number of times that we were "just around the corner," but after a few more miles I was starting to doubt. By this time I had walked over coarse lava stones, numerous tree roots, sharp sticks and any number of obstacles. I trudged on however, thinking that we were very close to the end. That never happened.
The trail met up with another trail, then another, before splitting off again. It was at this point that Kaui had stopped saying that she thought we were almost there and just started saying "i dont know." we were having a good time nonetheless just chatting and it wasn't a terribly rigorous hike, but my feet were starting to pay the price. We passed a couple of guys that were playing in the trees that had come upon a chameleon. They of course knocked it out of the tree which was unfortunate for them and the chameleon, but good for us. We stopped to take a close look at it as it was trying to make its way up again. After taking a few pictures of the chameleon we gave up on our quest to find the lookout and instead just headed back towards my slippers. By the time we happened upon my slippers my feet were so numb it didn't really make any difference whether I put my slippers back on or not. The short hike was actually a long hike with no payoff, but we still had a nice time nonetheless and then headed to the beach for a nice rest.
I went home for a 10 day visit to San Diego for a wedding and to spend time with family. Unfortunately mom had to go in for emergency heart surgery the day I landed which turned out to be a blessing since I was able to be there, but it definitely put a cramp in spending "fun" time with mom. I was able to sneak away from the hospital for small bits of fun here and there to see the sun and take a break.
My first break was spent kayaking with Theresa. She's been taking care of my kayaks since I moved away, and I'm glad that she's been able to use them intermittently while I have been away. No point in useful things sitting in storage. We loaded up the kayaks on her roof racks and drove them to La Jolla shores. By far La Jolla shores is the best place to kayak. It has an easy place to launch the kayaks, the scenery is nice, and its relatively calm there. We launched the kayaks and while paddling out I saw a couple stingrays and some leopard sharks. Summer time seems to be pretty popular for both creatures. The leopard sharks can get up to about 6 feet long, but these ones were only about 4 feet. Unsettling if you didn't know that they are harmless. Nobody likes to see shadowy creatures swimming beneath them.
The water was calm and glassy, and it made kayaking out over the waves relatively easy. We headed straight for the cliffs nearby which takes about 15-20 minutes. Not much to see in the ocean along the way, but the scenery of the beach, the hills, and the cliffs is always beautiful. Usually I kayak in the early morning, so it was nice to kayak while it was quite warm out. Of course there were kayaking tours going on, so we sped past them in hopes of getting a bit of quiet time near the cliffs and caves. Along the southern part of the area are the caves that probably stretch up about 50 feet or so. There are small caves running through most of them, but depending on the waves and tide they're not always navigable.
We were able to make it to the caves just as a small group had toured around. The cave entrance is fairly small, but opens up quite a bit once inside. If its anything but low tide you can usually kayak all the way through, then come out near the shore on the other side. We entered and just kinda played around, taking pictures and kayaking around. The sea was very calm so hanging around inside the cave was easy. We were in there about 20 minutes and I think we went around a couple times before heading out and getting a close look at the seals that were sunning nearby.
The big seal was fighting for a position on the rocks and most of the smaller ones scooted to the side so as not to be bothered by the ruckus. A few of the curious seals swam around in the water near the kayaks, poking their heads up every once and a while. I got a nice glimpse of them swimming under the kayak and was able to see a few of the orange garibaldi fish hanging out near the kelp underwater.
After taking a bit of a break and a leisurely paddle along the cliffs and back to the shore we arrived safely without tipping over while riding the waves into shore. Surprisingly coming back to land is usually when you get the wettest as your kayak wants to turn sideways and tip over when riding a wave in. We both managed to steer ourselves straight in, and then after getting settled, headed to Sushi Deli for an early dinner.
I was home at some point last year visiting with my mom. We talked like we always do (well she talked and asked questions, and I answered since I'm not much of a gabber). We somehow got on the topic of traveling and places to see. New York came up, Germany, Canada, and New Orleans. She hadn't been to any of them (although I think she was in the southwestern part of Canada some time ago). Come Christmas-time, I was as usual lacking a decent present to get her. What do you get someone that won't ever tell you what they want? I decided to plan a trip for us-a getaway for a few days that, with a decent pricepoint, would save me the trouble of getting both a christmas and a birthday present.
Germany was out of the question, the planning, cost, etc associated with that was not gonna do it. New York made me uneasy with the pace and imagining getting runned down on the subway stairs while everyone was trying to hop on an arriving subway. I settled on New Orleans. It was not terribly expensive, it seemed like a decently fun place to take her and it was somewhat close to San Diego. I booked the trip and sent mom the info to look at.
