We woke up to a pleasant morning with Sun playing peek-a-boo with the Clouds and roaring sound of the waves only to be disturbed with occasional crowing of the roosters spread across the Resort. We quickly decided to go to Waimea Canyon and visiting anything that lies along our path.
We took the Train Ride at the supposedly famous Kilohana Plantation. Ramesh, the avid agriculturist, wanted to see the farm and info collected from various websites left him with high expectations. We went through areas which were neatly planted with tropical fruits that gave a feeling of drive around rural India. The star event of the ride was to feed animals - pigs and sheep’s to be exact. I am not very fond of animals so decided to stay put in my seat. After a good 45mins, the tour ended much to my relief.
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Vacations are always good, especially when you are going to a place that is warmer, has pristine beaches and has a laid back feel. So Kauai it was, for us. We were planning to go on a vacation for quite sometime and never actually did anything towards it and on the spur of the moment we booked everything which we thought was a good deal, at least we would like to believe so. Since we booked our trip a month and half in advance, we did quite a lot of browsing on what to do on our vacation. Jotted down many things and made a mental plan on what to do when. As with every plan, things can never go the perfect way as desired.
Soon the initial excitement fazed down and when we came closer to catching our flight, reality struck and we accepted the fact that we haven’t booked for any activity. Being the procrastinators that we are, we left to deal with it later. And soon we boarded our flight. We packed everything as noted down but left a pile of mess along. Our flight had a 5hr lay over at Honolulu, we assumed it to be fine but little did we realize that the airport was a virtual desert and we spent the hardest 5hrs ever. Atlast we made it to Kauai (hurray). It looked beautiful from the airplane and the weather appeared a bit gloomy (darn). We left to pick our luggage and it was no where to be seen and there ended the prospect of a happy vacation. Filed a formal complaint with the lady at the counter and she promised that she will call us and have the luggage delivered to our resort the moment our luggage comes in. Luckily, we packed some clothes at least for a day or two in our hand luggage (reading about others experience helps)
We were surprised that Kauai looked a lot like Kerala albeit a bit cleaner and noticed that there were so many hens and chicks (Baby hen - not the other kind) running about happily - thinking deeply if the airport ran a poultry farm. We upgraded to a convertible (what the heck it’s a vacation after all) and went on our way to the Resort.
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He says:
Another year rolled by me in a very short realizable time frame throwing out a lot of lessons. Few, I will keep and walk upon every day and a few, I will just store. After spending more than 25 years on mother earth, staying as the same happy go lucky person doesn’t seem to be prudent. So am trying to adapt myself. One gets better in life with these lessons that are narrated while traveling in axis of time.
Here’s one I realized this year. A new happy thing makes one extremely happy and that lasts for a few days. That happiness can overcome mountains of sorrow. At the same time, a new sad encounter hurts really bad and lasts several days too. Happy things can momentarily modify that train of thought, but this well programmed train will get back to its track in a few minutes. This is life for everybody and one has to cross this at some point in life. So no “God…Why just me?” any more. (more…)
