Saying Goodbye to Hawaii and Hello to Two Days of Travel

One of the hardest things about travelling is having to say goodbye. Whether it be goodbye to new people you met, old friends you visited, or the place itself...saying farewell is always a challenge. And Kauai was no different.

After the four of us had made it up to the top of Koke'e we only spent one night in the freezing cold before we realized that we all wanted to cut the trip a day short. So, we packed our things and set off to hitchhike back down the mountain. Two hours later, low and behold, the same weird Canadian couple that had camped with us in Polihale ended up picking us up and taking us back down the mountain. What luck! From there we caught a two hour long bus ride across the island to Phil's farm.

The next few days back in civilization went by quickly, and a new friend I had made while in Kalalau ended up being a gracious host and providing me with my first real, hot shower in almost two weeks! It was beyond glorious. And then, I practically glued myself to a bar to watch the Olympics I had missed the first opening days of. I freaking LOVE the Olympics and was a little upset to miss so much of them.

But before too long I had to say my goodbyes and catch my LONG flights to Bali, Indonesia. A few hours before my flight out Phil, Maisha, and I all sat at an amazing little coffee shop to say goodbye.

But the goodbyes weren't sad, because Phil and Maisha were about to head off on their own epic journey in a week and we had plans to all meet back up again somewhere in South East Asia at the beginning of 2013. So it won't be a very long goodbye.

I made it to the airport to catch my short flight back to Honolulu where I spent one last night with my old friend Grant, where we sat up watching the Olympics with his roommates before bed. Then, in the morning I treated him to a big breakfast as thanks for his hospitality before saying goodbye (yet again) and catching my 11 and a half hour flight to Manilla, Philippines.

On the plane I sat next to one of the kindest, most genuine woman I have ever met named Emily. Emily was born in the Philippines but is now a U.S. citizen and lives with her husband in Honolulu. We talked nearly the entire trip about her family, and my family, and my travelling plans. She was absolutely blown away by all of my travel plans and only had encouraging things to say. By the time the flight was over I felt like she was a new mother to me and in fact, after she and her brother had walked with me out to the main terminal, she pressed twenty five dollars in my hand against my protest. "Use this to get something to eat," she told me. "And take care of yourself, girl". Seriously, my heart almost burst from her kindness.

And then I prepared myself for the ten hour layover in Manilla. Normally, a ten hour layover isn't too bad because it's always in a huge international airport with plenty to do and see...but this airport was HORRIBLE.

I had to go through security all over again to catch my connecting flight, but ended up bonding with a backpacker couple from America on my way through. They were headed to Jakarta while I was headed to Bali. On our way back through security I encountered a first ever experience...the line was split in half...men through one scanner, and females through another. SO WEIRD! I guess it makes sense since the security is really old so they have to do actual pat downs and females need to pat females, but still...strange.

The terminal we had to wait in was super small and only had three little food stands. But they had "laptop stations" all over. Big desks with chairs and international outlets for you to use the power and wifi for free. That was really nice. And that's actually how I began updating my blog after two weeks in Kauai!

I ate some food and caught up on the Olympics, meeting another man from America on his way to Jakarta for business and had a really nice chat with him before we all boarded our three or four hour flight to Jakarta. The flight was alright, but freezing cold and very turbulent, and we landed in Jakarta just after midnight...and my flight to Bali wasn't until 6:30 in the morning. Which means I had to spend the whole night in the Jakarta airport.

For those of you who don't know anything about Indonesia, it has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world. And all I've ever heard in America is horror stories about it. But as I made my way through customs and immigration to collect my luggage, I had no problem or bad looks at all (and I was wearing shorts). In fact, after I went through immigration the guy who checked my passport ended up asking me to dinner/breakfast. And we turned out to have a blast talking together!

Yeah, this is what it looks like after you travel for over 30 hours!

But after saying goodbye I boarded my quick flight to Bali and landed in the craziest, dirtiest, loudest, most amazing city I've ever been in...just wait till you hear more!!!

~Little Blonde Traveler

How I Learned to Hitchhike

We left our campsite with all of our camping supplies and food on our backs before 10 in the morning. The original plan was for a friend to come pick us up from our campsite to drive us up to Koke'e and go camping and hiking with us for the next few days. But late the night before we got a voicemail from him...he wasn't going to be able to make it anymore.

He was very apologetic, but we were kind of screwed. It was the night before we were scheduled to leave and Matt and Kelsea had taken the truck back to the farm earlier in the day. The farm is on the exact opposite side of the island. There's no way any of Phil or Maisha's friends could come pick us up, and Mike didn't have a car. So there was only one option left...