Fast forward to the beginning of May...we were headed to New Orleans. Somehow along the way, a trip for two expanded to a trip for 6. My good friend Michelle and her fiance' David decided to come and Davids dad and step mom lived in Louisiana. Flying into New Orleans, my mom and I had a couple hours to eat dinner with Michelle and David before they drove out to meet his dad. We sat down in the restaurant of the lobby of what was to be Michelle's hotel the next night. I had forgotten that some parts of the world still smoked indoors, but they seemed well ventilated. A beer and some catfish, and I was pleasantly happy. The catfish was fried, but with just a dusting of flour it didnt retain much oil and was so moist. We had some food, chatted a bit, then David and Michelle said their goodbyes and we headed out for a walk towards the french quarter.
The walk to the french quarter from our place was about 6 blocks. The area we were in was just east of the french quarter. Its an area that is being updated and it seems like quite a few young people are moving into the neighborhood to make it cool and funky. A block from our place was a great modern 60's cafe with cool interior design and good mochi ice cream. The houses along the walk were amazing. Trim, colors, design, things you just dont seem to see an abundance of anymore. After a trek through the french quarter I walked back with mom and got her settled in, then changed and headed out to Bourbon street (where all the partying and drinking goes down!).
Last time I was in New Orleans was some time ago and for a big gay dance, drink, etc party. It was wall-to-wall gays. The go-go dancers were completely naked (i saw some of them accept bills in the most unlikely ways). While this was no party, there were still a decent number of people out even for a thursday night. The straight area of Bourbon St was quite busy with the smell of puke and the stumbling of guys and girls occurring at regular intervals. I basically wondered around from bar to bar to check things out and hang out. i was struck at the, um, shall we say, disadvantage appearance of most of the gays that were out; okay, they were ugly, I said it. Not a problem for me, but it's always nicer to be around pretty people. I guess the lack of exercise, constant drinking and smoking doesn't really do well for your appearance. Most of the bars were two stories and had everyone been condensed into one or two bars the places would have been packed. Instead there were about 6-7 bars that were only about 1/2 full. I stayed out for a few hours perusing the scene, then got bored and went home.
Friday morning we got an early start (of course), and walked towards the French Quarter. We marveled at the buildings again, walked towards the Mississippi river and toured all the tourist shops. As in most tourist destinations, there were three shops, repeated 500 times. All the bars and drinking places were open fairly early. Since mom had to stop to use the restroom about every 500 feet, i felt obliged to order a drink at most places while she used their facilities. Not a bad compromise. Soon we were passing through the French Quarter and heading onto the streetcar through the Garden District.
The streetcar was cool, but the operators really made it fun. They all seemed to have a similar quirky, outgoing personality. Passing through the Garden District was beautiful. Giant houses well maintained and beautiful. All of the ones on the main street that the streetcar passed by were fantastically maintained. We rode the Streetcar to the end of the route, turned around and came back. Total trip was about 40 minutes or so. For $1.50 each way, it was completely worth it. We popped off the streetcar and grabbed a bite to eat near our hotel. We ate at the Praline Connection. All the waiters were dressed like it was the 20's. Fedora hats, white shirts, i wasn't sure if we were at lunch or in a michael jackson video. Not knowing what we wanted to eat, we shared the sampler plate which basically had a taste of everything. It was a taste though, so you never really got enough of the ones that were delicious, and the ones that weren't all that great were easily stomached. It came with an amazing bread pudding for dessert. Crispy and caramelized with a wonderful rum sauce. Not usually a fan of bread pudding, but this was delicious. I gobbled it up and we headed back to our place for a little rest before meeting with with Michelle et. al.
Michelle, David, Davids dad (Al, I think), and his girlfriend Faye all arrived. Their place was a block from ours (since ours was booked up when Michelle made reservations. We met them in the restaurant in the bottom floor of their place and had a drink before heading out for a walk into the french quarter to find some food. We walked and talked and took breaks, then grabbed a carriage ride through the french quarter with descriptions of some of the buildings and sites to see. It was only $15 per person, so it seemed like a decent deal. They even stopped at a bar, had a waitress come out and get our order, and delivered drinks to us without ever having to get out of the carriage. After the carriage ride we hopped in a cab and headed home. We after dropping the elders off at home, we freshened up and Michelle, David and I headed out to Bourbon St to have some fun.
