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.

First impressions about the Resort appeared seemingly great until we met the Receptionist who could easily be mistaken for a water drum. Ramesh went to park the car while I went ahead to check in, now if you know me, I don’t really like to talk when I am really tired. I was tired, really upset and irritated that our luggage - our only checked in luggage - didn’t show up.

She - You are all set, this is your room number, here’s the key. And did you rent a car?
Me  - Yes
She - Which one and what color is it?
Me  - A red mustang
She - OK I will charge your credit card 12.95$ a day
Me  - Wait…did you tell you are charging me 12.95 a day?
She - Yes
Me  - I read in reviews that most people got it waived and my friend stayed here last month and she mentioned that she had it waived off too
She - Ok what’s your friends name?
Me  - First name is $$$$$ and Last name is $$$$$
She - I can’t find it, do you know when they stayed
Me  - Mid Oct
She - I can’t find it
Ramesh just walked in, I left him to handle the water drum.

She was constantly denying that someone like that stayed there. As a sign of huge relief, another Receptionist said she will help with it and she quickly found the name and confirmed that it was waived off.

She - I don’t know why it was waived but I can’t waive it for you. I will need a proof of why it was waived

(Me thinking) I have only one nerve left and you are getting on it….decided to pay for it and make the best use of their valet parking instead. The only thing I remember after that is we just crashed and left our Resort in time for lunch.

The Resort had an in-house Expedia consultant who highly recommended an Organic Local food joint. We had quite a bit of trouble finding the place called Mermaid Cafe. The lady at one of the shops that I barged in, pointed to opposite side of the road and said its behind the house, Do you see Do you see? Not wanting to disappoint her, I said yes and thanked her for the great help and quickly glanced at a spider like drawing in front of one of the stores.

We walked across the road, walked past the houses still found no sign of the restaurant and eventually ended up on a beach. It looked great; we walked a bit and went on our quest to find food. We walked past same  alley of shops  couple of times and Ramesh with his 20/20 vision found Mermaid Cafe which happened to have the logo of the spider creature  which I had glanced at earlier (I can draw much better with my left hand). It didn’t seem like a great place but hunger knows no bounds, we ate Chicken curry with brown rice and started to drive around. We headed to the airport to find our only checked in luggage. Much to my disappointment, it wasn’t there and a call to AA left me almost in tears. Clearly our brains weren’t working and we had a hard time figuring our way out of the parking lot. Not wanting to add to the confusion I let Ramesh drive around in circles while I enjoyed the mini-conundrum. On our successful exit, we took the road that laid ahead and ended up at Ahukini Pier. It was worth the ride, down the road. It seemed like a local favorite, saw several locals fishing and relaxing. We walked a bit on the rocks and the gloomy weather made us go back to our Resort.

We walked aimlessly along the beach at the resort and spent more time at the Spa doing what we do best, laughing and talking about people walking past. Weather just got a bit gloomier and it began to pour while we headed to our room cribbing how bad the day is (OK I was cribbing). Well the day just got better when we had a Voice Mail asking us to pick our luggage from the reception. So now started our real vacation, the vacation for which we had been waiting for.

And now for the fun part, spot Mermaid Cafe