Hitchhike.

Now, back home in Tennessee NO ONE hitchhikes. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's illegal throughout most of the mainland, if not all of it. It's just too dangerous. All of the horror stories you hear and the freaky stuff that happens...especially if you're a female. It's just out of the question.

But here, in Kauai, apparently everyone hitchhikes. As we started our walk out of the beach campsites Maisha was telling me about how she, her mom, and her three brothers used to have to hitchhike all the time when she was younger. Sometimes they just didn't have a car. And people would always pick them up. Phil didn't have a car for his first few months on the island and also had to hitchhike everywhere. There are so very few people on the island, and everyone trusts each other...you'll always have a local pick you up at some point.

So I grew a pair and agreed to attempt hitchhiking. Plus, I was with three other people, so I'd be safe. But that was the problem they were all worried about. Hitchhiking with two people is generally hard, but four...it had them all nervous.

But I kept my hopes and spirits high and we were only on the main road for about 20 minutes before a woman in an old jeep pulled over to pick us up. She was a yoga instructor from Florida who was in Kauai for some yoga instruction type thing. She was so nice and happy and before long all four of us were dropped off safely back in town at a shrimp shack for lunch.

The road up to Koke'e was right across the street, so after lunch we put on all of our gear again before heading up the road, our thumbs out for every car that passed. A lot of empty trucks kept passing and as the minutes continued and the road grew steeper and steeper we started to get anxious. But finally, a small SUV pulled over and we all hoped in. It was a dad and son who had just flown in from Australia. They had their two suitcases in the back and because we had so much gear, I had to sit in the trunk with everything while the other three squished into the backseat.

It wasn't comfortable, but the company was fantastic. The dad and son were initially from Boston, but had been living in Sydney for the last two years and stopped in Kauai for a few days on their way back to the States. I was able to talk to the dad a lot about Australia and the differences and he gave me some good advice about Sydney. The son did not seem happy at all that his dad had picked up a bunch of hitchhikers his age, and didn't utter a word. You could tell the father was aching just for some conversation.

And as we drove up to Koke'e I became unbelievably happy that they stopped to pick us up because the road got really narrow, windy, and it would have been nearly 5 or 6 miles of hiking uphill before we got to the big Waimea Canyon Lookout Point where we were dropped off at.

Waimea Canyon has been called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific by some, and I had heard a lot of great things about it before getting there. But let me tell you what...laying your eyes on it is an entirely different experience.

We realized (too late) that we still had another four miles to go before we got to the campsite at the top of the mountain next to all the trails. The four of us started walking but because the road is so narrow we had to stop at a lookout point and wait there. But an hour rolled by and no one had stopped. So we decided to split up and Mike and I started walking.

Thirty minutes later we saw Phil and Maisha waving to us as they passed in a car. They had gotten picked up, that was good, but we were still walking. And the chacos I was wearing had dug some nasty holes into my feet that were starting to bleed and Mike's bad ankle was starting to cause him to limp. So we had to stop and wait.

Another hour passed, and just as I was about to give up on the kindness of humans, the most amazing older couple from Texas stopped to pick us up. And boy were they happy to chat with us! They had two daughters our age who had just left after a week in Kauai with them. They kept chatting all the way until they dropped us off at the campsite where we saw Phil and Maisha sprawled out on the grass waiting for us.

Then the couple wanted a picture with us so they could send it back to their kids. And then they told us the most small-island story of the trip...four days earlier when they had taken their daughters to the airport, they stopped to pick up a hitchhiker who was also on their way to catch a flight. And the reason they stopped to pick her up was because of her short, beautiful, curly blonde hair...and her name was Roquel. The same Roquel we partied and camped with for the entire time in Kalalau!! Hahaha. Incredible, right?

Hitchhiking is quite an incredible experience, and I would recommend it to anyone in a heart beat...as long as it's in an area where it's common to do. And the man from Boston/Australia had told us that his older son backpacked through Europe for a few months, and he picked us up because he would want his son to be picked up by safe people all the same. And if I'm ever in the situation where I can pick up a bunch of travelling hitchhikers...I'm doing the exact same.