The straight area of Bourbon St is infinitely more busy than the gay section. It was fun to watch the straight people walk down Bourbon, then abruptly stop at the gay section and ponder the other side from the corner. Most of the time they just turn around and head back the way that they came. Occasionally they venture over into the "dark side," then get bored when they see it's not as exciting as they imagined. David, Michelle and I took turns picking places to go. We started off at a gay place and had a drink there, talked to a few people (one of which told us about a bar that had a mechanical bull painted like a killer whale), danced around a bit, then headed out. Next was Michelles pick. We went to the Hurricane bar and all split a "Grenade." It was some sort of mixture of medori, coconut rum, and a variety of other mixers and booze. It was entirely too sweet and even with the three of us splitting it, we had difficulty finishing the sweet drink. The bars were pretty packed this friday, but not entirely entertaining. I guess drinking was the entertainment. Oh, i forgot to tell you the best part of Bourbon St.... to go cups! You can buy a drink in any bar, drink it, take it outside and drink it while walking around, and you can even walk into another bar with it. It was awesome! We drank, then left a bar and walked around till we finished it. After we had tackled the Grenade drink it was Dave's turn to pick. He thought that the mechanical killer whale sounded interesting, so we headed down towards the end of Bourbon St to find this mythical killer whale. How we found it, I'll never know (I had put away a few drinks by that point). Eventually we made our way down a small side street that emptied into a large outdoor bar/club. Everyone was dancing and drinking and eventually we pushed our way to the back of the club towards the towering Shamu inspired mechanical bull. Michelle tried to get me to ride it. Haha, "no way!" I flatly refused. Although no one seemed to be paying attention to the platform, I didn't really have any desire to ride it. After some haggling back and forth I agreed to ride it only after Michelle hopped on it. I dont think either of us really were going for a record (i held on with one hand), but we just wanted to be able to say that we rode it. I'm guessing that if I were sober and used both hands that I could have stayed on for a decent amount of time, but since that was not the case, I really only lasted about 20 seconds for each ride (marginally longer than Michelle's ride). Luckily Dave took video with his iphone for all to see. Shortly after the Shamu ride, everything else seemed rather dull. I think we stayed around for a bit longer, before making our way back down Bourbon St. Michelle and Dave caught a cab home and after about another 30-40 mins out, I walked back to our place also.
Saturday was our trip to a plantation. It was called Oak "something." Taking about an hour to drive there wasn't so bad, and I would say it was worth it. The house itself was fairly unremarkable, although it was huge and southern. The tour girl was interesting to me. I wasn't sure if the accent that she had was real or fake. It sounded pretty fake, but I'm not accustomed to high-brow southern accents so I could have been mistaken. She told us about the original owners and how ownership had changed over the years. About the uses for a variety of the old items that were in the house. I found it interesting that the most recent owner poured tons of money into the house to get it back to its original look, but left the location of the kitchen unchanged (which was clear across the yard to keep it from setting fire to the house). I also don't remember seeing a bathroom in the house. Either I overlooked it, or maybe you had to cross the yard for that as well. We stayed for a few hours, to see the plantation, the house, and get some food before making our way back to the French Quarter.
Sunday, our friends departed and it was just me and mom. Mothers day. Mom woke up at the crack of dawn as usual, while I tried to sleep in. When i got up she told me that she had already eaten breakfast, so we went out and she watched me eat breakfast at a cafe down the street. Then we walked over to the French quarter, checked out the French Market and decided to take a steamboat ride down the Mississippi. The steamboat ride was pretty neat. I was surprised at how quiet and smooth the boat was; i guess without all the noisy propellers and engines things used to be a lot quieter in the past. The boat ride took a few hours, just enough time to get a forehead burn and relax in the breezy sun. I felt kinda like a lame duck since my mom paid for breakfast and the steamboat ride, but I dont even put up a struggle anymore on those things. I'll offer to pay, but if she starts to get insistent I completely back down. I've learned my lesson over the past 30 years. After the steamboat ride we went back to finish up the French Market, picking up some organic candles and voodoo dolls, before heading back home. We grabbed a sandwich on the way and I soaked in the hot tub for a bit while mom relaxed in the a/c. I of course went out one final time that night and was lucky enough to head into the French Quarter with a gay couple that was staying in our same place. They were in the Master suite downstairs which was HUGE and had a kitchen and everything. They made us drinks for the walk (ahhhh new orleans) and we used the time on the walk to get to know each other.
They were from Texas and had been together for about three years. I've completely forgotten their names at this point, but I'm not very good at names anyways. We had drinks and chatted and sat on the balcony of one of the clubs and made fun of people down below. We popped from club to bar to bar drinking along the way. It was another semi-busy night but could have been much better if there were more people out. Nothing terribly eventful happened and at around 1am we walked back to our place outside the French Quarter.