~Little Blonde Traveler

Not the Best Experience at Polihale

I apologize for taking nearly a week to write my new post. Just as a reminder, I'm writing all of my blog posts between one and two weeks AFTER these events have already taken place. That way it's easier for me to keep experiencing things so I have more to write about! Currently, I'm sitting in my hotel room in Jakarta, Indonesia listening to the Muslim prayers blaring in the street outside and watching fireworks out of my window. I got a VERY bad stomach bug in Bali a few days ago and I'm desperately trying to recover. But that means I get to update y'all! So here we go...

I wish I had more super positive things to write when it comes to Polihale Beach...but after three days there Phil, Maisha, and I were more than ready to get out.

I was told by everyone that Polihale Beach is one of the hottest places on all of Kauai (especially in the summer) but our second day there it rained for nearly five hours straight. And apparently it never rains for more than an hour anywhere on the island during the summer. So that day was spent either huddled in Phil's tent, in Phil's truck (that Matt had brought the day before) or under the tarp we rigged up above the picnic table in our camping area. Not the best way to spend a full day camping on the beach. I think at that moment we were all wishing to be back in our cave at Kalalau.

The next day most of our friends had to leave us for the real world leaving just Phil, Maisha, Mike (the local we met in Kalalau) and I behind to adventure alone. We just lounged around on the beach and hung out, taking some more Hawaiian medicine because we were bored. We were all just ready to leave the beach the next morning and drive up to Koke'e to camp and hike the mountains for the last few days of our trip.

Late on our last night at Polihale we had a couple from Canada drive up to our campsite and ask to camp next to us. We had no problem with it, but they were...a little strange. And not just in a French/Canadian way (no offense!) but in a just born strange kind of way. But we continued enjoying ourselves regardless and headed to bed really late in the night.

I was the first person to wake up the next morning (because the Canadian couple had been so loud packing their things back into their car before they left). I wandered over to our picnic table to snack on some fruit for breakfast before making the fire for our oatmeal...when I realized that two of my personal items were missing from the table.

Phil's portable, phone-charging, solar panel was still on the table, along with our food and other items...but my underwater video camera, and Costa sunglasses my father had bought for me were gone. I had left them on the table since the first day there, so that they could be within easy reach whenever I needed them. My camera I had used for our first week was very low on battery so I had pulled out this cheap, underwater camera my father had bought for me a few months ago to take pictures and video with instead. And I have never owned a pair of expensive sunglasses in my life, but the day before I left my daddy had taken me out to buy them for me. The only large item I let my parents get for me. And now they were gone.

I think it was a combination of the exhaustion of almost two weeks of camping, change in my diet, the heat, the weather, the no-showering, and the homesickness that wore me down...but it was having those two items stolen that made me break down. I've never had anything stolen in my life. And those glasses were from my daddy...man, I lost it.

Phil and Maisha woke up and tried to help find the things, but they were gone. We didn't know if it was the Canadians that took them on accident with the rest of their stuff, or the guy that came around in the morning taking out the trash. But no matter what, they were gone.

But after a good cry, and Mike coming over to cheer me up with a good pep-talk and then pancakes and sausages for breakfast, I was feeling better.

I had to suck it up.

They were gone now and no amount of anger or tears was going to bring those things back. My only choice was to brush it off and move on.

And that, my friends, is why I don't have any pictures of Polihale to show you. Bummer, I know. But there are plenty of pictures in posts to come...I promise.

~Little Blonde Traveler

Our First Night at Polihale Beach

This time when the six of us beached our three kayaks onto Polihale, NO ONE CRASHED! But just to be sure, Mike let me bail out of mine a few feet from the beach while he beached it, and I swam in like a little pansy. But after the fiasco I encountered trying to beach at Kalalau I was not about to go through it all again. Thank goodness I had Mike and Kelsea had Eric (she also swam to shore with me). Phil and Maisha beached theirs like pros (of course).

When we landed I learned more about Polihale Beach. It was absolutely packed that day, full of cars (A site I hadn’t seen in over a week!) and tents and literally close to hundreds of people. Apparently there was a big celebration going on. And mostly only locals go to Polihale because you can only drive to the beach if you have a 4 Wheel Drive. It’s an absolute monster of a road to get in, and then to drive a car on the sand takes some horsepower as well.

As we were gathering up the kayaks and hunting down a spot for us to camp for the next few days, every single person in the group told me to keep my shoes on as I walk around. There are vicious thorn trees all over the entire beach and when people drag firewood across the sand, the little thorns fall everywhere. I couldn’t possibly imagine why such nasty trees were near the beach, let alone on Hawaii (all the plant and animal life is so beautiful and peaceful here and these trees were so scary looking). That’s when Phil explained that when the first Christian missionaries had come to Hawaii, they planted thousands of these trees in front of the beach in order to keep the Ancient Hawaiians away from the place. The Hawaiians used to party there a lot (they still do) because it was a sacred beach to them, but their celebrations were part of their religion and culture. And the Christian missionaries didn’t like that one bit. So they planted these foreign thorn trees in order to keep them away.

How messed up is that? Like, I could see building a big fence or guarding the beach or something, but these people planted trees. Trees don’t grow overnight. These freaking missionaries wanted to keep the Hawaiians away from there for GENERATIONS. That, to me, is beyond messed up…something as permanent and continuous as planting trees. But I’ll tell you what, I think all of us got serious satisfaction from hacking those things down for firewood…and they burn better than any other wood I’ve encountered to date. So…SUCK ON THAT, MISSIONARIES!

Anywho, we managed to find a little campsite with a picnic table next to bathrooms and a shower and away from the massive crowds on the beach. We were all beyond excited to have running water and showers…until we realized that the reason no one is camping around there is because the showers don’t work. At least the sinks and the toilets did!

We all set up camp. I had my hammock, Phil and Maisha had their tent, Eric had his tent, and Mike and Kelsea had their own separate sleeping arrangements on the ground. Then we had to wait…because Matt was driving in Phil’s truck laden with our box of new supplies for the next week of camping AND hopefully some nice little goodies.

Eric and Phil went fishing with some spear guns down near the reef a mile or so off shore while the rest of us just relaxed and hung around. It was freaking HOT at this beach and apparently that’s exactly what Polihale is known for…the unbearable heat. 

Then, our other angel came straight from heaven...with Phil's truck full of ice-cold beer, hot dogs, and all the making for smores. Matt pulled up to our campsite and we all went crazy haha. It was great to have him back in the group. 

Shortly after Phil and Eric came back to the camp with 8 fish they had speared out of the water...tonight we were going to feast! Beer, quinoa, fresh vegetables, and fresh grilled fish. Then smores afterward for desert. God it was a great day!

~Little Blonde Traveler

The Ultimate Sea Kayak Adventure

After 8 days of camping in Kalalau, we were ready to embark on the next leg of our journey...kayak nearly 26 miles around the Nepali Coast.

Since Sean, the Aussie that had paddled into Kalalau with me, had bailed on us earlier in the week, we found ourselves one man short. But thank goodness, Kelsea volunteered to hike the 11 miles back in on Friday night so that we could all kayak to Polihale Beach on the other side of the state park around the north shore of Kauai.

When Kelsea had left us the weekend before she joked that she would bring us a big box of pizza (since we knew that we'd be dying for some "real" food after more than a week of camping food). I had also begged her for a cheeseburger (because apparently that's all I could think about while camping). So Friday afternoon, all three of us were intensely anticipating Kelsea's return...because we knew she'd bring us something, we just had no idea what that something would be.

Just a few minutes before sunset, Kelsea arrives at our camp...carrying a literal pizza box in her hands!!! That amazing woman had hiked 11 miles with a bag of 8 giant slices of pizza for us...and a cheeseburger for me! I think I nearly fainted on the spot. (She hadn't actually carried the pizza box the whole way, but had folded it up into her backpack so that she could pull it out before camp and freak us out like she actually hiked the whole thing with a pizza in her hands.)

After a night of feasting, and super full bellies, we all packed up the majority of our stuff before heading to bed. We were going to get up at 5 so we could get on the water by no later than 6. The swells get pretty gnarly at Kalalau so we wanted to be able to get out there with no problems. And I definitely didn't want another disaster beaching it like I had with Sean.

The next morning I took down my hammock and packed my little bag and all my belongings in my dry bag before helping pack all the food and cooking supplies. Once we had everything strapped and situated onto the two kayaks, we all took a deep breath, and took the plunge.

Maisha and Phil helped push Kelsea and I out to sea...and it was a success! Then we floated close to shore waiting for the two of them to get out there and join us. After that it was pretty smooth sailing from there. We were paddling with the current and since it was still so early in the morning, there were hardly any swells to fight. And the scenery...my god the scenery from the kayak was absolutely incredible.

After about an hour and a half of kayaking we stopped at another beach to meet back up with Eric and Mike. And luckily, they were more than happy to split up so that Kelsea could paddle the front of their boat with Eric in the back, while Mike hoped into the back of mine. It was just going to be a lot easier to have all three guys at the back of all three kayaks.