Monday we killed time with a tour to one of the cemeteries and then gobbled down German food before heading to the airport for our flight home. It was a relaxing end to the long weekend and we were home by 10pm to have Dave and Michelle pick us up and drop us off at home. I had a good time and it was nice to be able to take my mom somewhere she hadn't been before. I may go back, but probably only for a bit event week or something like that. It'd be nice to see the place packed like the first time i went.
Yes, we came all this way to see Angkor Wat, but it seemed to be last on our list. While I did get some really awesome sunrise pictures from Angkor, my absolute favorite temple was Baphoun. Unexpected and eerily quiet, it was just an awesome surprise. We arrived at Baphoun fairly late in the morning and headed into the temple. We were dropped off by the entrance and followed the usual procedure :
1) get dropped off
2) get mobbed by kids selling crap
3) run away from the children
4) get mobbed by other kids selling crap
5) escape into the temple
It seems that its an unwritten rule that the kids selling their junk are not allowed in the temple area. Makes it nice to be able to enjoy a temple without the prospects of tripping over a small child and the uneven stones at the same time. The walk to the Baphoun temple seemed rather lengthy and followed a dirt road in a straight line. Since we didn't really know anything about the temple we just meandered down the road chatting. In a little less than 10 minutes the road opened up into an awesome site. As soon as I could see the temple I knew why it was featured in the TombRaider movie. The front entrance has several HUGE trees growing from random places. These trees seemed able to plant themselves anywhere and grow up hundreds of feet. On top of stones, between stones, under stones, it didn't matter. These huge trees planted their roots and grew, and grew, and grew.
This temple once stood firm huge with lots of covered passages and flowing with carvings. During the Khmer war the militia came in and tore it down. The interlocking stones fell like a giant jigsaw puzzle in minutes. In no time the entire temple was flattened, but not completely ruined. While the pieces remained scattered, they were left fairly intact, the hard part has been reassembling them. With money from the World Heritage Foundation they have been reassembling this temple stone-by-stone in hopes that it can regain some of its former glory. In its current state however, I find it completely breathtaking. By far, my favorite of any temple that I have seen the pictures do not do justice to convey the size and scale of it.
I took a number of pictures near the entrance (which i believe ended up being the rear entrance). The tall towering trees climbing out of the stone was something I just could not get enough of. We wondered through the temple for a little over an hour, but I easily could have spent hours there. It was not too overrun with tourists and there were pockets of isolated silence everywhere.
As grandma wandered off (as she was frequently doing), and David went to hunt her down, I snuck through old doorways and hopped over scattered parts to the building. When i came out the other side it was an area that was completely empty of people. The trees were mostly shading the area and it was still cool since the sun hadn't warmed up the stones yet. I spun around in the empty side courtyard and took a moment to enjoy the stillness. I could have sat there and enjoyed for quite some time. I looked at the carvings on the face of the old stones that lay everywhere. Still well preserved even after all this time and having fallen down from the original structure. I guess in war, there's no appreciation for anything, just destruction. It's always possible to rebuild, but so much easier to maintain.
When I figured enough time had passed that David and Grandma would be looking for me, i scampered back over the stones, through the doorway, hallway and another courtyard before coming upon grandma and David. We had only been through about half of the structure, so we spent another 30-45 minutes looking around some more. After some time we headed out the opposite way that we came in, which ended up being the entrance. Workers were in place rebuilding the long raised platform where people must have entered when the building was intact. I would say that about 80% of the original structure remained in some form, but most of that was laying in jumbled pieces on the ground. they were putting everything back in place and refilling the missing pieces with concrete.
Although it will be impressive if they are ever able to return this temple to its original form, I'm not sure how I would take it. Seeing the filled in pieces and cracks with concrete, the restoration just looked...disappointing. I feel like even though it would come together, it would still be missing something. I much prefer to let my mind piece the building together, brick by brick, and imagine its former glory. in the mind, everything can be recreated however you want, but when there's a physical structure there its sometimes hard to live up to your imagination.
It was a saturday morning, bright and early. My hiking plans had fallen through last minute the night before so I was sitting around the house at 6am watching the sun rise. Hmm, gym, long bike ride, run? I just wasn't terribly motivated to do any of the same old things. I made myself some tea and did what any young person does these days to kill time...internet. I logged onto facebook, my instant messaging accounts, and my itouch. Surprisingly, not many people were online that early in the morning, except for the people in later timezones. I saw that one of my friend Shogo's friends was online, and I struck! 