It was around 9:30 in the morning when (after some serious meditation with Mother Earth) we finally saw our first pod of wild dolphins...and they just kept coming. We were literally only a few miles from our destination at Polihale when nearly 50 dolphins were swimming and jumping and flipping all around us. A few little babies too! So then we all decided to jump out of our kayaks and get into the water with them...

And the day quickly turned into the most amazing/special/magical day of my life.

~Little Blonde Traveler

How to Fall Down a Waterfall

So after four days in our cave/campsite, Phil, Maisha, and I packed up all of our gear and hiked a mile back down the beach towards the Kalalau Valley in order to get a new campsite closer to the waterfall and closer to fire wood. We had been having to lug jugs of water back to the cave everyday in order to purify it to drink or cook with it, and the same with firewood. Needless to say it became a little monotonous. So we decided to take over the campsite that Mike and Eric had been using. (They left in the morning to kayak a few miles down the Nepali Coast to a new beach for the next four nights.) Check out our new view…

The next day we all decided to hike a few miles up into the Valley to take me to a place called Big Pool and show me around the Community Garden and other little places in the valley. We were all excited to go hiking surrounded by trees and a river instead of sand and rock for a change of pace.

The hike up was around 2 miles and not at all very tiring, but by the time we made it up to Big Pool we were ready to jump in the freezing cold mountain water…and the view was absolutely gorgeous from up there as well!

The actual Big Pool is separated from the other pools above it by a 15 foot waterfall. Maisha and Phil found a little path down to a less violent part of it in the middle that you can sit in and take some cool pictures. So naturally, we climbed down and took some damn cool pictures. However, I am nowhere near as skilled in waterfall climbing as  I had originally thought. 

As I pick up my left foot to set it on the dry part of the rocks, the water pressure takes my right leg out from underneath me...and I instantly go tumbling, side first down the rest of the 10 feet of the waterfall and land into the Big Pool with a huge splash. 

When I broke the surface of the water all of the old people around the pool were staring at me, open-mouthed, and poor Maisha was gaping at me from the top of the waterfall. No one could believe I actually just fell down the waterfall...and didn't hurt myself!! I was so embarrassed and full of adrenaline that all I could do was laugh. Everyone asked if I was okay and I reassured them that I totally was. They didn't believe me. Then Phil came running over next to Maisha from the top of the waterfall and saw that I had fell down it. I reassured everyone that I had somehow managed to fall down the only slippery, waterslide part of the waterfall. And bless them both...Phil and Maisha immediately jumped down after me, laughing and screaming the whole way down. 

I have the bestest friends ever :]

After they took a few more slides down (I was still too strung up to go down again) we made our way to the Community Garden in the valley. All of the people that live in the valley take care of a big Community Garden full of vegetables, fruits, and spices. We picked some spices and little tomatoes before pulling out a few taro roots from the riverside. I had never heard of taro before, but apparently it's been a delicacy with the Hawaiians for hundreds of years. 

On the way back down to the beach we stopped at a place called the labyrinth.

Someone had taken the time and energy to build it next to the river and it's absolutely gorgeous. And very magical.We had taro root in our vegetarian chili and that's when I learned just how potent taro really is. You absolutely HAVE to boil it for about 30 minutes before you can actually cook with it, because it is covered in a very nasty acid. If you try and eat it without boiling it apparently it tastes exactly like eating fiberglass and will burn your mouth and throat. And probably really screw you up. 

But the meal was delicious and taro tastes A LOT like potato. So naturally, I loved it. But we ended the evening with a special little treat...a bar of chocolate Phil and Maisha had packed away to break out on a special occasion. And me surviving falling down a waterfall definitely qualifies!

~Little Blonde Traveler

Homesickness

On my last trip I did not experience a single day of homesickness for two months. And suddenly, not even two full weeks into my trip I was missing home like crazy. Maybe it's because I was camping and there's not much to do but think. But I also think a lot of it has to do with the fact that last time I left the States with a lot of hate, confusion, anger, and determination flowing through my blood. But now, the only thing I'm full of is determination. I left a place full of people I love. And it finally started to get to me.

After the experiences in the sweat lodge, and in combination with the energy of Kalalau...I started having the most horrendous nightmares I've ever had in my life. Every night I would wake up near the point of tears. And all I wanted to do after the first few days was get to the next beach so I could get some phone service and call home. I just needed to hear my parents' voice.

During the day I was fine, staying busy exploring or reading and writing, but it's the night time...the night time was killing me.

~Little Blonde Traveler